STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 3 November 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 3 November 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 31 October 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 31 October 2014
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Dow Jones 17,390.52 +195.10 (1.13%)
S&P 500 2,018.05 +23.40 (1.17%)
Nasdaq 4,630.74 +64.60 (1.41%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.33% -0.01 (-0.43%)
30 Year 3.07% -0.01 (-0.32%)[font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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(click on link for latest updates)
http://tools.investing.com/market_quotes.php?
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
Wall Street on Parade
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
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Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.
02/06/14 Matthew Martoma convicted of insider trading while at hedge fund SAC (Stephen A. Cohen) Capital Advisors. Expected sentence 7-10 years.
03/24/14 Annette Bongiorno, Bernard Madoff's secretary; Daniel Bonventre, director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, both computer programmers convicted of conspiracy to defraud clients, securities fraud, and falsifying the books and records.
05/19/14 Credit Suisse, which has an investment bank branch in NYC, agrees to plead guilty and pay appx. $2.6 billion penalties for helping wealthy Americans hide wealth and avoid taxes.
09/08/14 Matthew Martoma, convicted SAC trader, sentenced to 9 years in prison plus forfeiture of $9.3 million, including home and bank accounts







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[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]

[Demeter]

1. Secret Manuals Show the Spyware Sold to Despots and Cops Worldwide INTERCEPT

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/30/hacking-team/

When Apple and Google unveiled new encryption schemes last month, law enforcement officials complained that they wouldn’t be able to unlock evidence on criminals’ digital devices. What they didn’t say is that there are already methods to bypass encryption, thanks to off-the-shelf digital implants readily available to the smallest national agencies and the largest city police forces — easy-to-use software that takes over and monitors digital devices in real time, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.

We’re publishing in full, for the first time, manuals explaining the prominent commercial implant software “Remote Control System,” manufactured by the Italian company Hacking Team. Despite FBI director James Comey’s dire warnings about the impact of widespread data scrambling — “criminals and terrorists would like nothing more,” he declared — Hacking Team explicitly promises on its website that its software can “defeat encryption.”

The manuals describe Hacking Team’s software for government technicians and analysts, showing how it can activate cameras, exfiltrate emails, record Skype calls, log typing, and collect passwords on targeted devices. They also catalog a range of pre-bottled techniques for infecting those devices using wifi networks, USB sticks, streaming video, and email attachments to deliver viral installers. With a few clicks of a mouse, even a lightly trained technician can build a software agent that can infect and monitor a device, then upload captured data at unobtrusive times using a stealthy network of proxy servers, all without leaving a trace. That, at least, is what Hacking Team’s manuals claim as the company tries to distinguish its offerings in the global marketplace for government hacking software.

Hacking Team’s efforts include a visible push into the U.S. Though Remote Control System is sold around the world — suspected clients include small governments in dozens of countries, from Ethiopia to Kazakhstan to Saudi Arabia to Mexico to Oman — the company keeps one of its three listed worldwide offices in Annapolis, Maryland, on the edge of the federal intelligence and law-enforcement cluster around the nation’s capital; has sent representatives to American homeland security trade shows and conferences, where it has led training seminars like “Cyber Intelligence Solutions to Data Encryption” for police; and has even taken an investment from a firm headed by America’s former ambassador to Italy. The United States is also, according to two separate research teams, far and away Hacking Team’s top nexus for servers, hosting upwards of 100 such systems, roughly a fifth of all its servers globally....

[Demeter]

2. Why Cyber Security is a Magic Act: The FBI Can Bypass Encryption

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/31/the-fbi-can-bypass-encryption/print

Encryption has gained the attention of actors on both sides of the mass surveillance debate. For example in a speech at the Brookings Institution FBI Director James Comey complained that strong encryption was causing U.S. security services to “go dark.” Comey described encrypted data as follows:

“It’s the equivalent of a closet that can’t be opened, a safe deposit box that can’t be opened, a safe that can’t ever be cracked.”

Got that? Comey essentially says that encryption is a sure bet. Likewise during an interview with James Bamford whistleblower Ed Snowden confidently announced that:

“We have the means and we have the technology to end mass surveillance without any legislative action at all, without any policy changes… By basically adopting changes like making encryption a universal standard—where all communications are encrypted by default—we can end mass surveillance not just in the United States but around the world.”

If you glanced over the above excerpts and took them at face value you’d probably come away thinking that all you needed to protect your civil liberties is the latest encryption widget. Right? Wow, let me get my check book out! Paging Mr. Omidyar…

Not so fast bucko. There’s an important caveat, some fine print that Ed himself spelled out when he initially contacted film director Laura Poitras. In particular Snowden qualified that:

“If the device you store the private key and enter your passphrase on has been hacked, it is trivial to decrypt our communications.”

