3/5/10 Payrolls
U.S. nonfarm payrolls declined
for the 25th time in the past 26 months, falling by 36,000 in February
to 129.5 million, the Labor Department estimated Friday. Job losses
were concentrated in construction, schools, retail and publishing.
Manufacturing jobs rose by 1,000, the second increase in a row. The
unemployment rate was steady at 9.7%. Severe snow storms during the
survey week may have depressed the payroll count, but the Bureau of
Labor Statistics said it could not quantify the impact. Total hours
worked fell by 0.6%, likely due to weather-related shutdowns. The
employment report was better than expected, as economists surveyed by
MarketWatch were forecasting a drop of 90,000. They expected the
unemployment rate to rise to 9.8%.
The Labor Department said job losses for December and January had been
revised to show 35,000 fewer jobs lost than previously reported.
Temporary hiring added 48,000.
The average workweek for all employees slipped to 33.8 hours from 33.9 hours in January.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was 6.1 million in February and has been about that level since December. About 4 in 10 unemployed persons have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more. Census hiring was 15,000. So 51,000 jobs lost ex-Census.
In February, the civilian labor force participation rate (64.8 percent) and the employment-population ratio (58.5 percent) were little changed.
The CES Birth-Death Model numbers amounted to + 97,000 for Feb.
The economy has lost almost 3.3 million jobs over the last year, and
8.43 million jobs since the beginning of the current employment
recession.
The new millennium has been rough on older workers, who have seen a whopping 331% increase in unemployment over the last decade, according to the AARP.
The
number of unemployed workers older than 55 shot up to 2.1 million in
December from 490,000 in January 2000, according to an analysis of data
from the government Bureau of Labor Statistics by the nonprofit's
Public Policy Institute.Unemployment among workers older than 65 jumped 235%, to 479,000 from 143,000. For
the unemployed over age 55, the average jobless period has expanded
85.6% to 34.7 weeks from 18.7 weeks. The period has stretched 32.7% for
job hunters over age 65, who are now unemployed an average of 32.9
weeks compared to 24.8 weeks in 2000.Many graying workers, AARP said, are now attempting to postpone or come out of retirement.
The US rig count for February 2010 was 1,350, up 83 from the 1,267
counted in January 2010 and up 30 from the 1,320 counted in February
2009.
C.Fred Bergsten: "President Obama has smartly suggested that a new export strategy
could support 2 million very good American jobs, more than created by
his stimulus initiative. The United States already sells about $1.5
trillion worth of goods and services annually to the rest of the world,
which creates about 10 million high-paying jobs. Every $1 billion of
additional exports will produce about 7,000 very good jobs. Robust
export expansion would also reduce our large trade deficits and
resultant need to borrow abroad to finance them. Last week the president suggested an ambitious but realistic goal of
doubling exports over the next five years. An effective US export
strategy must focus on four variables: the exchange rate of the dollar,
trade agreements, our own export controls, and tax policy."
ZeroHedge: "Joseph Stiglitz - former head economist at the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and a nobel-prize winner - said yesterday that the
very structure of the Federal Reserve system is so fraught with
conflicts that it is "corrupt" and undermines democracy.
Stiglitz said:
If
>we [i.e. the IMF] had seen a governance structure that corresponds to
>our Federal Reserve system, we would have been yelling and screaming
>and saying that country does not deserve any assistance, this is a
>corrupt governing structure."
>
>Michael Panzer: "Interestingly enough, if you look back at the history of the
>relationship between productivity and labor costs, the last time we saw
>a gap between the two as wide as it is now was -- you guessed it -- in
>the 1970s, before the Great Stagflation."
>
>Bill Bonner: "The Greek story is a universal tale… It will soon be played by the UK…and then it will be the US.
>Let us summarize: Innocent fellows are seduced by debt. They fall in
>love with deficits. Debt proves to be an evil temptress. Our heroes are
>ruined.
>Isn’t the story more or less the same in Britain and America too?"
>
>
>Copper demand in China, the world’s largest consumer of the
>metal, is “weak” because of lackluster consumption from the power
>industry, Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Co. said. “From
>what we learned from our customers, copper demand is now weak,”
>Chairman Wei Jianghong said today in an interview in Beijing. Tongling
>is the country’s second-largest copper smelter. Demand “isn’t very strong,” bigger rival Jiangxi Copper Co. also said today. Slowing
>demand in China may indicate stockpiles in the country may continue to
>climb after reaching the highest level in more than seven years in
>February. “About 60 percent of copper is used in the power
>industry, and our sales to wire-and-cable users reflected that demand
>is rather weak,” Wei said while attending the National People’s
>Congress. “The demand is not very strong in the first place,” Jiangxi
>Copper Chairman Li Yihuang said in Beijing at the congress. “But a lot of people have long positions in the market, so I think in the first half of this year, copper prices will be good.”
>
>
>
>China’s banks are facing increasing
>risk in their lending policies, Premier Wen Jiabao said today in
>his annual report to the country’s legislature.
>“Latent risk in the banking and public finance sectors are
>increasing,” Wen said, according to a copy of his speech
>distributed today at the National People’s Congress meeting.
>
>
>
> * The Obama Health Reform Bill's Dishonesty on Cost. Any
>bill that counts 10 years of taxes but only six years of spending as a
>way to bring down the deficit is dishonest. Hopefully enough
>congressional Democrats will vote against this and start the process
>over again, in a more fiscally responsible way. As Ryan said to the
>president, "[W]e are all representatives of the American people. We all
>do town hall meetings. We all talk to our constituents. And I've got to
>tell you, the American people are engaged. And if you think they want a
>government takeover of healthcare, I would respectfully submit you're
>not listening to them."
Regulators on Friday closed Bank of Illinois, Normal, Ill., and Waterfield Bank, Germantown, Md., bringing the total tally of failed banks to 25 so far this year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said. The failure of Bank of Illinois marks the third bank closure in the state for this year while Waterfield Bank is the first to be shuttered in Maryland. Heartland Bank and Trust Company will assume all deposits of Bank of Illinois while the FDIC will act as a receiver for Waterfield Bank.
- Sun American Bank of Boca Raton, Fla., became the 23rd bank of the year to fail, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday. First Citizens Bank, the primary subsidiary of First Citizens BancShares, will assume the estimated $443.5 million in deposits and purchase the bank's $535.7 million in assets. The bank is also Florida's fourth failure of the year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 122.06 points, or 1.2%, to 10,566.2, leaving it 2.3% higher for the week. The S&P 500 Index climbed 15.73 points, or 1.4%, to 1,138.7, a weekly advance of 3.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 34.04 points, or 1.5%, to 2,326.35, up 3.9% from the week-ago close.
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Natural Gas
3/4/10 Natural Gas
A withdrawal of 150 billion cubic feet or more in
tomorrow’s report would give gas prices one last boost for the season
and potentially lift futures above $5 per million Btu, John Kilduff said in
a telephone interview.
Industrial demand for natural gas, which represents
about 29 percent of consumption, may also be on the rebound with a
recovery in the U.S. economy.
“Storage used to be 500 billion cubic feet above the
five- year average and now it’s not, so there’s little question that
the market is physically tighter than it used to be,” said Tim Evans,
an energy analyst at Citigroup Global Markets Inc. in New York. “We’ve
been taking the winter premium out of the market, so now it’s more of a
discussion over the appropriate price level than the facts.”
December consumption of natural gas by factories,
refiners, chemical plants and steel mills was 7.4 percent higher than
the previous year, reaching 19.1 billion cubic feet a day from 17.8
billion in 2008, according to the Energy Department’s Natural Gas
Monthly report, released late yesterday.
Power generators also bought more gas in December
than a year earlier, jumping their purchases 9 percent, according to
the report.
