Insomniac Hedge Fund Guy

Euro zone bond debate raises pressure on Merkel

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(Reuters) – One of Germany’s leading economic associations came out in favor of joint euro zonebond issuance on Monday, raising pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel to consider bolder crisis steps ahead of a meeting with the French president. Until now, the idea of so-called “Eurobonds” has been fiercely opposed by Berlin, which is fearful such a step would push up German borrowing costs and reduce incentives for weaker euro zone members like Greeceto reform their economies. A German government spokesman was emphatic — Merkel and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy will not discuss common euro zone issuance in Paris on Tuesday because Berlin does … Read more

|| Equities, Forex, Gold, Silver and Oil Trading

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ISHARES FTSE/XINHUA CHINA 25 INDEX (ETF) NYSE:FXI UNDERVALUED iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (ETF) NYSE:FXI has been upgraded to Buy with a 2012 price target of $60 issued today by Shayne Heffernan. China has become the largest trade partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with two-way trade last year reaching US$230 billion. via iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (ETF) NYSE:FXI Undervalued | Live Stock Trading News | Equities, Forex, Gold, Silver and Oil Trading.

|| Equities, Forex, Gold, Silver and Oil Trading

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BEST BUYS IN EUROPE NYSE:FTE, ETR:CBK, NYSE:AEG France Telecom SA (ADR) NYSE:FTE, Commerzbank AG ETR:CBK, AEGON N.V. (ADR) NYSE:AEG make up the Shayne Heffernan European Hot List. European Stocks should outperform in Q3, for those brave enough to buy now big returns are on offer over the next few years. France Telecom SA (ADR) NYSE:FTE has been upgraded to a strong buy with a 2012 price target of $31 issued today by Shayne Heffernan. In a note to traders today Shayne Heffernan pointed to the strong dividend history currently paying at 8.76% and the low PE of under 12 as … Read more

Pension Pulse: Forget 2008, This Is Like 1987!

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THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2011 Forget 2008, This Is Like 1987! Finally, someone who makes some sense! David Kotok of Cumberland Advisors was interviewed on Yahoo Daily Ticker stating, Forget 2008, This Is Like 1987: After dramatic moves in the futures markets, U.S. stocks opened higher Thursday morning after European bourses reversed early declines. via Pension Pulse: Forget 2008, This Is Like 1987!.

Returns on TIPS Outshine Other Treasurys – WSJ.com

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By MIN ZENG NEW YORK—While the focus has been on rising prices of regular Treasurys, a tiny, often-overlooked corner of the U.S. government-bond market—Treasury inflation-protected securities—has been the best-performing U.S. fixed-income asset this year. Through Thursday, TIPS have handed investors a 12.09% return, almost double the 6.16% return of their big brothers, according to data from Barclays Capital. Over the same period, U.S. high-yield corporate bonds returned a meager 0.37% and municipal bonds returned 7.24%. Vanguard Group and Pacific Investment Management Co., two of the world’s biggest TIPS investors, and Barclays Capital, the world’s biggest TIPS dealer, say the buying … Read more

Notable quotes, facts, and fantasies during a week for the record book

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The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index swung alternately up and down more than 4 percent each day from Monday through Thursday. Never before in the history of the S.& P. index, which goes back to 1928, have there been alternating gains and losses of more than 4 percent in four days. In most years, there were no such days at all. “Heightened volatility is here to stay,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist for Standard & Poor’s equity research. “This has been an unbelievable week. You just had fear totally take over,” said Scott Wren, the senior equity strategist for … Read more

| George Soros

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It should be recognized that a disorderly default or exit from the eurozone, even by a small country like Greece, would precipitate a banking crisis comparable to the one that caused the Great Depression. It is no longer a question whether it is worthwhile to have a common currency. The euro exists, and its collapse would cause incalculable losses to the banking system. So the choice that Germany faces is more apparent than real – and it is a choice whose cost will rise the longer Germany delays making it. via Germany must defend the euro | The Great Debate.