This corollary underscores the reality that, despite the high profile sales pitch that’s being repeated endlessly, strong encryption alone isn’t enough. Hi-tech subversion is a trump card as the Heartbleed bug graphically illustrated. In light of the NSA’s mass subversion programs it would be naïve to think that there aren’t other critical bugs like Heartbleed, subtle intentional flaws, out in the wild being leveraged by spies.

The FBI’s Tell

James Comey’s performance at Brookings was an impressive public relations stunt. Yet recent history is chock full of instances where the FBI employed malware like Magic Lantern and CIPAV to foil encryption and identify people using encryption-based anonymity software like Tor. If it’s expedient the FBI will go so far as to impersonate a media outlet to fool suspects into infecting their own machines. It would seem that crooks aren’t the only attackers who wield social engineering techniques.

In fact the FBI has gotten so adept at hacking computers, utilizing what are referred to internally as Network Investigative Techniques, that the FBI wants to change the law to reflect this. The Guardian reports on how the FBI is asking the U.S. Advisory Committee on Rules and Criminal Procedure to move the legal goal posts, so to speak:

“The amendment [proposed by the FBI] inserts a clause that would allow a judge to issue warrants to gain ‘remote access’ to computers ‘located within or outside that district’ (emphasis added) in cases in which the ‘district where the media or information is located has been concealed through technological means’. The expanded powers to stray across district boundaries would apply to any criminal investigation, not just to terrorist cases as at present.”

In other words the FBI wants to be able to hack into a computer when its exact location is shrouded by anonymity software. Once they compromise the targeted machine it’s pretty straightforward to install a software implant (i.e. malware) and exfiltrate whatever user data they want, including encryption passwords.

If encryption is really the impediment that director Comey makes it out to be then why is the FBI so keen to amend the rules in a manner which implies that they can sidestep it? In the parlance of poker this is a “tell.” MORE

[Demeter]

3. Here’s How We Are Driving the Poor Away From the Banking System

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/business/heres-how-we-are-driving-the-poor-away-from-the-banking-system.html/?a=viewall


For the majority of Americans, heading to the bank or credit union to make a deposit, withdraw funds, or even just to check the balances on accounts is a weekly or daily occurrence. But for a huge number of people, using the banking system creates more problems than it solves, and is leading many to turn toward cash checking services and other financial establishments as well.

According to a recent CityLab article, 17 million Americans choose to forego the use of the banking system. Another 43 million have a bank account, but use other financial services, like check cashing companies, as well. And what appears to be happening is that those check cashing companies are growing wildly, as traditional banking falls out of favor with the economically disadvantaged. There was $45 billion in check-cashing transactions in 1990, and $58.3 billion in 2010. That’s a 29.5% increase in 20 years. Also, payday lending grew 200% between 2001 and 2010, from $10 billion to $30 billion.

So, why are so many people going out of their way to avoid the banking system? From the CityLab piece, it appears to be a combination of several factors, including cost and transparency. It turns out that traditional banks can often be more expensive for lower-income individuals to use, as they are at a higher risk of being assessed fees from overdrafts, bounced checks or late payments. This, interestingly enough, delves into the logic of some of the nation’s biggest banks, and why they offer services like free checking accounts. Essentially, those free services end up being immensely profitable because the poor end up with an avalanche of fees and charges, creating a hole that many aren’t able to pay their way out of...

Lewis writes, “‘someone asked him if he believed in the free checking model,’ recalls Eisman. ‘And he said, ‘Turn off your tape recorders.’ Everyone turned off their tape recorders. And he explained that they avoided free checking because it was really a tax on poor people–in the form of fines for overdrawing their checking accounts. And that banks that used it were really just banking on being able to rip off poor people even more than they could if they charged them for their checks.”

Now, this was a sentiment that was shared with a group of Wall Street brass, and was certainly never meant to make it outside of the room. But it does shed some light into how the big banks actually view their poorer customers. Add that sort of mentality onto the fact that many people simply lost faith and trust in the system following the financial crisis and recession, and it becomes rather understandable as to why the poor may not want to keep their money within the banking system...So, why is that important? What does it really matter if a relatively small (17 million is about five percent of the U.S. population) segment of consumers want to forego the use of traditional banks? Well, for one, payday loan and check-cashing companies don’t offer any way for the poor to actually save or invest their money, which could be important for those actually attempting to climb out of poverty. Also, check-cashing services and payday loan businesses are notorious for their predatory behavior. That alone should be enough to scare many potential consumers away from their services, but it appears people aren’t aware of that fact, or simply choose to ignore it.