“Industrial demand surprised our forecast to the
upside,” James R. Crandell, a commodities research analyst at Barclays
Capital in New York, said in a note to clients.
The number
of people filing for initial unemployment benefits declined by 29,000
in the week ending Feb. 27 to a seasonally adjusted 469,000, the Labor
Department reported Thursday. Initial claims had risen sharply the
previous two weeks, in part because of administrative backlogs, extreme
weather and the holiday. The four-week average of initial claims - a
better gauge of the trend than the volatile weekly number - fell by
3,500 to 470,750. The number of people receiving regular state jobless
benefits declined by 134,000 to a seasonally adjusted 4.5 million. The
total number of people receiving benefits of any kind rose by 145,000
to 11.5 million, not seasonally adjusted.
ZeroHedge: "As for the extremely volatile (and delayed) Emergency Unemployment
Compensation series, that increased by 207,632 in the week ended
February 13. Oddly enough, snow storms were once again implicated, this
time for the decline of claims, even though the data being from the
last week of February saw some pretty dramatic snowfall precisely then.
"
The Greek
government plans to issue a 10-year euro-denominated bond, Dow Jones
Newswires reported on Thursday, citing one of the lead managers of the
deal. Lead managers will be Barclays Capital, HSBC Holdings, National
Bank of Greece, Nomura and Piraeus Bank SA, according to the report.
Price guidance is in the area of 310 basis points over mid-swaps, Dow
Jones reported. The Greek finance ministry's press office told
MarketWatch that there is no official announcement of the bond issue
and the deal cannot be confirmed. The news comes after Greece announced
new austerity measures on Wednesday aiming to save 4.8 billion euros
through cutting spending and raising some taxes.
Q4 Productivity and Costs: +6.9% vs. +6.5% expected and +6.2% prior. Unit labor costs -5.9% vs. -4.9% expected and -4.4% prior.
Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House;
he's obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes.
One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a
press release announcing that today President Obama nominated
Matheson's brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of
Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Thursday said it raised its annual dividend
by 11 percent, citing its strong underlying operations and free cash
flow.
The world's biggest retailer said that for its current
fiscal year, which began on February 1, its board approved an annual
dividend of $1.21 per share, up from $1.09 per share a year ago.
Gartner boosts global PC shipment growth forecast for 2010, and sees worldwide PC spending up 12.2% in 2010
25% Say U.S. Heading In Right Direction, Lowest Since Obama Took Office. Just
25% of U.S. voters now say the country is heading in the right
direction, the lowest level of voter confidence since early January
2009. Correspondingly, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone
survey finds that 69% believe the nation is heading down the wrong track, the highest level measured in 14 months.
However, since January 2008 (the recession began a month earlier) 8.4
million Americans lost their jobs. As such, two years ago retail
gasoline was over $3 (with Nymex crude oil averaging $92.93), this last
January Nymex crude averaged $78.40, with retail gasoline around $2.70.
Consequently, back then the EIA estimates refiners earned 7.8 cents on
the dollar, today they earned only 5 cents… and that was with crude oil
below $80. Thus, The Schork Reportprojects
that should WTI head back to $95 and consumers fail to respond (which
seems reasonable), then this summer is shaping up to be rather ugly for
the downstream side of Big Oil’s ledger!
A
forward-looking gauge of home buying declined sharply in January,
dropping to the lowest seasonally adjusted level since last April, an
industry trade group reported Thursday. The pending home sales index
fell a seasonally adjusted 7.6% in January after a revised 0.8% gain in
December. The index remained 8.8% higher than in January 2009. The
index tracks sales contracts signed on previously owned homes.
It would not be appropriate to
introduce the International Monetary Fund as a "supplier of help" for
Greece as the nation attempts to meet its debt commitments, European
Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said in his monthly news
conference Thursday. Trichet praised the IMF for providing Greece with
technical assistance as it attempts to slash its budget deficit.
Trichet said the commitment by European Union leaders last month to
help Greece if needed was "important."
Boosted by demand for new
airplanes, orders for U.S.-made factory goods rose 1.7% in January
after an upwardly revised 1.5% gain in December, the Commerce
Department estimated Thursday. Economists were expecting a 2.5%
increase. Orders for durable goods increased 2.6%, revised down from
the 3% reported last week. Core capital equipment orders -- the best
monthly indicator of business investment -- fell 4.1% after two months
of strong gains. Orders for nondurable goods increased 0.9%, led by
petroleum and food.
A dozen House of Representatives Democrats opposed to abortion are
willing to kill President Barack Obama's healthcare reform plan unless
it satisfies their demand for language barring the procedure.
Natural gas in storage falls 116 bcf: EIA. A Platts survey of analysts
expected a larger withdrawal of 128 to 132 billion cubic feet. Down
ahead of the storage data, natural gas for April delivery fell further
in its wake, with the contract off 12 cents, or 2.5%, to $4.640 per
million British thermal units. Working gas in storage was 1,737 Bcf as of Friday, February 26, 2010,
according to EIA estimates. This represents a net decline of 116 Bcf
from the previous week.
The futures decline sent the $3.5 billion U.S.
Natural Gas Fund, the largest exchange-traded fund in the fuel, to its
lowest price since it started trading almost three years ago.
The fund shed 31 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $8.34 at
12:31 p.m. A close at that price would be the lowest ever for the fund,
which has lost 84 percent of its value since trading began on April 18,
2007.
The Commerce Department said Thursday that factory orders rose 1.7
percent in January, slightly below the 1.8 percent gain economists had
expected. It was the best showing since a 1.8 percent advance in
September.
A measure to give some 57 million elderly people, veterans and
persons with disabilities a $250 check was rejected by the Senate on
Wednesday, a setback for the powerful seniors' lobby.
President Barack Obama has called for Congress to approve the payments to make up for their
benefits not increasing this year, but the Senate defeated it 50 to 47.
The U.S. will make a monumental mistake if it doesn't utilize one of
its most prevalent energy resources, natural gas, energy tycoon Boone
Pickens told CNBC Thursday."You've got 4,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas—that makes us
number one in the world," Pickens said. "We're going to be fools, we'll
be identified as the dumbest people in the world if we don't capitalize
on this resource and replace OPEC oil."
Natural-gas futures declined
nearly 4% Thursday after the government reported supplies fell less
than anticipated last week, while crude-oil prices also dropped, but
held above $80 a barrel. The natural-gas futures contract for April
delivery fell 18 cents, or 3.8%, to end at $4.58 per million British
thermal units. Crude for April delivery fell 66 cents, or 0.8%, to
$80.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold for April delivery dropped $10.20 an ounce to $1,133.10. The euro slipped to $1.3560 from $1.3708 late on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 47.38 points to 10,444.14, with the index now in the black for the year. Up for a fifth consecutive session, the S&P 500 Index rose 4.18 points to 1,122.97. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 11.63 points to 2,292.31.
A withdrawal of 150 billion cubic feet or more in
tomorrow’s report would give gas prices one last boost for the season
and potentially lift futures above $5 per million Btu, John Kilduff said in
a telephone interview.
Industrial demand for natural gas, which represents
about 29 percent of consumption, may also be on the rebound with a
recovery in the U.S. economy.
“Storage used to be 500 billion cubic feet above the
five- year average and now it’s not, so there’s little question that
the market is physically tighter than it used to be,” said Tim Evans,
an energy analyst at Citigroup Global Markets Inc. in New York. “We’ve
been taking the winter premium out of the market, so now it’s more of a
discussion over the appropriate price level than the facts.”
December consumption of natural gas by factories,
refiners, chemical plants and steel mills was 7.4 percent higher than
the previous year, reaching 19.1 billion cubic feet a day from 17.8
billion in 2008, according to the Energy Department’s Natural Gas
Monthly report, released late yesterday.