Stocks To Watch Today – Barrons.com

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Aug 12, 2011 8:38 PM Biggest Insider Buying Week Since March ’09; Where & Who Posted by Dimitra DeFotis Insiders haven’t been buying up their company stock at this pace since the market bottom in 2009. While high volumes of insider activity falsely heralded a market bottom in November 2008, Ben Silverman at InsiderScore.com notes that no significant upside market correction lacked insider purchases over the past three decades. The latest buying was across sectors and may have peaked mid-week, though buying at financial services companies picked up while technology and energy insiders seemed to sit out some of the … Read more

So they look up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea.

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I think the exit of the PIGS  from the EURO is inevitable.  How can I play that?  I’m not sure if the Euro goes up or down on that.  If the worst credits leave, then the currency gets stronger.  But before that happens, the boat is going to creak and moan until they throw Jonah into the sea.  So the Euro is going to weaken as the ECB puts in good money after bad? It seems that monetary union without political union is a fundamentally flawed idea.  Now that the strains of this unequal partnership are showing on the public … Read more

US stocks rise after unemployment report

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NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are rising after news that fewer people joined the unemployment line last week and word that a technology bellwether’s profit beat expectations. The Dow Jones industrial average is up 256 points, or 2.4 percent, at 10,972 at 11:45 a.m. in New York. The S&P 500 is up 30, or 2.8 percent, at 1,151. The Nasdaq is up 73, or 3.1 percent, at 2,454. For the first time in four months, the number of people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time fell below 400,000 last week. Analysts say it may be a sign that … Read more

Are Computers Bringing Down The Stock Market?

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Any time something bad happens, we’re always looking for a reason why. Some would say that we’re always looking for someone or something to blame but our motives may simply be to make sense of a situation that feels like it’s spiraling out of control. The world’s financial markets have definitely felt that way as of late.   There’s plenty of blame to go around. Some people blame the Obama Administration while others like CNBC’s Jim Cramer say that the European banks are in the midst of their own 2008 and that is causing financial contagion worldwide. The blame doesn’t … Read more

‘s have been scooping it up.

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In a CNBC interview Wednesday, TD Ameritrade Chief Executive Fred Tomczyk said the Omaha, Neb.-based online brokerage processed more than 900,000 trades Monday, adding that “four of the last five [trading] days have been records” for the company, in terms of trading activity.  While retail has been dumping, insider’s have been scooping up stock, graph courtesy of Washington  Service    

Obama Under Pressure

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Stock market turbulence demands serious action on US deficit The Global market turbulence may force Washington’s politicians back into session to find real solutions to the Nation’s skyrocketing debt and deficit, according to an economics expert. C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the debt-ceiling legislation Congress passed last month was just a set of procedures aimed at reducing the deficit over time but did not actually take effect by itself. “That is not good enough,” Mr. Bergsten in an interview Tuesday. “The markets are responding in part to the failure of the legislation to … Read more

Central Bankers Race to Protect Growth in 72 Hours of Crisis

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Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) — Central bankers are racing to shield their economies from fiscal tightening and lopsided currency swings that threaten a new global recession. In the 72 hours after a Group of Seven conference call on Aug. 7, the Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates near zero through at least mid-2013, the European Central Bank intervened in bond markets and the Bank of England indicated it’s ready to add more stimulus if needed. Japan signaled renewed concern about the yen and Switzerland yesterday stepped up its fight to curb an “overvalued” franc. “Central bankers have so far been … Read more

Fed Said to Follow Basel Capital Rules for Biggest U.S. Banks

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Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve officials are drafting rules for the biggest U.S. banks that won’t be more stringent than international capital standards agreed to in Basel, Switzerland, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo cited a “goal of congruence” between the Basel standards and the Fed’s work on rules under the Dodd-Frank Act, which overhauls banking regulation, in a June 3 speech. The central bank hasn’t veered from that, according to the person, who declined to be identified because the rules are still being drafted. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which … Read more

