would like to thank the Academy
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
God is Making Gold Crash to Test Your Faith | The Reformed Broker http://stks.co/bQJR"
Man, I thought it would be a SLOW bleed on the PMs, did NOT see them dropping like EZ's pants at the track.
GOOD MORNING STUFF!!
Good morning Lottos. As you all yawn and stretch and start your day, note that the European markets are RED, about 1%, and the futures are RED here in the states. Been jumping up and down, but have curretnly taken a turn for the worse. PMs are DEEP DEEP RED. Would have been a great week to short them.
Economic Calendar/Consensus Forcasts for the week: http://stks.co/jRQj
Investor Jim Rogers Says Gold Needs Correction, Isn’t Buying Yet
By Chou Hui Hong and Glenys Sim - Apr 15, 2013
Gold, which tumbled into a bear market last week, is in need of a correction, according to investor Jim Rogers, who said that he’s not buying the commodity yet as it hasn’t dropped enough.
“This may be the correction that gold needs,” said Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings. “If it goes down enough, I will start buying it,” Rogers told reporters in Singapore today, without identifying a level.
Gold extended losses to the lowest level in two years today after investors cut holdings in exchange-traded products as the U.S. recovers. Rogers, who foresaw the start of a commodity rally in 1999, has previously backed bullion to rally as central banks boosted their balance sheets to stimulate growth.
Bullion for immediate delivery fell as much as 3.9 percent to $1,425.75 an ounce and was at $1,436.10 at 3:55 p.m. in Singapore. Prices tumbled 5 percent on April 12, taking losses to more than 20 percent since the record close in September 2011 and meeting the common definition of a bear market.
Rogers said in April 2006 that a boom in energy and raw- material prices would help drive gold to a then-record $1,000, without giving a timeframe for that forecast. In July 2007, Rogers said that he wasn’t selling his gold position even though there were too many speculators backing further gains.
In October 2009, Rogers said that gold may top $2,000 in the next decade, citing the printing of money. In August 2011, Rogers said while he wouldn’t buy more gold “right now,” the metal was still poised to rally to $2,000 “over the years.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Chou Hui Hong in Singapore at chong43@bloomberg.net; Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net; James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net
<tdi>Earnings This Week – Going to Be A Big Start (Key Estimates and Outlook)
http://www.thedisciplinedinvestor.com/blog/2013/04/14/earnings-this-week-going-to-be-a-big-start-key-estmates-and-outlook/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedisciplinedinvestor%2FEBHR+%28The+Disciplined+Investor%29
Click on the link for a great PDF on earnings outlook.
April 14, 2013 7:36 pm
While last week was the official start to the earnings season, the second week is really where it begins. There are a ton of companies that will be reporting and this will set the stage for what is really happening. Looking at the results from last week, companies that reported did not have a real exciting outlook. Sure there were some that looked good, but for the most part it was rather underwhelming.
The U.S. equity market was up, but it did not look as if it was driven by fundamentals. More on that later this week.
Below are the key earnings for the week ahead. It all starts bright and early Monday morning….
Symbols
SCHW MTB FRC C HNR GMXRQ KO CMA BLK USB GS GWW CSX INTC LLTC YHOO URI JNJ AMTD MHR ABT HBAN DGX MAT BK DOV BAC STJ AXP CCK KMP SNDK STLD SCSS EBAY SLM CYS KMI PNC TXT MMR PPG SHW UNP UNH KEY WCC ADS DHR FITB PEP PM MS VZ FCX BBT CBST ALGN CMG ACTG IBM COF MSFT ETFC GOOG CE AMD BAX CY NUE OMC CYT BX ISRG BTU AH HON BHI GE KSU MCD LH STI FNFG UA AAMRQ IPG KMB OSGIQ SLB STT RCL GDI
Facebook Fatigue Among Teens Should Freak Out Marketers
By Bernhard Warner on April 11, 2013
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-11/facebook-fatigue-among-teens-should-freak-out-marketers
China Stocks Drop 10% From February High as Data Miss Estimates
By Bloomberg News - Apr 14, 2013
China’s stocks fell, dragging the Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) down by 10 percent from its February high, as data on the nation’s economic growth and industrial production missed estimates.
Construction machinery maker Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co. slumped to a 15-month low after forecasting lower profit. Cosco Shipping Co., a unit of China’s biggest shipping company, lost 4.1 percent after reporting a loss. Zijin Mining Group Co. sank 5 percent, leading gold producers lower after the metal’s futures dropped by the 5 percent daily exchange limit in Shanghai.