Power generators also bought more gas in December
than a year earlier, jumping their purchases 9 percent, according to
the report.
“Industrial demand surprised our forecast to the
upside,” James R. Crandell, a commodities research analyst at Barclays
Capital in New York, said in a note to clients.
The number
of people filing for initial unemployment benefits declined by 29,000
in the week ending Feb. 27 to a seasonally adjusted 469,000, the Labor
Department reported Thursday. Initial claims had risen sharply the
previous two weeks, in part because of administrative backlogs, extreme
weather and the holiday. The four-week average of initial claims - a
better gauge of the trend than the volatile weekly number - fell by
3,500 to 470,750. The number of people receiving regular state jobless
benefits declined by 134,000 to a seasonally adjusted 4.5 million. The
total number of people receiving benefits of any kind rose by 145,000
to 11.5 million, not seasonally adjusted.
ZeroHedge: "As for the extremely volatile (and delayed) Emergency Unemployment
Compensation series, that increased by 207,632 in the week ended
February 13. Oddly enough, snow storms were once again implicated, this
time for the decline of claims, even though the data being from the
last week of February saw some pretty dramatic snowfall precisely then.
"
The Greek
government plans to issue a 10-year euro-denominated bond, Dow Jones
Newswires reported on Thursday, citing one of the lead managers of the
deal. Lead managers will be Barclays Capital, HSBC Holdings, National
Bank of Greece, Nomura and Piraeus Bank SA, according to the report.
Price guidance is in the area of 310 basis points over mid-swaps, Dow
Jones reported. The Greek finance ministry's press office told
MarketWatch that there is no official announcement of the bond issue
and the deal cannot be confirmed. The news comes after Greece announced
new austerity measures on Wednesday aiming to save 4.8 billion euros
through cutting spending and raising some taxes.
Q4 Productivity and Costs: +6.9% vs. +6.5% expected and +6.2% prior. Unit labor costs -5.9% vs. -4.9% expected and -4.4% prior.
Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House;
he's obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes.
One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a
press release announcing that today President Obama nominated
Matheson's brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of
Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Thursday said it raised its annual dividend
by 11 percent, citing its strong underlying operations and free cash
flow.
The world's biggest retailer said that for its current
fiscal year, which began on February 1, its board approved an annual
dividend of $1.21 per share, up from $1.09 per share a year ago.
Gartner boosts global PC shipment growth forecast for 2010, and sees worldwide PC spending up 12.2% in 2010
25% Say U.S. Heading In Right Direction, Lowest Since Obama Took Office. Just
25% of U.S. voters now say the country is heading in the right
direction, the lowest level of voter confidence since early January
2009. Correspondingly, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone
survey finds that 69% believe the nation is heading down the wrong track, the highest level measured in 14 months.
However, since January 2008 (the recession began a month earlier) 8.4
million Americans lost their jobs. As such, two years ago retail
gasoline was over $3 (with Nymex crude oil averaging $92.93), this last
January Nymex crude averaged $78.40, with retail gasoline around $2.70.
Consequently, back then the EIA estimates refiners earned 7.8 cents on
the dollar, today they earned only 5 cents… and that was with crude oil
below $80. Thus, The Schork Reportprojects
that should WTI head back to $95 and consumers fail to respond (which
seems reasonable), then this summer is shaping up to be rather ugly for
the downstream side of Big Oil’s ledger!
A
forward-looking gauge of home buying declined sharply in January,
dropping to the lowest seasonally adjusted level since last April, an
industry trade group reported Thursday. The pending home sales index
fell a seasonally adjusted 7.6% in January after a revised 0.8% gain in
December. The index remained 8.8% higher than in January 2009. The
index tracks sales contracts signed on previously owned homes.
It would not be appropriate to
introduce the International Monetary Fund as a "supplier of help" for
Greece as the nation attempts to meet its debt commitments, European
Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said in his monthly news
conference Thursday. Trichet praised the IMF for providing Greece with
technical assistance as it attempts to slash its budget deficit.
Trichet said the commitment by European Union leaders last month to
help Greece if needed was "important."
Boosted by demand for new
airplanes, orders for U.S.-made factory goods rose 1.7% in January
after an upwardly revised 1.5% gain in December, the Commerce
Department estimated Thursday. Economists were expecting a 2.5%
increase. Orders for durable goods increased 2.6%, revised down from
the 3% reported last week. Core capital equipment orders -- the best
monthly indicator of business investment -- fell 4.1% after two months
of strong gains. Orders for nondurable goods increased 0.9%, led by
petroleum and food.
A dozen House of Representatives Democrats opposed to abortion are
willing to kill President Barack Obama's healthcare reform plan unless
it satisfies their demand for language barring the procedure.
Natural gas in storage falls 116 bcf: EIA. A Platts survey of analysts
expected a larger withdrawal of 128 to 132 billion cubic feet. Down
ahead of the storage data, natural gas for April delivery fell further
in its wake, with the contract off 12 cents, or 2.5%, to $4.640 per
million British thermal units. Working gas in storage was 1,737 Bcf as of Friday, February 26, 2010,
according to EIA estimates. This represents a net decline of 116 Bcf
from the previous week.
The futures decline sent the $3.5 billion U.S.
Natural Gas Fund, the largest exchange-traded fund in the fuel, to its
lowest price since it started trading almost three years ago.
The fund shed 31 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $8.34 at
12:31 p.m. A close at that price would be the lowest ever for the fund,
which has lost 84 percent of its value since trading began on April 18,
2007.
The Commerce Department said Thursday that factory orders rose 1.7
percent in January, slightly below the 1.8 percent gain economists had
expected. It was the best showing since a 1.8 percent advance in
September.
A measure to give some 57 million elderly people, veterans and
persons with disabilities a $250 check was rejected by the Senate on
Wednesday, a setback for the powerful seniors' lobby.
President Barack Obama has called for Congress to approve the payments to make up for their
benefits not increasing this year, but the Senate defeated it 50 to 47.
The U.S. will make a monumental mistake if it doesn't utilize one of
its most prevalent energy resources, natural gas, energy tycoon Boone
Pickens told CNBC Thursday."You've got 4,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas—that makes us
number one in the world," Pickens said. "We're going to be fools, we'll
be identified as the dumbest people in the world if we don't capitalize
on this resource and replace OPEC oil."
Natural-gas futures declined
nearly 4% Thursday after the government reported supplies fell less
than anticipated last week, while crude-oil prices also dropped, but
held above $80 a barrel. The natural-gas futures contract for April
delivery fell 18 cents, or 3.8%, to end at $4.58 per million British
thermal units. Crude for April delivery fell 66 cents, or 0.8%, to
$80.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold for April delivery dropped $10.20 an ounce to $1,133.10. The euro slipped to $1.3560 from $1.3708 late on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 47.38 points to 10,444.14, with the index now in the black for the year. Up for a fifth consecutive session, the S&P 500 Index rose 4.18 points to 1,122.97. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 11.63 points to 2,292.31.
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Jobs
3/3/10 Jobs
Private-sector firms in the
U.S. eliminated 20,000 jobs in February, the 25th decline in a row,
according to the ADP employment report released Wednesday. It was the
fewest jobs lost since 22,000 jobs were added in January 2008. In
January, a revised 60,000 jobs were lost, compared with the 22,000
originally reported, ADP said. The adverse weather had only a very
small effect on the ADP report due to the methodology used to construct
it, ADP said.