France Seeks New Deficit Battle Plan

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PARIS—The French government pledged Wednesday to consider fresh tax rises, spending cuts and other budget measures to ensure the country doesn’t deviate from a challenging deficit-reduction trajectory as market concerns that France’s top-notch creditworthiness is at risk accelerated. French bank shares were hammered Wednesday also, with some traders citing the triple-A jitters. Shares in Société Générale were down over 18% in afternoon Paris trading and BNP Paribas shares slid over 10%. President Nicolas Sarkozy, who interrupted his summer holiday on the French Riviera for an unscheduled meeting with some of his cabinet Wednesday morning in Paris, will make decisions on … Read more

Six Republicans named to deficit super panel

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(Reuters) – Republicans named their six members to a congressional deficit-reduction super committee on Wednesday, setting the stage for an attempt to create bipartisan agreement on taxes and government spending. Senators Jon Kyl, Rob Portman and Patrick Toomey were selected by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, named Representatives Dave Camp, Jeb Hensarling and Fred Upton to the committee. The panel is known as the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction and was established to find $1.5 trillion in additional budget saving over 10 years. Full article available @: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/10/us-usa-debt-super-committee-idUSTRE7786DY20110810?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Obama has SEC Attack Standard & Poor’s

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Standard & Poor’s, whose unprecedented downgrade of US debt triggered a worldwide sell-off in equities is pushing against a US government proposal that would require credit raters to disclose “significant errors” in how they calculate their ratings. S&P, accused by the Obama administration of making an error in its calculations leading Friday’s downgrade, raised concern about the proposed new corrections policy and other issues in an 84-pg letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, dated August 8. The SEC is weighing sweeping new rules designed to improve the quality of ratings after their poor performance in the financial crisis. The … Read more

Dollar Advances as Fed Fails to Counter Global Growth Concerns

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Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) — The yen gained, approaching a post- World War II high versus the dollar, as the Federal Reserve’s pledge to keep interest rates at a record until mid-2013 failed to convince investors global growth will be sustained. The euro extended its drop against the dollar as European stocks fell amid speculation yesterday’s gains couldn’t be sustained. The Swiss franc weakened after the nation’s central bank said it expanded measures to counter the currency’s strength. The pound dropped after Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said “headwinds” to growth are intensifying. “A lot of people looked at the … Read more

White House Said to Set Goal Easing Housing-Price Pressure

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Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) — The Obama administration is seeking ideas from investors on how to convert thousands of foreclosed properties owned by government-backed entities into rental homes, administration officials said. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, the regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will be joined by the Treasury Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development in soliciting proposals, said the officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly in advance of an announcement planned for later today. The goal is to reduce the number of foreclosed properties and ease the price pressure on … Read more

Rage against the machines

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The last week has been the second wildest week of trading I have seen in my long career.  One picture tells the story- look at this the VIX, the CBOE VIX Futures Underlying.  It didn’t matter what you were  today.  Stocks, bonds, commodities, gold, it all  went up and down wildly.  The Dow stretched me like a torture victim on a rack and pinion between 640 points. It opened up sharply sold down, then back up again, plunged when the Fed announcement came out, then rallied straight-line into the close. Whew what a day!   I made a ton of good … Read more

On t’Mark – tin hats, Band-Aids, US psyche hurt, ECB’s peashooter, UK riots

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On t’Mark – tin hats, Band-Aids, US psyche hurt, ECB’s peashooter, UK riots OK, tin hats on; Dora Band-Aids at the ready?  What do you mean we’re out of them?  Oh, the ECB used the last one last night.  What about the Wiggles ones instead?  The Fed used those all up in April!  It will be a dark and ugly day in our markets, and governments/central banks are out of Band-Aids.   I’ll start you will this thought: Geithner announces that he is not resigning, Dow plunges 635pts.  Enough said!   I will try to skip the hyperbole and give … Read more

‘s a Show Me Market Now!