Another likely reason that the poor may want to avoid having a bank account? It makes it harder for debt collectors to track you down. A study from The Urban Institute published this past summer says that 77 million Americans, or 35% of adults with credit on file, have a debt in collections, owing an average of more than $5,000. With more than one-third of the entire population actively trying to manage these debts, finding a way to be able to dodge bill collectors, who can put liens on bank accounts may be a big catalyst behind people’s propensity to forego traditional banking. Also, if those customers owe a bank money for fees originating from bounced checks or an overdrafted account, wouldn’t they rather just take their checks to a check-cashing service, get hit with the fee they charge, and keep the rest as opposed to having to fork some of it over toward their debt balance?

MORE

[Demeter]

4. John Maynard Keynes Is the Economist the World Needs Now

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-30/why-john-maynard-keyness-theories-can-fix-the-world-economy

[Demeter]

5. Exchange-traded funds (ETF) Emerging Trouble in the Future?

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21627717-regulators-are-worried-trendy-new-product-will-sow-instability-emerging

MORE THAN YOU'LL EVER WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THIS "INVESTMENT VEHICLE"

[Demeter]

6. The American Dream, Gone: 15 Reasons Why Americans Think We’re Still in a Recession By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40116.htm

HANDY SUMMARY WITH GRAPHS, FOR YOUR REFERENCE

[xchrom]

7. Angela Merkel Threw Down A Huge Ultimatum To David Cameron

http://www.businessinsider.com/merkel-warns-cameron-on-eu-immigration-2014-11

German chancellor Angela Merkel has reportedly warned British prime minister David Cameron that she would end her support for Britain staying in the European Union if Cameron attempted to restrict immigration within Europe.

According to the German news magazine Der Spiegel, sources in the chancellor's office and the German foreign ministry said that Merkel considers any changes to the freedom of movement rules as leading the UK down a "point of no return."

In question is Cameron's proposal to put a cap on low-skilled migrants from the rest of the EU, which comes largely under pressure from the anti-European UK Independence Party (UKIP).

The immigration restriction violates the basic principle that allows members of the EU to live and work in an EU state, Merkel has reportedly argued.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/merkel-warns-cameron-on-eu-immigration-2014-11#ixzz3I0WGKA8p

[xchrom]

8. 10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

http://www.businessinsider.com/10-things-you-need-to-know-before-the-opening-bell-2014-11

Angela Merkel Hit Out At David Cameron. The German chancellor has signaled to the British prime minister that renegotiation of the European Union's freedom of movement is not on the table.

The Eurozone's Manufacturers Reported Weak Growth. The euro area's four biggest economies had a PMI score of 50.6 for October, slightly higher than September's figure but barely above the neutral 50 mark.

HSBC Is Bracing For A Major Forex Fine. The bank is the third in the last week to report that it's putting aside hundreds of millions for potential fines linked to an FX probe, following Barclays and RBS.

Ryanair Isn't Gloomy About Europe's Grim Economy. After reporting a boost in profits, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary told analysts and reporters that a bleak picture for Europe could mean more demand for his budget airline.

US PMI Data Is Coming. Markit's October manufacturing PMI is out at 9:45 a.m. ET, followed by the ISM manufacturing PMI and September's construction spending figures at 10 a.m. ET. Economists are expecting a 0.7% boost to builders.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/10-things-you-need-to-know-before-the-opening-bell-2014-11#ixzz3I0Wp1E2b

[xchrom]

9. A New Anti-Austerity Party That's Taking Spain By Storm Could Throw Europe Into Turmoil

http://www.businessinsider.com/spains-podemos-party-takes-polling-lead-2014-11

Following in the wake of Greece's Syriza, another far-left party has taken a polling lead in Europe. This time, it is Spain's Podemos, a party founded in March this year, with a distinct and radical platform that could overturn Europe's political and economic course.

The party has surged in recent months: it gained 8% of the vote in European parliament elections held this May, and is beating every other party in polls.

In the latest set, 27.7% of Spaniards said they would vote for Podemos, beating both the established social democrat party and the governing conservatives.

BNP Paribas analyst Victor Echerevarria outlined the party's platform:

The rise of Podemos changes the political landscape in Spain: Its party platform includes calls for increased public control of key sectors of the economy (such as energy, or even the pharmaceutical and food sectors), a restructuring of Spain’s public debt and the reversal of the labour reforms of recent years.