An investment group led by J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Water Asset Management said it's buying SouthWest Water Co.
for $275 million, or $11 a share in cash, a 56% premium to Tuesday's
close. Prior to the closing of the acquisition, members of the
partnership will invest approximately $16 million in 2.7 million newly
issued SouthWest Water shares under a private placement, priced at
$6.00 per share. SouthWest Water intends to use the proceeds to assist
the financing of ongoing utility infrastructure investments.
Banks that are seen as too large to fail should be broken up in order
to make the financial system more stable, Dallas Federal Reserve
President Richard Fisher said on Wednesday.
Costco also said February same-store sales rose 9 percent, including the impact of fuel prices and foreign exchange.
Costco earned $299
million, or 67 cents per share, for its fiscal second quarter, ended
Feb. 14, compared with $239 million, or 55 cents per share, a year
earlier.
Excluding a charge
for employee benefits, Costco earned 70 cents per share. Analysts, on
average, were expecting 72 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Quarterly sales rose 11 percent to $18.36 billion excluding membership fees, which rose 9 percent to $386 million.
Millions of homeowners haven't benefited from the lowest mortgage rates
in nearly a half-century because they can't or won't refinance.
Jamie Dimon, chairman of JP Morgan Chase, has warned American investors should be more worried about the risk of default of the state of California than of Greece's current debt woes.
There were 42,090 layoff intentions announced in
February, down sharply from 71,482 in January and from the 186,350 job
cuts announced in February 2009, job placement firm Challenger, Gray and
Christmas, Inc. said in a report released Wednesday. The data are not
seasonally adjusted.
Layoffs in February were led by the pharmaceutical sector, which
reported 25,857 job reductions in the month. Challenger noted that Merck
had announced a larger number of post-merger layoffs.
"It may be a couple of more months before hiring begins to surge,
but it is clear that employers have shifted away from downsizing and are
poised to start adding workers," said John Challenger, chief executive
officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
"We are seeing more job cuts related to business strategy, as
opposed to cuts stemming from recessionary pressure," he added. "In
other words, we expect more cuts from mergers and acquisitions or from
companies shifting focus from one business area to another."
Of the 42,090 job cut intentions reported in February, 20,068 were
reported to be due to mergers and acquisitions.
In other data released, hiring intentions fell to 8,300 in February
from 31,381 in January and from 14,972 in February 2009. February hiring
plans were led by the electronics sector.
The ISM Services Index for February came in at 53.0, which is above the
reading of 51.0 that had been widely expected and up from the 50.5
that had been posted in January.
The percentage of U.S. home sellers who cut their asking price
declined again in February and sellers made slightly smaller reductions
in prices, real estate website Zillow.com said on Wednesday.
The
median list price of homes, however, fell in January, Zillow said in a
report, which was obtained by Reuters ahead of its scheduled release.
Nearly
one in five homes, or 19.5 percent, listed for sale on the Zillow
website had at least one price reduction as of the end of February,
down from 19.8 percent in January, Zillow said.
Home sellers reduced prices by a median 6.7 percent in February, down from 6.8 percent in January.
The
percentage of homes on the market with price reductions has declined
steadily for much of the past year. In February 2009 more than
one-third, or 33.2 percent, of homes listed on Zillow had a price
reduction, and the median reduction was 8.7 percent.
Crude inventories rose by 4.1 million barrels,
or 1.2 percent, to 341.6 million barrels. That was 3.7 percent below
year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information
Administration said in its weekly report.
Analysts
expected a build of 1.1 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 26,
according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of
McGraw-Hill Cos.
Gasoline
inventories rose by 700,000 barrels, or 0.3 percent, to 231.9 million
barrels. That was higher than analysts' expectations and 7.4 percent
above year-ago levels.
Demand
for gasoline over the four weeks ended Feb. 26 was 0.1 percent higher
than a year earlier, averaging nearly 8.8 million barrels a day.
At
the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 81.9 percent of total capacity on
average, a rise of 0.7 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts
expected capacity to fall to 81.1 percent.
Inventories
of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by
900,000 barrels to 151.8 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 26.
Analysts expected a decline of 975,000 barrels.
EIA expects this year's annual average natural gas Henry Hub
spot price to be $5.37 per million Btu (MMBtu), a $1.42-per-MMBtu increase over
the 2009 average of $3.95. EIA projects
continuing price increases in 2011, averaging $5.86 per MMBtu for the
year.
Erasing a roughly 60-point climb, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 10,396.76, off 9.22 points or 0.1%. The S&P 500 Index added half a point to end at 1,118.79, while the Nasdaq Composite Index finished almost flat at 2,280.68.
Private-sector firms in the
U.S. eliminated 20,000 jobs in February, the 25th decline in a row,
according to the ADP employment report released Wednesday. It was the
fewest jobs lost since 22,000 jobs were added in January 2008. In
January, a revised 60,000 jobs were lost, compared with the 22,000
originally reported, ADP said. The adverse weather had only a very
small effect on the ADP report due to the methodology used to construct
it, ADP said.
An investment group led by J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Water Asset Management said it's buying SouthWest Water Co.
for $275 million, or $11 a share in cash, a 56% premium to Tuesday's
close. Prior to the closing of the acquisition, members of the
partnership will invest approximately $16 million in 2.7 million newly
issued SouthWest Water shares under a private placement, priced at
$6.00 per share. SouthWest Water intends to use the proceeds to assist
the financing of ongoing utility infrastructure investments.
Banks that are seen as too large to fail should be broken up in order
to make the financial system more stable, Dallas Federal Reserve
President Richard Fisher said on Wednesday.
Costco also said February same-store sales rose 9 percent, including the impact of fuel prices and foreign exchange.
Costco earned $299
million, or 67 cents per share, for its fiscal second quarter, ended
Feb. 14, compared with $239 million, or 55 cents per share, a year
earlier.
Excluding a charge
for employee benefits, Costco earned 70 cents per share. Analysts, on
average, were expecting 72 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Quarterly sales rose 11 percent to $18.36 billion excluding membership fees, which rose 9 percent to $386 million.
Millions of homeowners haven't benefited from the lowest mortgage rates
in nearly a half-century because they can't or won't refinance.
Jamie Dimon, chairman of JP Morgan Chase, has warned American investors should be more worried about the risk of default of the state of California than of Greece's current debt woes.
There were 42,090 layoff intentions announced in
February, down sharply from 71,482 in January and from the 186,350 job
cuts announced in February 2009, job placement firm Challenger, Gray and
Christmas, Inc. said in a report released Wednesday. The data are not
seasonally adjusted.
Layoffs in February were led by the pharmaceutical sector, which
reported 25,857 job reductions in the month. Challenger noted that Merck
had announced a larger number of post-merger layoffs.
"It may be a couple of more months before hiring begins to surge,
but it is clear that employers have shifted away from downsizing and are
poised to start adding workers," said John Challenger, chief executive
officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
"We are seeing more job cuts related to business strategy, as
opposed to cuts stemming from recessionary pressure," he added. "In
other words, we expect more cuts from mergers and acquisitions or from
companies shifting focus from one business area to another."
Of the 42,090 job cut intentions reported in February, 20,068 were
reported to be due to mergers and acquisitions.
In other data released, hiring intentions fell to 8,300 in February
from 31,381 in January and from 14,972 in February 2009. February hiring
plans were led by the electronics sector.
The ISM Services Index for February came in at 53.0, which is above the
reading of 51.0 that had been widely expected and up from the 50.5
that had been posted in January.
The percentage of U.S. home sellers who cut their asking price
declined again in February and sellers made slightly smaller reductions
in prices, real estate website Zillow.com said on Wednesday.
The
median list price of homes, however, fell in January, Zillow said in a
report, which was obtained by Reuters ahead of its scheduled release.
Nearly
one in five homes, or 19.5 percent, listed for sale on the Zillow
website had at least one price reduction as of the end of February,
down from 19.8 percent in January, Zillow said.