The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.9 percent to 2,186.46 at the 11:30 a.m. local-time break, poised for its lowest close since Dec. 24. The economy grew 7.7 in the first quarter from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in Beijing today, less than the 8 percent median forecast in a survey of 41 economists. Industrial production rose 8.9 percent in March from a year earlier, the report showed. That compared with the 10.1 percent median economist forecast.
“These figures are pretty bad,” said Dai Ming, a fund manager at Hengsheng Hongding Asset Management Co. in Shanghai, which manages $190 million. “The current stock prices haven’t fully reflected lower-than-expected economic data and the market has room for further declines.”
The CSI 300 Index declined 0.9 percent to 2,439.12. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) of Chinese companies traded in Hong Kong retreated 2.3 percent. The Bloomberg China-US 55 Index (CH55BN), the measure of the most-traded U.S.-listed Chinese companies, fell 0.5 percent in New York yesterday.
Economic Data
The Shanghai index has fallen 10 percent from a Feb. 6 high amid concern steps to cool property prices will drag on economic growth. Valuations on the gauge dropped to nine times projected 12-month earnings on April 12, the lowest level since Dec. 13 and less than the seven-year average of 15.8, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Fixed-asset investment excluding rural households grew 20.9 percent in the January-to-March period from a year earlier, the statistics bureau reported. That compared with the 21.3 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey and a 21.2 percent gain in the first two months of 2013. Retail sales in March rose 12.6 percent from a year earlier, meeting estimates.
Premier Li Keqiang said the nation should pay attention to the quality and efficiency of development as it seeks to guarantee “reasonable” economic growth, China National Radio reported yesterday.
Zoomlion, China’s second-biggest maker of construction equipment, slumped 4.8 percent to 7.68 yuan after forecasting first-quarter profit to fall between 60 percent and 80 percent. The stock is heading for the lowest close since Jan. 9, 2012.
Gold Tumbles
Cosco Shipping fell 4.1 percent to 3.48 yuan, bound for the lowest close since Dec. 4. The company reported a first-quarter loss of 45.1 million yuan, ($7.29 million), compared with a profit of 3.8 million yuan a year earlier.
Zijin Mining, China’s largest gold producer, dropped 5 percent to 3.22 yuan. Zhongjin Gold Co. (600489), the third biggest, slumped 6.6 percent to 12.95 yuan. Bullion for June delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slumped by the 5 percent daily exchange limit. Spot gold fell 6.2 percent to $1,483 an ounce last week, the biggest drop since December 2011.
Trading volumes in the Shanghai composite were 29 percent lower than the 30-day average for this time of day today, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Ten-day volatility on the gauge was at 6.9, near the lowest level since January 2008, the data showed.
The iShares FTSE China 25 Index Fund, the largest Chinese exchange-traded fund in the U.S., fell 0.7 percent to $36 on April 12, rising 1 percent for the week.
Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP), whose main unit was forced into bankruptcy after defaulting on a $541 million bond repayment last month, jumped 80 percent to 75 cents, the steepest weekly advance on record. While the solar-cell maker had the biggest gain on the Bloomberg China-US gauge for the week, it is still down 60 percent from this year’s high reached Jan. 16.
--Zhang Shidong. Editors: Darren Boey, Chan Tien Hin
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Zhang Shidong in Shanghai at szhang5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Darren Boey at dboey@bloomberg.net
Asian markets all down over 1% so far. Will it carry over to the Ameircan markets? Chatter out on the stream is possible MARGIN CALLS that can really start shaking things up.
Who the heck knows, seems our markets go up all day every day no matter WHAT the news is.
Gold’s Rout Deepens as Investors Reduce Holdings on Recovery
By Glenys Sim and Phoebe Sedgman - Apr 14, 2013
Gold, which plunged into a bear market last week, extended a rout to the lowest level since April 2011 on expectations that demand for haven assets will contract as the global economy improves. Silver slumped.
Gold for immediate delivery dropped as much as 3.9 percent $1,425.75 an ounce and was at $1,444.07 at 11:14 a.m. in Singapore. Prices tumbled 5 percent on April 12, taking losses to more than 20 percent since the record close in September 2011, and meeting the common definition of a bear market.
Bullion has dropped 14 percent in 2013, after a run of 12 annual gains, as data showed that the U.S. recovery was gaining traction, prompting increased speculation that the central bank will rein in its unprecedented stimulus program. Holdings in exchange-traded products contracted at a record pace in the first quarter, and have fallen for the past nine weeks. The turn in the gold cycle is quickening and investors should sell the metal, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in an April 10 note.