The issue is not just for Spain. Nationalisation and a massive loosening of fiscal spending are subject to stringent EU rules that the party clearly does not care for: if Podemos got into government and tried to implement their platform, it would provoke outrage in the European establishment and could trigger copycat moves in other countries. Even if it cannot form part of a government, a strong Podemos result at the next election would make forming a stable government in Spain far more difficult.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/spains-podemos-party-takes-polling-lead-2014-11#ixzz3I0XkWn9g

[xchrom]

10. UK Manufacturing PMI Climbed To A 3-Month High

http://www.businessinsider.com/uk-manufacturing-pmi-climbed-to-a-three-month-high-2014-11

The UK's manufacturing PMI is out for October, and at 53.2 it's the highest in three months. The PMI is a survey of manufacturing executives that asks them whether business is looking good or bad. The scale is 0-100, and a 50 rating is neutral, meaning an equal balance between those with positive or negative outlooks.

That's well above the neutral 50 mark, but still considerably lower than the very high figures the UK regularly saw when the recovery was emerging, late in 2013 and earlier this year.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/uk-manufacturing-pmi-climbed-to-a-three-month-high-2014-11#ixzz3I0YQxxy4

[Demeter]

11. Business vs. Economics (JAPAN) PAUL KRUGMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/03/opinion/paul-krugman-business-vs-economics.html

The Bank of Japan, this country’s equivalent of the Federal Reserve, has lately been making a big effort to end deflation, which has afflicted Japan’s economy for almost two decades. At first its efforts — which involve printing a lot of money and, even more important, trying to assure investors that it will keep printing money until inflation reaches 2 percent — seemed to be going well. But more recently the economy has lost momentum, and last week the bank announced new, even more aggressive monetary measures.

I am, as you might guess, very much in favor of this move, although I worry that the policy might nonetheless fail thanks to fiscal mistakes. (More about that later.) While the bank did the right thing, however, it did so amid substantial internal dissent. In fact, the new stimulus was approved by only five of the bank board’s nine members, with those closest to business voting against. Which brings me to the subject of this column: the economic wisdom, or lack thereof, of business leaders.

Some of the people I’ve spoken to here argue that the opposition of many Japanese business leaders to the Bank of Japan’s actions shows that it’s on the wrong track. In saying this, they’re echoing a common sentiment in many countries, including America — the belief that if you want to fix an ailing economy, you should turn to people who have been successful in business, like leaders of major corporations, entrepreneurs and wealthy investors. After all, doesn’t their success with money mean that they know how the economy really works?

Actually, no. In fact, business leaders often give remarkably bad economic advice, especially in troubled times. And I think it’s important to understand why....

SIGH
MORE AT LINK

[xchrom]

12. It Looks Like Germany Is Creeping Back

http://www.businessinsider.com/germany-pmi-october-2014-2014-11

Germany's manufacturing PMI rose to 51.4 in October from a 15-month low of 49.9 in September.

Economists expected a reading of 51.8.

Markit's Purchasing Managers' Index is a commonly used survey to measure overall business conditions before official stats come out.

Any figure above 50 indicates the sector is growing.

Here are the key points from Markit:

Production growth accelerates despite marginal decline in new orders
Rate of job creation hits 33-month high
Input costs decline at sharpest rate since April


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/germany-pmi-october-2014-2014-11#ixzz3I0ceOxuk

[Demeter]

13. JPMorgan Chase: Too Big (And Profitable) To Fail By Greg McFarlane

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/100214/jpmorgan-chase-too-big-and-profitable-fail.asp?rp=y&partner=YahooSA

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) is the definitive bank “too big to fail.” It paid $2 billion to settle lawsuits stating that it helped the infamous Enron doctor its books. JPMorgan Chase paid another $2 billion for underwriting the equally nefarious WorldCom. That’s not to be confused with another $2 billion in fines for failing to inform federal regulators about suspicious activity by one of the bank’s biggest customers, Bernie Madoff. One could argue that JP Morgan Chase should be hated even more than Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), and yet the bank thrives. (For related reading, see: This Company is as Unavoidable as it is Unloved.)

JPMorgan Chase has a market capitalization of $232 billion, the highest-paid CEO in the industry, and a bank that by some measures is the biggest of its kind. If you look at assets — yes, which implies that you’re ignoring liabilities — JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States. It has almost $2.5 trillion on the positive side of the ledger, which is more than the gross domestic product of all but five countries. (For related reading, see: How Wells Fargo Became the Biggest Bank in America.)