Home sellers reduced prices by a median 6.7 percent in February, down from 6.8 percent in January.
The
percentage of homes on the market with price reductions has declined
steadily for much of the past year. In February 2009 more than
one-third, or 33.2 percent, of homes listed on Zillow had a price
reduction, and the median reduction was 8.7 percent.
Crude inventories rose by 4.1 million barrels,
or 1.2 percent, to 341.6 million barrels. That was 3.7 percent below
year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information
Administration said in its weekly report.
Analysts
expected a build of 1.1 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 26,
according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of
McGraw-Hill Cos.
Gasoline
inventories rose by 700,000 barrels, or 0.3 percent, to 231.9 million
barrels. That was higher than analysts' expectations and 7.4 percent
above year-ago levels.
Demand
for gasoline over the four weeks ended Feb. 26 was 0.1 percent higher
than a year earlier, averaging nearly 8.8 million barrels a day.
At
the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 81.9 percent of total capacity on
average, a rise of 0.7 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts
expected capacity to fall to 81.1 percent.
Inventories
of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by
900,000 barrels to 151.8 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 26.
Analysts expected a decline of 975,000 barrels.
EIA expects this year's annual average natural gas Henry Hub
spot price to be $5.37 per million Btu (MMBtu), a $1.42-per-MMBtu increase over
the 2009 average of $3.95. EIA projects
continuing price increases in 2011, averaging $5.86 per MMBtu for the
year.
Erasing a roughly 60-point climb, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 10,396.76, off 9.22 points or 0.1%. The S&P 500 Index added half a point to end at 1,118.79, while the Nasdaq Composite Index finished almost flat at 2,280.68.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Obama
3/2/10 Obama
Obama Eyes Stopping US Drilling
Intelligence Group, Inc. (click for details)
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Display Printer Friendly Page
The Obama administration is taking steps to close off several parts of
the Intermountain West to industrial activity, including four areas
believed to hold significant oil and natural gas deposits.
If successful, the initiative would block future production of
hydrocarbons in the San Rafael Swell in Utah, the Otero Mesa in New
Mexico, the Vermillion Basin in Colorado, and the Northern Prairie in
Montana.
The US Interior Department is leading the effort and says it is
authorized to take such action under the Antiquities Act of 1906.
Interior officials hope to designate 14 areas as "national monuments,"
which would ban drilling or other activities that may disturb the
landscape. Existing leaseholders would not be affected.
One area targeted for national monument status, the 1.2 million-acre
Otero Mesa in southeastern New Mexico, is believed to hold large
natural gas deposits. The Bush administration allowed companies to
drill some exploratory wells in the region several years ago.
Broader development initiatives have been delayed, however, after a US
appeals court ordered federal agencies last May to conduct preparatory
planning work again to comply better with guidelines outlined in the
National Environmental Policy Act.
Washington Post: "IN AMERICA'S climate debate, one of the most promising developments of
recent months has been the growing recognition in Washington that
natural gas may play a key role in curbing carbon emissions. The
resurgence of gas comes through the discovery of massive deposits in
Appalachian shale formations and elsewhere -- a reserve that offers the
prospect of stable domestic supplies and relatively low prices. Since
burning natural gas produces half the emissions of burning coal,
switching the two fuels could put a significant dent in America's
carbon footprint."
Fertilizer maker CF Industries Holdings Inc relaunched a hostile bid worth $4.75 billion to buy rival Terra Industries in a move to break up Terra's planned takeover by Norway's Yara International.
CF,
which had called off a year-long effort to buy Terra in January, said
it was now offering $47.40 per share in cash and stock for the company
based on Monday's closing prices. Terra shares were up 12.5 percent to
$46.35.
The move is the latest chapter in the battle by fertilizer companies to expand their market shares in the agricultural industry,
which has started to rebound as the global economic crisis fades.
Last month, Terra agreed to be bought by Yara for $4.1 billion in an all-cash deal that valued the company at $41.10 per share.
BP has made a
joint- venture deal with privately held Lewis Energy Group that will
expand the British oil giant's position in the U.S. natural gas
business and find it entering a fast-emerging field in South Texas,
according to a person familiar with the situation.
Under the deal, BP
will take a 50 percent stake in 80,000 acres of the Eagle Ford Shale
play and is acquiring additional acreage in smaller pending deals, the
person said.
Company officials
are expected to announce the venture in London today at BP's annual
strategy presentation to investors and analysts.
Daren Beaudo, a BP
spokesman in Houston, declined to comment. Officials with San
Antonio-based Lewis could not be reached for comment.
The deal would be
the latest in a string of similar moves by major oil companies to enter
or expand in unconventional rock formations in the U.S., where huge
amounts of natural gas have been discovered in recent years.
In December, Exxon
Mobil Corp. said it would acquire Fort Worth's XTO Energy in a deal
valued at $41 billion. A month later, France's Total agreed to pay $2.3
billion for 25 percent of Chesapeake Energy Corp.'s acreage in the
Barnett Shale play in North Texas, and the companies said they may
jointly develop acreage in the Eagle Ford Shale and in several Canadian
natural gas plays.
Royal Dutch Shell,
Norway's Statoil and others have also written big checks for access to
North American shale plays, and so has BP.
In 2008, BP did two
deals with Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake, worth nearly $3.7 billion,
that gave it access to unconventional reserves in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Oil companies are
looking to expand holdings of natural gas amid stricter environmental
laws and forecasts that use of cleaner-burning fuel will grow in coming
years.
The White House also wants to add $37 billion in taxes on U.S. oil and
natural gas companies, rehashing a proposal to Congress that failed the
first time around. History shows that once drilling costs jump due to
higher taxes, investment starts to dry up.
The board of bankrupt LyondellBasell Industries AF rejected a $14.5
billion bid from Reliance Industries Ltd., an oil refiner and explorer
controlled by India's richest man, two people briefed on the matter
said.
Australia’s central bank resumed
raising interest rates after a one-meeting pause, judging that
faster-than-anticipated economic growth will allay concerns
that European deficits may roil global confidence.
Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens increased
the benchmark overnight cash rate target to 4 percent from 3.75
percent in Sydney today, as forecast by 14 of 19 economists in a
Bloomberg News survey. The rest saw no change. Stevens said
rates should be closer to “average,” which he last week signaled
may be 75 basis points higher than today’s new level.
The massive earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday may have
shifted the Earth's axis and created shorter days, scientists at NASA
say.
The change is negligible, but permanent: Each day should be
1.26 microseconds shorter, according to preliminary calculations. A
microsecond is one-millionth of a second.
A large quake shifts massive amounts of rock and alters the distribution of mass on the planet.
When
that distribution changes, it changes the rate at which the planet
rotates. And the rotation rate determines the length of a day.
"Any
worldly event that involves the movement of mass affects the Earth's
rotation," Benjamin Fong Chao, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Maryland, said while explaining the phenomenon in 2005.
"Taxpayers filed 142.4 million individual income tax returns for 2008, which was 0.5 percent fewer than the 143.0 million returns filed for 2007. Adjusted gross income (AGI) also declined between 2007 and 2008, falling by 3.7 percent to $8.2 trillion. This was the first time since 2002 that AGI decreased from the previous year. Also between 2007 and 2008, taxable income decreased 5.1 percent to $5.6 trillion, total income tax decreased by 6.2 percent to $1.0 trillion, and total tax liability fell by 6.0 percent to just under $1.1 trillion. "
"It's clear IBM is moving work offshore at a record rate," said Lee Conrad, national field coordinator ofAlliance@IBM.
The
union reported that IBM had cut more than 1,200 jobs in the U.S. and
Canada as of Monday afternoon. Conrad said the total is likely to
increase as more information is collected.