“The demise of gold is still at an early stage,” Georgette Boele, a commodities strategist at ABN Amro Group NV, wrote in a note today. “Other assets will become increasingly more attractive as the growth outlook improves.”
Gold for June delivery fell as much as 5.3 percent to $1,422.20 on the Comex in New York, and traded at $1,444.40. Futures slumped 4.1 percent on April 12 as Cyprus may sell its gold holdings to cover possible losses from emergency loans.
‘Key Pillars’
“Some of the key pillars of the gold bull market look like they’re suffering fatigue,” Peter Richardson, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said by phone from Melbourne today. “The gold market’s probably started to price in the prospect that beleaguered members of the euro zone might be forced to sell gold to raise part of the funding, and there are much bigger holders in that category than Cyprus.”
Assets in exchange-traded products backed by gold decreased to 2,406.16 metric tons on April 12, the least since August, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. They shrank 6.9 percent in the first quarter, the biggest reduction since at least 2004.
Gold-related equities dropped. Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM), Australia’s biggest producer, lost 8.2 percent to A$17.92 in Sydney, and Zijin Mining Group Co., China’s biggest gold miner by market value, fell 7.6 percent to HK$2.32 in Hong Kong.
“I love the fact that gold is finally breaking down because that will offer an excellent buying opportunity,” Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, said on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart” on April 12. “The bull market in gold is not completed.”
Pulling Back
The Federal Reserve is buying $85 billion of debt a month and has said further improvement in the labor market is needed to consider reducing its stimulus. Minutes of the policy makers’ March meeting released April 10 showed that several members were in favor of pulling back on the program this year.
U.S. stocks advanced last week, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to an all-time high, amid optimism that corporate earnings growth will continue. The index has more than doubled from its 12-year low in March 2009, helped by the Fed’s bond purchases and three straight years of profit growth.
Goldman cut its three-month target to $1,530 from $1,615 and lowered the 12-month forecast to $1,390 from $1,550, analysts Damien Courvalin and Jeffrey Currie said in the April 10 report. While higher inflation may be the catalyst for the next cycle, that’s probably several years away, they wrote.
Gold dropped today even as the Dollar Index (DXY), a gauge against six counterparts, fell as much as 0.3 percent. Bullion typically trades counter to the U.S. currency, which has advanced 3.2 percent this year.
Soros’s View
Gold has ceased to be the haven for investors after it fell when the euro was close to collapse last year, billionaire investor George Soros said in an interview with the South China Morning Post published April 8. Soros cut his stake in the SPDR gold fund by 55 percent in the fourth quarter, a filing showed.
“The investment community has barely begun to liquidate their holdings,” of gold-related assets, said Stewart Richardson, who helps oversee $100 million as partner and chief investment officer at RMG Wealth Management LLP in London.
Rene Hochreiter, chief executive officer of Allan Hochreiter (Pty) Ltd. and the top forecaster in the London Bullion Market Association’s 2012 poll, predicted in January that gold’s bull market was over as the U.S. economy improved.
Cash silver dropped as much as 6.8 percent to $24.24 an ounce, the lowest level since November 2010, and was at $24.625. Spot platinum fell as much as 2.8 percent to $1,444.50 an ounce, the lowest level since August. Palladium slumped 3.4 percent to $683.20 an ounce, the lowest since Jan. 9.
To contact the reporters for this story: Phoebe Sedgman in Melbourne at psedgman2@bloomberg.net; Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net
China first quarter GDP growth slips to 7.7 percent, industry undershoots
11:29pm EDT
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's economic recovery unexpectedly stumbled in the first three months of 2013 as the annual rate of growth eased back to 7.7 percent from the 7.9 percent pace set in the final quarter of last year, official data showed on Monday.
The growth rate, announced by the National Bureau of Statistics, was weaker than a Reuters poll consensus forecast for an 8.0 percent expansion.
Many investors had anticipated a possible surprise on the upside, with growth faster than the consensus, after a surge in liquidity in the economy during the first quarter and an uptick in export growth.
The liquidity and export data had encouraged expectations that growth would accelerate again in the first quarter, after snapping seven straight quarters of weakening expansion in the previous quarter thanks to policy action to put momentum back in the economy.
"This number may well explain why there was so much liquidity support in Q1," Tim Condon, head of Asian economic research at ING in Singapore, told Reuters.