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Before the market will rally, we will have to see           Massive insider buying.  I have written several times about the lack of it. Major corporate buybacks or dividends.  For example, Apple could change the dynamics by splitting the stock 10 for 1 and pay a $25 billion dividend.  It would have to be many more than Apple. Step up in takeover activity.  We need to see the prices validated with takeovers. End of the gross excesses in the IPO market that values social media companies at absurd levels. Some good policy moves by the Obama administration.  … Read more

GOLD HITS RECORD HIGHS, MINERS UNDERVALUED

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Gold traded at new highs today however many quality gold miners have not reflected the strong gains in Gold in 2011. Gold miners in general are undervalued, Junior Gold companies are also very attractive as we expect to see consolidation in the industry as high prices drive take-overs and buy-outs. Spot gold was set for a second consecutive daily trading rally, up 2 percent from Friday at $1,696.56 an ounce by 1342 GMT, having hit a record $1,715.01 earlier and having traded at all-time highs in sterling and euros . Investors have bought more gold in the last month than … Read more

Obama Says Markets Don’t Doubt U.S. Ability to Pay Debts

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Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama, breaking his silence on the downgrade of federal debt, said that the U.S. “always will be a AAA country” and that he will release a new proposal to deal with the federal deficit in the coming weeks. The main obstacle facing the U.S. is the “lack of political will in Washington” to solve the country’s problems, Obama said at the White House in his first public comment since Standard & Poor’s lowered the credit rating on U.S. debt to AA+ from AAA on Aug. 5. The debt downgrade is “not so much because … Read more

‘s Business as Usual

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    Federal Reserve officials publicly declared it was business as usual in the face of Standard and Poor’s downgrade of US government debt, but privately they acknowledged these were unchartered waters. Within 90 minutes of S&P’s decision, a joint release from US banking regulators declared that, despite the downgrade of US paper, there would be no change in the risk-weighting of treasury bills, bonds and notes or any paper guaranteed by the US government. In other words, banks do not have to post any additional capital against their Treasury positions. Regulators also announced that the treatment of US treasuries … Read more

Geithner Rips S&” Move on Downgrade

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Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner ripped Standard & Poor’s two days after the ratings agency downgraded US debt, saying the stunning move was based on a “lack of knowledge” about the nation’s finances. Geithner also said the debt crisis presents Congress with a chance to “earn back confidence of investors around the world” and he reiterated his support for President Obama, who asked Geithner to stay on even as calls intensified over the weekend for his resignation. “S&P has shown really terrible judgment and they’ve handled themselves very poorly,” he said in an exclusive interview with CNBC. “And they’ve shown a … Read more

Beyond debt woes, a wider crisis of globalization?

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(Reuters) – The crises at the heart of the international financial and political system go beyond the debt woes currently gripping the Western world and to the heart of the way the global economy has been run for over two decades. After relying on it to deliver years of growth, lift millions from poverty, keep living standards rising and citizens happy, nation states look to have lost control of globalization. In the short term, that leaves policymakers looking impotent in the face of fast-moving markets and other uncontrolled and perhaps uncontrollable systems — undermining their authority and potentially helping fuel a wider backlash and … Read more

THE GREAT FINANCIAL MIGRATION

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  Financial Institutions around the world and especially those in Europe and the USA face a crucial set of choices about the future of their institutions. Western Governments are riddled with debt and their only way out is decades of austerity and taxes, but the new world is a mobile world, globalization has set limits on how much a government can impose it’s will on the corporations and citizenry of a nation. Excess taxes and austerity will lead to a mass financial migration to emerging markets. Having spent most of my life in Asia, I can not remember a time … Read more

U.S. Loses it Triple AAA status, what does it mean, ideas for Monday?

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For the complete report from S & P click here.   Why listen to what others are saying before reading S&P downgrade of U.S. Sovereign credit itself? As for what it will do Monday morning, my guess is that it will go down and undercut the lows of Friday. That was 1166 on S&P 500 and 11,139 on the DJI, so I expect us to undercut the lows.  Apparently a lot of people knew about the impending downgrade on Friday and that explains the market volatility that day.   The market swung wildly about 416 points ending mostly unchanged although NASDAQ … Read more