Facing increasing
competition, IBM has been cutting staff for years. The global
technology giant employs an estimated 10,000 in Research Triangle Park.
The New York-based company laid off about 10,400 people last year in
North America, according to Alliance@IBM.
ZeroHedge: "February was not an auspicious start to Obama's record budget
deficit-busting plans. The Daily Treasury Statement for the full month
of February was just released, and it disclosed that while corporate
tax withholdings, net of refunds, actually climbed marginally to $3.4
billion from $(3.4) billion in February 2009, individual tax
withholdings plunged to a multi-year low of $30.7 billion. Combined,
the two items also posted a multi low of $34 billion, less than the
previous recent low from February 2009 when the first leg of the
Greater Depression was allegedly at its zenith."
. OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. rejected a
$52-a-share hostile takeover bid from Astellas Pharma Inc. as investors
anticipated a higher offer and possible bidding war. OSI “is not
interested in undertaking a sale” at that price, the Melville, New
York-based company said yesterday in response to the $3.5 billion cash
offer from Astellas, Japan’s second-largest drugmaker. If successful,
the tender offer starting today would help Astellas gain treatments for
cancer, a key growth area the Tokyo-based company has identified to
cope with falling sales of its biggest drug Prograf. The takeover
attempt follows Astellas’ failed $1.1 billion offer last year for CV
Therapeutics Inc and analysts say it may face a rival bid from
Roche Holding AG, OSI’s partner for the Tarceva cancer drug.
Winter Storms to Distort US Jobless Figures - Summers.
For the week ended Feb. 27, retail sales fell 0.8% from the week
earlier and eked out a 0.7% gain from a year ago, according to data
from the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs released on Tuesday.
The success of wind power in Texas has come at the expense of natural
gas. If the wind build-out continues, by 2013 the amount of gas
consumed to make electricity could fall by 18.5%, as gas plants sit
idle for longer, according to Tudor Pickering & Holt, a
Houston-based energy investment bank.
Pfizer Inc is set to join the bidding for German generic-drug maker Ratiopharm GmbH, offering as much as 3 billion euros, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 10,405.98, up 2.19 points. The S&P 500 Index added 2.6 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 1,118.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 7.22 points, or 0.3%, to 2,280.79.
Obama Eyes Stopping US Drilling
Intelligence Group, Inc. (click for details)
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Display Printer Friendly Page
The Obama administration is taking steps to close off several parts of
the Intermountain West to industrial activity, including four areas
believed to hold significant oil and natural gas deposits.
If successful, the initiative would block future production of
hydrocarbons in the San Rafael Swell in Utah, the Otero Mesa in New
Mexico, the Vermillion Basin in Colorado, and the Northern Prairie in
Montana.
The US Interior Department is leading the effort and says it is
authorized to take such action under the Antiquities Act of 1906.
Interior officials hope to designate 14 areas as "national monuments,"
which would ban drilling or other activities that may disturb the
landscape. Existing leaseholders would not be affected.
One area targeted for national monument status, the 1.2 million-acre
Otero Mesa in southeastern New Mexico, is believed to hold large
natural gas deposits. The Bush administration allowed companies to
drill some exploratory wells in the region several years ago.
Broader development initiatives have been delayed, however, after a US
appeals court ordered federal agencies last May to conduct preparatory
planning work again to comply better with guidelines outlined in the
National Environmental Policy Act.
Washington Post: "IN AMERICA'S climate debate, one of the most promising developments of
recent months has been the growing recognition in Washington that
natural gas may play a key role in curbing carbon emissions. The
resurgence of gas comes through the discovery of massive deposits in
Appalachian shale formations and elsewhere -- a reserve that offers the
prospect of stable domestic supplies and relatively low prices. Since
burning natural gas produces half the emissions of burning coal,
switching the two fuels could put a significant dent in America's
carbon footprint."
Fertilizer maker CF Industries Holdings Inc relaunched a hostile bid worth $4.75 billion to buy rival Terra Industries in a move to break up Terra's planned takeover by Norway's Yara International
CF,
which had called off a year-long effort to buy Terra in January, said
it was now offering $47.40 per share in cash and stock for the company
based on Monday's closing prices. Terra shares were up 12.5 percent to
$46.35.
The move is the latest chapter in the battle by fertilizer companies to expand their market shares in the agricultural industry,
which has started to rebound as the global economic crisis fades.
Last month, Terra agreed to be bought by Yara for $4.1 billion in an all-cash deal that valued the company at $41.10 per share.
BP has made a
joint- venture deal with privately held Lewis Energy Group that will
expand the British oil giant's position in the U.S. natural gas
business and find it entering a fast-emerging field in South Texas,
according to a person familiar with the situation.
Under the deal, BP
will take a 50 percent stake in 80,000 acres of the Eagle Ford Shale
play and is acquiring additional acreage in smaller pending deals, the
person said.
Company officials
are expected to announce the venture in London today at BP's annual
strategy presentation to investors and analysts.
Daren Beaudo, a BP
spokesman in Houston, declined to comment. Officials with San
Antonio-based Lewis could not be reached for comment.
The deal would be
the latest in a string of similar moves by major oil companies to enter
or expand in unconventional rock formations in the U.S., where huge
amounts of natural gas have been discovered in recent years.
In December, Exxon
Mobil Corp. said it would acquire Fort Worth's XTO Energy in a deal
valued at $41 billion. A month later, France's Total agreed to pay $2.3
billion for 25 percent of Chesapeake Energy Corp.'s acreage in the
Barnett Shale play in North Texas, and the companies said they may
jointly develop acreage in the Eagle Ford Shale and in several Canadian
natural gas plays.
Royal Dutch Shell,
Norway's Statoil and others have also written big checks for access to
North American shale plays, and so has BP.
In 2008, BP did two
deals with Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake, worth nearly $3.7 billion,
that gave it access to unconventional reserves in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Oil companies are
looking to expand holdings of natural gas amid stricter environmental
laws and forecasts that use of cleaner-burning fuel will grow in coming
years.
The White House also wants to add $37 billion in taxes on U.S. oil and
natural gas companies, rehashing a proposal to Congress that failed the
first time around. History shows that once drilling costs jump due to
higher taxes, investment starts to dry up.
The board of bankrupt LyondellBasell Industries AF rejected a $14.5
billion bid from Reliance Industries Ltd., an oil refiner and explorer
controlled by India's richest man, two people briefed on the matter
said.
Australia’s central bank resumed
raising interest rates after a one-meeting pause, judging that
faster-than-anticipated economic growth will allay concerns
that European deficits may roil global confidence.
Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens increased
the benchmark overnight cash rate target to 4 percent from 3.75
percent in Sydney today, as forecast by 14 of 19 economists in a
Bloomberg News survey. The rest saw no change. Stevens said
rates should be closer to “average,” which he last week signaled
may be 75 basis points higher than today’s new level.
The massive earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday may have
shifted the Earth's axis and created shorter days, scientists at NASA
say.
The change is negligible, but permanent: Each day should be
1.26 microseconds shorter, according to preliminary calculations. A
microsecond is one-millionth of a second.
A large quake shifts massive amounts of rock and alters the distribution of mass on the planet.
When
that distribution changes, it changes the rate at which the planet
rotates. And the rotation rate determines the length of a day.
"Any
worldly event that involves the movement of mass affects the Earth's
rotation," Benjamin Fong Chao, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Maryland, said while explaining the phenomenon in 2005.