"Industrial production is unexpectedly weak and that's the source of weakness in GDP. Based on this, the consensus GDP forecasts are going to be headed lower and we'll certainly be looking at ours."
Despite the slower growth, China's real estate investment rose 20.2 percent in the first quarter from the same period a year earlier, while revenues from property sales rose 61.3 percent, adding substance to official worries over an unsustainable house price boom.
Analysts fear hot property prices could lead to monetary tightening, though some believed that it was unlikely given the weaker overall growth figure for the first quarter.
"I don't think this is a turning point for slower growth. I think the recovery is probably delayed but I think the recovery is still coming," said Tao Wang, a UBS economist in Hong Kong.
"Certainly with this number, policy certainly would not tighten and would continue to be quite accommodative. I hope they don't ease because policy is already very easy."
China's full-year annual growth of 7.8 percent in 2012 was the weakest since 1999.
The latest World Bank estimate published simultaneously in Singapore cut its GDP growth projection for China by 0.1 percentage point to 8.3 percent for 2013, citing Beijing's ongoing efforts to restructure the economy.
Other data released alongside GDP showed industrial output grew 8.9 percent in March from a year ago, versus expectations of 10.0 percent showed in the Reuters poll.
Retail sales in March rose 12.6 percent on a year ago versus an estimated 12.5 percent in the Reuters poll.
Fixed-asset investment grew 20.9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, versus an expected 21.3 percent. The government only publishes cumulative investment data.
(China Economics Team; Additional reporting by Kevin Lim in Singapore; Editing by Eric Meijer)
(This story was refiled to corrects typographical errors in the headline and paragraphs 5, 7, 9, 10)
CHINA GDP MISSES - FUTURES TANKING - PMs PUKING
China Q1 GDP 7.7%, Exp. 8.0%
LOL, good morning Long. That was fooken funny.
Congrats to Texas, I saw they made some list for best state for jobs. Austin was number 1 I think.
Betting On Europe No Different Than Playing Russian Roulette At The Moment - JC Flowers http://stks.co/aQOq
Prequel for tomorrow?
Qatar Shares Drop Most in 15 Months on Earnings, Share Sale
By Alaa Shahine - Apr 14, 2013
Qatar’s benchmark stock index fell the most in more than a year after Qatar Gas Transport Co.’s earnings missed estimates and as investors freed up funds for the share sale of Doha Global Investment. Egypt’s EGX 30 rose.
Qatar’s QE Index retreated 1.2 percent, the most since January 2012, to 8,381.03 at the close in Doha. Qatar Gas, known as Nakilat, slid 2.1 percent, while National Leasing dropped to the lowest level since August 2011 after reporting an 11 percent decline in first-quarter profit. The Bloomberg GCC 200 Index, which tracks companies in the Gulf Cooperation Council, decreased 0.9 percent, the most since Jan. 21, at 2:52 p.m. in Riyadh, led by Banque Saudi Fransi. (BSFR)
Doha Global Investment will seek to raise $3 billion in an initial public offering to Qatari nationals next month, according to the Qatar Exchange. About 5.8 million shares were traded today in Doha, compared with a 12-month daily average of about 6 million shares, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The drop is “a combination of investors selling to prepare for the IPO and disappointment of corporate earnings so far,” said Tariq Qaqish, deputy head of asset management at Dubai- based Al Mal Capital PSC. “Investors are worried that the IPO will dry the liquidity.”
Nakilat retreated to 15.63 riyals. First-quarter profit rose less than 1 percent to 177.2 million riyals, that missed estimates of 210 million riyals by Qatar National Bank Financial Services and 207 million riyals by EFG-Hermes Holding SAE, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. National Leasing (NLCS) shares declined 2.5 percent to 32.95 riyals.
Profit Drops
Saudi Arabia’s benchmark Tadawul All Share Index declined 0.5 percent. Banque Saudi Fransi plunged 6.3 percent, the biggest drop since July 2011, to 29.90 riyals. The bank partly owned by Credit Agricole SA (ACA) said first-quarter net income fell 13 percent.
Elsewhere in the Persian Gulf, Abu Dhabi’s index rose 0.2 percent, while Dubai’s DFM General Index was little changed. Bahrain’s gauge advanced 0.4 percent, Oman’s MSM30 Index rose 0.1 percent and Kuwait’s measure declined 0.2 percent,
Egypt’s benchmark EGX 30 Index climbed 1.2 percent. EFG- Hermes, the country’s biggest investment bank, increased 3 percent to 10.69 pounds, the highest intraday level since March 19. Commercial International Bank Egypt SAE (COMI), the nation’s biggest publicly traded lender, gained 3.6 percent.