From Many, One

JPMorgan Chase is the result of centuries of mergers. Chase National Bank was formed in 1877 and named in honor of Salmon P. Chase, even though he had no connection to the bank. That started a tradition of currying favor with U.S. Secretaries of the Treasury, which continues today. In 2000 the bank’s successor company, Chase Manhattan, acquired J.P. Morgan & Co. (note the periods and the spaces), which was founded in 1871. Euphony dictated that the acquired company be listed first in the new name. (For related reading, see: The Kingpin of Wall Street: J.P. Morgan.)

JPMorgan Chase divides its operations into five segments:

– Consumer and community banking;

– Corporate/private equity;

– Wholesale – corporate and investment banking;

– Asset management;

– Commercial banking.

Whoever set up JPMorgan Chase’s structure enjoyed headings and subheadings in hierarchical form, which we’ll repeat throughout here for the sake of convenience. Starting with consumer and community banking, which includes:

consumer and business;

mortgages;

card, merchant services and auto.

All pretty self-explanatory and comprehensive, except that the third subcategory also includes student loans. Consumer and community banking takes place almost exclusively under the Chase name, seen emblazoned on 5,600 retail branches throughout 30 states. Consumer and community banking netted JPMorgan Chase $11 billion in profit in 2013, a 2% increase over the previous year. For the first time in recent memory, that represented the bulk — in fact, the majority — of JPMorgan Chase’s total profits. Not only that, but that segment’s 23% return on equity of over $46 billion makes it JPMorgan Chase’s most profitable on a per-segment basis...

[xchrom]

14. HSBC Just Became The Latest Bank To Set Aside Millions Of Dollars For Forex Fines

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-hsbc-sets-aside-378-million-for-fx-probe-settlement-2014-11

LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings <hsba.l> set aside $378 million to pay a potential fine from the UK regulator for alleged manipulation of currency markets, as Europe's biggest bank reported a 12 percent fall in underlying earnings after costs rose.

HSBC on Monday reported an underlying pretax profit of $4.4 billion, down 12 percent from a year ago, as operating expenses rose 6 percent, which the bank blamed on increases in risk, compliance and related costs.

The bank's $378 million provision is for a possible settlement with Britain's Financial Conduct Authority, which HSBC said had proposed a resolution of its foreign exchange investigation. HSBC is one of six banks in talks with UK regulators to pay about 1.5 billion pounds in a group settlement over the alleged rigging of currency, sources have said.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-hsbc-sets-aside-378-million-for-fx-probe-settlement-2014-11#ixzz3I0dJHJxh

[xchrom]

15. Italy's PMI Falls In October, Signals A Worrying Slide

http://www.businessinsider.com/italy-pmi-october-2014-2014-11

Italy's manufacturing PMI fell to 49.0 in October from 50.70 in September.

Markit's Purchasing Managers' Index is a commonly used survey to measure overall business conditions before official stats come out.

Any figure below 50 indicates the sector is contracting.

Here are the key points from Markit:

Weakness on order front leads to job cuts as well as lower output
Export growth dips to 22-month low
Fastest decrease in backlogs of work for 18 months
Markit economist Phil Smith said: "The manufacturing PMI resumed its worrying slide seen since May after having ticked up slightly in September. Falling back below 50.0, the index points to Italy’s manufacturing sector returning to contraction."

He added: "The manufacturing PMI resumed its worrying slide seen since May after having ticked up slightly in September. Falling back below 50.0, the index points to Italy’s manufacturing sector returning to contraction."



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/italy-pmi-october-2014-2014-11#ixzz3I0duAjiT

[xchrom]

16. Spain's Factories Hold At 4-Month High

http://www.businessinsider.com/spain-pmi-economy-oct-2014-2014-11

Spain's manufacturing output is at a 4-month high.

That's according to Markit's purchasing managers' index (PMI), a commonly used survey for measuring the strength of a country's business activity, before official figures come out.

The figure stayed at 52.6 for October, the same as in September.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/spain-pmi-economy-oct-2014-2014-11#ixzz3I0ePJCyq

[xchrom]

17. Growth In China's Services Sector Hits A 9-Month Low

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-china-october-services-growth-slips-to-nine-month-low-property-weighs-2014-11

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's services sector grew at its slowest pace in nine months in October as a cooling property sector weighed on demand, a survey showed on Monday, adding to signs of fragility in the world's second-largest economy.

The services sector has been more resilient than the manufacturing sector and is creating more jobs, which partly explains why the government has so far refrained from more aggressive policy easing in supporting the slowing economy.

The official non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 53.8 in October from September's 54.0, which was the weakest reading since January, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

But it was still comfortably above the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis.



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