"Taxpayers filed 142.4 million individual income tax returns for 2008, which was 0.5 percent fewer than the 143.0 million returns filed for 2007. Adjusted gross income (AGI) also declined between 2007 and 2008, falling by 3.7 percent to $8.2 trillion. This was the first time since 2002 that AGI decreased from the previous year. Also between 2007 and 2008, taxable income decreased 5.1 percent to $5.6 trillion, total income tax decreased by 6.2 percent to $1.0 trillion, and total tax liability fell by 6.0 percent to just under $1.1 trillion. "
"It's clear IBM is moving work offshore at a record rate," said Lee Conrad, national field coordinator ofAlliance@IBM.
The
union reported that IBM had cut more than 1,200 jobs in the U.S. and
Canada as of Monday afternoon. Conrad said the total is likely to
increase as more information is collected.
Facing increasing
competition, IBM has been cutting staff for years. The global
technology giant employs an estimated 10,000 in Research Triangle Park.
The New York-based company laid off about 10,400 people last year in
North America, according to Alliance@IBM.
ZeroHedge: "February was not an auspicious start to Obama's record budget
deficit-busting plans. The Daily Treasury Statement for the full month
of February was just released, and it disclosed that while corporate
tax withholdings, net of refunds, actually climbed marginally to $3.4
billion from $(3.4) billion in February 2009, individual tax
withholdings plunged to a multi-year low of $30.7 billion. Combined,
the two items also posted a multi low of $34 billion, less than the
previous recent low from February 2009 when the first leg of the
Greater Depression was allegedly at its zenith."
. OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. rejected a
$52-a-share hostile takeover bid from Astellas Pharma Inc. as investors
anticipated a higher offer and possible bidding war. OSI “is not
interested in undertaking a sale” at that price, the Melville, New
York-based company said yesterday in response to the $3.5 billion cash
offer from Astellas, Japan’s second-largest drugmaker. If successful,
the tender offer starting today would help Astellas gain treatments for
cancer, a key growth area the Tokyo-based company has identified to
cope with falling sales of its biggest drug Prograf. The takeover
attempt follows Astellas’ failed $1.1 billion offer last year for CV
Therapeutics Inc and analysts say it may face a rival bid from
Roche Holding AG, OSI’s partner for the Tarceva cancer drug.
Winter Storms to Distort US Jobless Figures - Summers.
For the week ended Feb. 27, retail sales fell 0.8% from the week
earlier and eked out a 0.7% gain from a year ago, according to data
from the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs released on Tuesday.
The success of wind power in Texas has come at the expense of natural
gas. If the wind build-out continues, by 2013 the amount of gas
consumed to make electricity could fall by 18.5%, as gas plants sit
idle for longer, according to Tudor Pickering & Holt, a
Houston-based energy investment bank.
Pfizer Inc is set to join the bidding for German generic-drug maker Ratiopharm GmbH, offering as much as 3 billion euros, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 10,405.98, up 2.19 points. The S&P 500 Index added 2.6 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 1,118.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 7.22 points, or 0.3%, to 2,280.79.
Monday, March 01, 2010
March 1
March 1
Floyd Norris: "More than $1 in every $10 that American banks have
outstanding in loans is lent to a troubled borrower, a ratio far higher
than previously seen in the quarter-century that such numbers have been
compiled."
Mike Burk: "The market comfortably consolidated its mid February gains last week. That consolidation may continue for a few more days, but, the 1st few days of March are seasonally very strong.
I expect the major averages to be higher on Friday March 5 than they were on Friday February 26."
U.S. consumer spending rose 0.5% in January, while income increased 0.1%.
Real disposable income decreased 0.6 percent in January, in contrast to an increase of 0.2 percent in December. Real PCE increased 0.3 percent, compared with an increase of 0.1 percent.
Government wage and salary disbursements increased $6.1 billion, compared with an increase of $2.7 billion. Pay raises for federal civilian and military personnel added $7.1 billion to government payrolls in January.
Prudential Plc, Britain’s biggest
insurer, agreed to buy an Asian life insurance unit from
American International Group Inc. for $35.5 billion in cash and
stock to gain more than 20 million customers in the region.
“Natural gas prices, as if wounded by the
resiliency of domestic production, continue to weaken despite steady
draws on inventories that well exceed last year's pace,” analysts at
Barclays Capital wrote in a note today. Technically,
the charts are bearish, says MF Global’s Mike Fitzpatrick, who expects
$4 natural gas to be tested very soon. Optimists at the U.S. Energy
Information Administration see natural gas futures averaging
$5.37/mmBTU this year.
Germany and France will help bail out Greece by taking 50% of a 30 billion euro offering by the troubled nation.
A winter storm that pummeled New York
City for two days broke a monthly record for snowfall in Central Park
that stood for 114 years, according to the National Weather Service.
China Manufacturing Slows More Sharply Than Expected. The
pace of Chinese manufacturing slowed more sharply than expected last
month, an official survey of purchasing managers showed on Monday.
Output and new orders -- both aggregate and overseas orders -- remained
above the threshold of 50 that indicates an expansion of activity. But
backlogs of orders, employment and stocks of purchases all fell below
the boom-bust line, according to the survey, which is compiled by the
China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) for the National
Bureau of Statistics.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 25%
of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is
performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly
Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -17.
“I’ll tell you one thing, if Speaker
Pelosi rams this bill through the House using a reconciliation process,
they will lose their majority in Congress in November,” House Minority
Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
March 1 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald
Kohn said he will leave in June after four decades at the
central bank, where he helped Ben S. Bernanke and Alan Greenspan steer the U.S. through recessions and crises.
Kohn, 67, said he is resigning effective June 23, the end
of his four-year term as vice chairman. History will judge
Chairman Bernanke and the Fed to have met challenges over the
last several years “with great speed, imagination and
effectiveness,” Kohn said in his resignation letter to
President Barack Obama, released today by the Fed.
The departure opens a third vacancy on the seven-member Fed
Board of Governors, giving Obama the chance to pick a majority
of the panel after appointing Daniel Tarullo in 2009.
"Reconciliation cannot be used to pass comprehensive health care
reform," Sen. Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota, chairman of the Budget
Committee, told CBS' "Face the Nation." He added, "It won't work
because it was never designed for that kind of significant legislation."
But
under the scenario Democrats are considering, the procedure could prove
to be the key to enacting the full package of reforms.
To get to
the president's desk, a bill must first win passage in the House of
Representatives and Senate. Last year, the two chambers voted -- and
passed -- different versions of the bill. They differ on key points.
Africa’s biggest gold mines face an indefinite strike
from March 7 unless owner Gold Fields Ltd. resolves a dispute over a
fitness test with South Africa’s largest labor union.
The National Union of Mineworkers threatened to stop
work at all of the company’s operations unless the test for new
recruits is abolished, Johannesburg-based Gold Fields said in a
statement today. Gold Fields is Africa’s third-largest producer of the
precious metal.
South Africa has the world’s deepest and most
dangerous mines, where workers drill the metal out of rock as deep as
2.35 miles (3.8 kilometers) underground in hot, dark and damp
conditions. Some 164 miners died in rockfalls, transportation and other
accidents at the mines last year, the NUM said.
The Institute for Supply Management said Monday its manufacturing index
read 56.5 last month, slightly slower than the 58.4 growth in January.
It was also slower than the 58 level expected by economists polled by
Thomson Reuters.
Spending on
U.S. construction projects fell at a seasonally adjusted rate of 0.6%
in January, the Commerce Department estimated Monday. The decline was
wider than the 0.5% drop expected by economists surveyed by
MarketWatch. Spending in December dropped an unrevised 1.2%.
Residential outlays in January rose 1.1%, while nonresidential outlays
fell 1.4%, and public outlays fell 0.7%.
Exxon Mobil Corp.'s spending exceeded its cash flow in 2009, drawing
down one of the oil industry's largest treasure troves in a year of
weak energy prices.