Israel’s TA-25 Index lost less than 0.1 percent. The yield on the government’s 4.25 percent bonds due in 2023 declined three basis points, or 0.03 of a percentage point, to a record 3.75 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alaa Shahine in Dubai at asalha@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Maedler at cmaedler@bloomberg.net
Hello Lottos. Back on for a bit out here, a Sunday night in Afghanistan. I am more lost with the markets than you can imagine. Trying to catch up a bit, and will be posting up a storm tomorrow while you all sleep. Can't believe the market has been making new highs! Probably for the best I was out for a bit, I am still a bear at heart at these levels, would have lost my shirt.
Dang Silver, got out with a loss on Calls I had last month. Did NOT see that plunge coming. Weird how the whole world is printing their way to some sort of nirvana, but the PMs have been dumping. I guess everyone is just selling gold to jump into the market. The central banks are loving this, and buying up all the gold they can. Once the market tanks, gold and silver will be the hot commodity again, and guess who will be holding a majority of it? The same clowns that killed it.
Emerging Stocks Decline to Three-Month Low as Thai Stocks Tumble
By Shikhar Balwani - Mar 22, 2013
Emerging-market stocks fell to a three-month low, led by energy companies, as PetroChina Co.’s earnings trailed estimates and Cyprus lawmakers prepared to debate the nation’s bailout today.
PetroChina, the nation’s biggest energy producer, sank to a four-month low in Hong Kong after net income dropped 13 percent. Yuexiu Property Co. (123) declined the most since October 2011 in Hong Kong after profit missed estimates. Hyundai Mobis Co. (012330), which got 12 percent of sales from Europe last year, slid to a six-week low in Seoul. Thailand’s benchmark index tumbled 4 percent and headed for the steepest weekly slump since October 2008.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index (MXEF) lost 0.4 percent to 1,018.70 at 1:33 p.m. in Hong Kong. The gauge has fallen 2.3 percent this week and is headed for its biggest two-week decline since May. More than 60 percent of MSCI index companies that reported quarterly earnings this year trailed analysts estimates, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Stocks have retreated this week as Cyprus struggles to avoid a collapse of its banking system and reports showed Europe’s manufacturing decline is worsening.
“Markets have softened a bit of late because of the Cyprus problems as investors don’t like uncertainty,” Gopal Agrawal, chief investment officer at Mirae Asset Global Investments (India) Pvt., said by phone from Mumbai. “Earnings across the Asian emerging-markets space have been pressured by cost inflation and interest rates.”
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland companies listed in Hong Kong dropped 0.9 percent. Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) slid 0.1 percent to a one-week low. The Philippine Stock Exchange Index added 1.1 Percent.
Thai Slump
Thailand’s SET Index (SET) sank for a fifth day, the largest decline among Asian benchmark gauges, on concern valuations are expensive and as foreign investors sold domestic equities. The measure has tumbled 8.1 percent this week.
It rose to the highest level since 1994 last week to trade at 14 times estimated 12-month earnings, the most since Bloomberg began tracking data in 2006.
“This is just a normal short-term consolidation because of the short-term overprice,” Jessada Sookdhis, chief investment officer at CIMB-Principal Asset Management Co., which oversees about $1 billion of assets, said by phone from Bangkok. “The market is still on a good long-term uptrend.”
Trading volumes in South Korea’s Kospi index and Taiwan’s Taiex Index were at least 33 percent lower than the 30-day average for this time of day. Volumes for India’s S&P BSE Sensex index were 15 percent higher.
Cyprus Debate
Cypriot lawmakers will begin debate today on legislation to unlock bailout funds and prevent a financial collapse with a European Central Bank deadline to cut off funding for its lenders in three days.
Cypriot police scuffled with protesters, including employees of Cyprus Popular Bank Pcl (CPB), outside Parliament yesterday as President Nicos Anastasiades maneuvered at home and in Russia to raise cash.
The 21 countries in the MSCI index send about 26 percent of their exports to the European Union on average, according to the World Trade Organization.
South Korea’s won headed for a third weekly decline while Thailand’s baht was set for its biggest weekly gain in two months. Indonesia’s rupiah was poised for a third weekly drop.
A gauge of energy companies in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index declined 0.5 percent, the most among 10 industry groups. The broader gauge has lost 3.3 percent this year, compared with a 6.5 percent advance in the MSCI World Index (MXWO) of developed- country stocks. The developing-nations measure trades at 10.4 times estimated 12-month earnings, compared with the MSCI World’s multiple of 13.4, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
PetroChina Earnings
PetroChina (857) lost 2.3 percent, poised for the lowest close since Nov. 16. Net income dropped to 115.3 billion yuan ($18.6 billion) last year, it said in a statement yesterday. That compared with the 119.8 billion yuan mean of 27 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Yuexiu Property tumbled 7.4 percent, its first drop in four days, after full-year net income and sales fell short of analysts’ estimates. Hyundai Mobis, the largest South Korean auto-parts maker lost 1 percent, its second day of declines.
To contact the reporter on this story: Shikhar Balwani in Mumbai at sbalwani@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Darren Boey at dboey@bloomberg.net.
HOLY MOLY! That is incredible speed. Took me 1.5 days to download a few episodes of ROBOT CHICKEN!
Futures have turned RED in the past half hour, news coming out that Cyprus deal fell through. Just tidbits right now, hope to have more concrete stuff before I head out.
Hello EZ. Another BUSIER than heck day today, getting a late start here, got all sorts of crap to go through. As the time compresses for us to get out, the BS is starting to mount. Looks like action in markets happening while you sleep, going to post the latest on....CYPRUS!!
Some quick posts to catch you sleepy heads up a little bit. Off now to get ready for more damn VIPs and brutal meetings with higher. Hope to see you all later.
Cyprus' Bank Deposit Tax 'Ultimately Unavoidable' - HSBC http://stks.co/q66w
Treasuries Remain Lower Before U.S. Home Data as Fed Stimulates
By Masaki Kondo - Mar 21, 2013
Treasuries remained lower following a decline yesterday before data that economists say will show the Federal Reserve’s monetary stimulus is helping bolster the U.S. housing market.
Ten-year yields climbed yesterday by the most in almost two weeks after the central bank reiterated its commitment to purchases of government and mortgage debt. The Treasury will announce the details of bond auctions planned for next week.
“I’ve become even more optimistic about the U.S. economy,” said Masaru Hamasaki, the chief strategist at Toyota Asset Management Co., which oversees the equivalent of $19 billion in Tokyo. “Strong monetary easing, like the one the Fed is now doing, typically spurs buying of bonds at first, but improvement in economic fundamentals will gradually drive up bond yields.”
The yield on the benchmark 10-year note was little changed at 1.96 percent as of 2:14 p.m. in Tokyo. It rose six basis points yesterday, the biggest gain since March 7. The 2 percent security due in February 2023 traded at 100 11/32.
Japan’s 10-year bond yield slid as much as 1 1/2 basis points to 0.58 percent, the lowest since June 2003. Ten-year Japanese bond futures climbed to 145.57, the highest on record for lead contracts.
Government figures will probably show today that purchases of previously owned homes in the U.S. increased to a 5 million annual rate, the strongest since November 2009, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. A separate report may show home prices in the nation rose 0.7 percent in January from the prior month, the most since April, economists estimate.
Bond Auctions
The Treasury may say today that it will auction $35 billion of two-year debt on March 26, the same amount of five-year notes the next day and $29 billion of seven-year bonds on March 28, according to Wrightson ICAP LLC, an economic advisory company based in Jersey City, New Jersey. The U.S. government is scheduled to sell $13 billion of 10-year inflation-protected securities today.
The Fed will buy as much as $1.75 billion of Treasuries maturing from February 2036 to February 2043. It is purchasing $85 billion of government and mortgage debt a month in its so- called quantitative easing program aimed at stimulating the economy through lower borrowing costs.
“Interest rates are so low that they are attractive for home buyers,” said Toyota Asset’s Hamasaki.
Fed Projections
The central bank left unchanged its statement that it plans to hold its target interest rate near zero as long as unemployment remains above 6.5 percent and inflation is projected to be no more than 2.5 percent.
Fed officials forecast the jobless rate will hit their threshold for raising interest rates sometime in 2015, while projecting faster growth this year.
They predicted the jobless rate will average 6.7 percent to 7 percent in the final quarter of 2014 and 6 percent to 6.5 percent in 2015, according to their central-tendency estimates. The economy will expand 2.3 percent to 2.8 percent this year, they estimated, compared with their earlier forecast of 2.3 percent to 3 percent growth.
“There is a view that we can buy Treasuries without any concern for the time being” because of the Fed’s purchases as well as its commitment to the low benchmark rate, said Jun Kawakami, a market economist at Mizuho Securities Co., a unit of Japan’s third-biggest financial group by market value.
Demand for Treasuries was also supported after lawmakers in Cyprus rejected a proposed bank deposit levy intended to finance part of an international bailout for the country. President Nicos Anastasiades of Cyprus met advisers to draft a new plan to stave off financial collapse as banks remain shut for two more days.
To contact the reporter on this story: Masaki Kondo in Singapore at mkondo3@bloomberg.net
Cyprus scrambles to avert meltdown, EU threatens cutoff
By Michele Kambas and Matt Robinson
NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus considered nationalizing pension funds and ordered banks to stay shut till next week to avert financial chaos after it rejected the terms of a European Union bailout and turned to Russia for aid.
Crisis talks among the political leadership in Nicosia are set to resume on Thursday after late-night meetings to discuss a "Plan B" broke up on Wednesday without result.
EU officials voiced frustration but little sympathy for an ambitious but now bust banking system that extended itself well beyond the island; Russia, whose citizens have billions to lose in those Cypriot banks, called the EU a "bull in a china shop".
President Nicos Anastasiades, just a month in office and wrestling with his country's worst crisis since the Turkish invasion of 1974 that divided Greek- and Turkish-speaking Cypriots, is due to meet party leaders at 9:30 a.m. (2.30 a.m. EST).
The deputy leader of his Democratic Rally warned time was running out: "We don't have days or weeks, we have only hours to save our country," Averos Neophytou told reporters.
Banks, shut since the weekend, are to stay closed for the rest of the week and so not reopen till Tuesday after a holiday weekend, a government official told Reuters, extending the misery of Cypriot businesses already feeling the pinch.
Without a resolution, the fate of the small nation of just 1.1 million has shaken confidence in the single-currency euro zone and raised geopolitical tension between the EU and Russia.
Finance Minister Michael Sarris extended a stay in Moscow, where Russian officials said he asked for a further 5 billion euros on top of a five-year extension and lower interest on an existing 2.5-billion euro loan from Moscow.
In a vote on Tuesday, the island's tiny legislature threw out a proposed tax on bank deposits in exchange for a 10-billion euro bailout from the EU, a stunning rejection of the kind of strict austerity accepted over the past three years by crisis-hit Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who was preparing to meet an EU Commission delegation in Moscow on Thursday, said the bloc had behaved "like a bull in a china shop" and likened its proposals, which would force Russian customers to contribute to the rescue of Cypriot banks, to Soviet-era confiscations.
But the European Central Bank kept the pressure on, warning that it would have to pull the plug on Cyprus unless the country, one of the smallest of the 17 members of the euro zone, took a bailout quickly.
Despite the looming threat of default and a banking collapse, Cypriots on Tuesday balked at EU demands for a levy on bank deposits to raise 5.8 billion euros, once taboo in Europe's handling of the stubborn debt crisis.
LEVY STILL IN PLAY?
Anastasiades chaired meetings throughout Wednesday with party leaders, ministers and officials from the troika of EU, ECB and International Monetary Fund lenders. The government said a "Plan B" was in the works.
Officials said it could include: an option to nationalize pension funds of semi-government corporations, which hold between 2 billion and 3 billion euros; issuing an emergency bond linked to future natural gas revenues; and possibly reviving the levy on bank deposits, though at a lower level than originally planned and maybe excluding savers with less than 100,000 euros.
With Cypriot Energy Minister George Lakkotrypis also in Moscow, officially for a tourism exhibition, speculation was rife that access to untapped offshore gas reserves could be on the table as part of a deal for Russian aid.
Finance minister Sarris said talks with his Russian counterpart, Anton Siluanov, would continue, but there had not yet been any offers, "nothing concrete."
Cyprus is a haven for billions of euros squirreled abroad by Russian businesses and individuals - a factor, too, in the reluctance of Germany and other northern euro zone states to bail out Cypriots without a contribution from bank depositors.
The island's banking sector has been crippled by its exposure to bigger neighbor Greece. Athens said Greek branches of Cypriot banks would also stay shut till the weekend.
SLOWING TRADE
The proposed levy on deposits would have taken nearly 10 percent from accounts over 100,000 euros. Smaller accounts would also have been hit, although the government proposed softening the blow to spare savers with less than 20,000 euros.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, facing an election this year in Europe's main paymaster Germany, said it was fair to expect those with savings over 100,000 euros - the normal limit for EU state deposit insurance - to contribute to a bailout.
While taxing even small savers was politically explosive, the Cypriot government had balked at sparing them by imposing a higher tax on big depositors - fearing for an offshore banking business that accounts for a big share of its economy.
European officials were growing increasingly exasperated. But the idea of bankruptcy for a member of the euro zone, however small, raises fears for confidence in the currency.
"There is no obligation to accept help," said Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, whose country does not use the euro. "Cyprus has the possibility of living with its own mistakes."
(Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
Thursday's economic calendar:
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
9:00 PMI Manufacturing Index Flash
9:00 FHFA House Price Index
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:00 Existing Home Sales
10:00 Philly Fed Business Outlook
10:00 Leading Indicators
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
4:30 PM Money Supply and Fed balance
LOL, I would KILL for even CLOSE to those kinds of speeds! About what I get at home. I can start some downloads on eztv, eat lunch, and when I come back, I got like 3 shows done. Here, it takes all damn day to download an episode of somehting. (Walking Dead our favorite out here)
Quick huddle with staff, and then I will be back to post lots of news and views, looks like another busy day ahead.
SLEEP TIGHT LOTTOS!
Nope, it is all the same crap. The problem is, everyone is on at the same time, using SKYPE or whatever, and it just sucks the hell out of the bandwidth. When I hit 'place order' the stupid thing sits there and churns for about 2 minutes. A few times, the damn price went UP before the damn sale would go through. Why I do NOT daytrade out here, only go with longer term options.
It was, the standard Marine Corps 60mm mortar round. Out here, it is up to the Commanders to decide to use them or not, but at home, all use is stopped until they do an accident investigation.
The news out here was pretty devestating, and I would like to thanks Harry Reid for making it even worse by politicizing it, and making himself look like the greatest ass clown in history.
To all the Marines out there, SEMPER FI!
Hey Ske. Called my wife the other day, she had MORE SNOW in New York. I am having a hard time with it, as it is beautiful and sunny out here, and pretty much in the 80's. The only thing I shovel is DIRT that gets brought in off the boots, as well as DUST that is just never ending.
Always safe EZ. Was a day of VIP stuff, with a 2 Star out here. Had to do the dog and pony. Later today got MORE damn VIPs to deal with, and some BDE pukes to have a sit down with, another busy night.
You playing the ponies this weekend?
Hope you Lottos have a good day today. Will try to be back on later, but will be in and out with all sorts of insanity as we near the end of our mission.
Any wild vacation plans for the summer, like maybe Cyprus? lol
Good morning Den! About as fine as I can be out here, another beautiful day while my poor wife had to deal with SNOW. It is nice to go a whole year without the white stuff.
Hope you are good out there in Euroland, and you are enjoying the fine drink of your country for me.
Cyprus Fin Min to hold press conference at 10 GMT today http://stks.co/s5uP
Euro Climbs as ECB Buys Cyprus Time to Renegotiate Rescue Deal
By Emma Charlton - Mar 20, 2013
The euro strengthened for the first time in three days against the dollar on speculation the European Central Bank’s pledge to provide liquidity to Cyprus will give it time to renegotiate a financial rescue package.
Europe’s shared currency rose from near the lowest level in almost four months. The ECB reaffirmed its commitment to offer funding to Cyprus “within the existing rules” yesterday, after Cypriot lawmakers rejected an unprecedented levy on bank deposits, throwing into limbo a rescue package designed to keep it in the euro. The Dollar Index fell before a two-day meeting of Federal Reserve policy makers ends today.
“The ECB statement that they are going to provide more liquidity means there is some time for renegotiation for Cyprus, so that’s a positive,” said Lutz Karpowitz, a senior foreign- exchange strategist at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. “As long as there is still some room for further negotiations the market is relatively relaxed. On the negative side, it seems it will be very difficult to find a consensus. If there is more and more impression that there won’t be a solution then there may be more weakness in the euro.”
The euro climbed 0.1 percent to $1.29 at 8:09 a.m. London time. It fell to $1.2844 yesterday, the weakest level since Nov. 22. The shared currency rose 0.3 percent to 122.92 yen and advanced 0.2 percent to 1.2221 Swiss francs. The dollar strengthened 0.1 percent to 95.28 yen.
The Dollar Index, which IntercontinentalExchange Inc. uses to track the greenback against the currencies of six U.S. trade partners, fell 0.1 percent to 82.898, after climbing 0.9 percent in the past two days.
To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Charlton in London at echarlton1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Dobson at pdobson2@bloomberg.net
Wednesday's economic calendar:
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
2:00 PM FOMC Announcement
2:00 PM FOMC Forecast
2:15 PM Bernanke Press Conference