The Texas oil giant received $29.9 billion in cash from operations
and asset sales last year while spending $53.12 billion in capital
investments and money given to investors via dividends and share
buybacks. Exxon's cash reserves -- padded by years of booming energy
prices -- shrank to $10.7 billion at the end of 2009 from $31.4 billion
at the close of 2008, according to an annual filing Friday with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.“
Caixin: What is your attitude toward China now? Positive or negative?
“Soros: I’m very cautious, until the economy cools off a little. When it does, I will be more optimistic again.
“James Dunne, senior managing principal of Sandler O’Neill, said 300 to
400 banks could be seized this year, especially as institutions start
to deal with deteriorating commercial real estate loans.
“Monetary policy has worked very well,” said Sebastien
Lavoie, an economist at Laurentian Bank Securities in Montreal.
The Bank of Canada estimates consumers will account for more
than half of a 2.9 percent expansion this year.
When the bank raises rates “it won’t be baby steps; it
will be major jumps,” Lavoie said. The first increase could be
three-quarters of a percentage point, he said, and the rate
could reach 3 percent next year, he said.
The main runway at New York's John F. Kennedy International will be
closed for four months starting March 1. Millions of travelers will
experience delays — including some not flying anywhere near the Big
Apple.
With about one-third of JFK's
traffic and half of its departures being diverted to three smaller
runways, planes will wait on longer lines on the ground for takeoffs
and in the air for landings. Delays at one of the nation's largest
airports will ripple to cities across the U.S., including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Orlando.
Two thousand federal transportation workers were furloughed without
pay on Monday, and the Obama administration said they have a Kentucky
senator to blame for it.
Federal reimbursements to states for
highway programs will also be halted, the Transportation Department
said in a statement late Sunday. The reimbursements amount to about
$190 million a day, according to the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee.
The furloughs and freeze on payments
were the result of a decision last week by Republican Sen. Jim Bunning
to block passage of legislation that would have extended federal
highway and transit programs, the department said. Those programs
expired at midnight Sunday.
The extension of transportation
programs was part of a larger package of government programs that also
expired Sunday, including unemployment benefits for about 400,000
Americans.
Bunning objected to the $10 billion measure, saying it
would add to the budget deficit. He didn't respond to a request Monday for comment.
Oil futures closed lower Monday,
undercut by a higher dollar, worse-than-expected manufacturing data
that suggested lingering pressure on energy demand, and profit-taking
after the contract topped $80 a barrel. Oil for April delivery closed
New York floor trade at $78.70 a barrel, off 96 cents, or 1.2%. Natural
gas for Aril delivery closed at $4.679 per million British thermal
units, down 13 cents, or 2.8%. The most active heating-oil and
natural-gas futures also closed lower.
The Dow Jones industrials closed up 79 points to 10,404. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 35 points to 2,270, and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 11 points to 1,116. Here's how the market compares with a year ago. On March 2, 2009, the first day of trading in March, the Dow fell a whopping 300 point, or 4.2%, to 6,763. A week later, the blue-chip index bottomed at 6,547.
Floyd Norris: "More than $1 in every $10 that American banks have
outstanding in loans is lent to a troubled borrower, a ratio far higher
than previously seen in the quarter-century that such numbers have been
compiled."
Mike Burk: "The market comfortably consolidated its mid February gains last week. That consolidation may continue for a few more days, but, the 1st few days of March are seasonally very strong.
I expect the major averages to be higher on Friday March 5 than they were on Friday February 26."
U.S. consumer spending rose 0.5% in January, while income increased 0.1%.
Real disposable income decreased 0.6 percent in January, in contrast to an increase of 0.2 percent in December. Real PCE increased 0.3 percent, compared with an increase of 0.1 percent.
Government wage and salary disbursements increased $6.1 billion, compared with an increase of $2.7 billion. Pay raises for federal civilian and military personnel added $7.1 billion to government payrolls in January.
Prudential Plc, Britain’s biggest
insurer, agreed to buy an Asian life insurance unit from
American International Group Inc. for $35.5 billion in cash and
stock to gain more than 20 million customers in the region.
“Natural gas prices, as if wounded by the
resiliency of domestic production, continue to weaken despite steady
draws on inventories that well exceed last year's pace,” analysts at
Barclays Capital wrote in a note today. Technically,
the charts are bearish, says MF Global’s Mike Fitzpatrick, who expects
$4 natural gas to be tested very soon. Optimists at the U.S. Energy
Information Administration see natural gas futures averaging
$5.37/mmBTU this year.
Germany and France will help bail out Greece by taking 50% of a 30 billion euro offering by the troubled nation.
A winter storm that pummeled New York
City for two days broke a monthly record for snowfall in Central Park
that stood for 114 years, according to the National Weather Service.
China Manufacturing Slows More Sharply Than Expected. The
pace of Chinese manufacturing slowed more sharply than expected last
month, an official survey of purchasing managers showed on Monday.
Output and new orders -- both aggregate and overseas orders -- remained
above the threshold of 50 that indicates an expansion of activity. But
backlogs of orders, employment and stocks of purchases all fell below
the boom-bust line, according to the survey, which is compiled by the
China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) for the National
Bureau of Statistics.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 25%
of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is
performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly
Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -17.
“I’ll tell you one thing, if Speaker
Pelosi rams this bill through the House using a reconciliation process,
they will lose their majority in Congress in November,” House Minority
Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
March 1 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald
Kohn said he will leave in June after four decades at the
central bank, where he helped Ben S. Bernanke and Alan Greenspan steer the U.S. through recessions and crises.
Kohn, 67, said he is resigning effective June 23, the end
of his four-year term as vice chairman. History will judge
Chairman Bernanke and the Fed to have met challenges over the
last several years “with great speed, imagination and
effectiveness,” Kohn said in his resignation letter to
President Barack Obama, released today by the Fed.
The departure opens a third vacancy on the seven-member Fed
Board of Governors, giving Obama the chance to pick a majority
of the panel after appointing Daniel Tarullo in 2009.
"Reconciliation cannot be used to pass comprehensive health care
reform," Sen. Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota, chairman of the Budget
Committee, told CBS' "Face the Nation." He added, "It won't work
because it was never designed for that kind of significant legislation."
But
under the scenario Democrats are considering, the procedure could prove
to be the key to enacting the full package of reforms.
To get to
the president's desk, a bill must first win passage in the House of
Representatives and Senate. Last year, the two chambers voted -- and
passed -- different versions of the bill. They differ on key points.
Africa’s biggest gold mines face an indefinite strike
from March 7 unless owner Gold Fields Ltd. resolves a dispute over a
fitness test with South Africa’s largest labor union.
The National Union of Mineworkers threatened to stop
work at all of the company’s operations unless the test for new
recruits is abolished, Johannesburg-based Gold Fields said in a
statement today. Gold Fields is Africa’s third-largest producer of the
precious metal.
South Africa has the world’s deepest and most
dangerous mines, where workers drill the metal out of rock as deep as
2.35 miles (3.8 kilometers) underground in hot, dark and damp
conditions. Some 164 miners died in rockfalls, transportation and other
accidents at the mines last year, the NUM said.
The Institute for Supply Management said Monday its manufacturing index
read 56.5 last month, slightly slower than the 58.4 growth in January.
It was also slower than the 58 level expected by economists polled by
Thomson Reuters.
Spending on
U.S. construction projects fell at a seasonally adjusted rate of 0.6%
in January, the Commerce Department estimated Monday. The decline was
wider than the 0.5% drop expected by economists surveyed by
MarketWatch. Spending in December dropped an unrevised 1.2%.
Residential outlays in January rose 1.1%, while nonresidential outlays
fell 1.4%, and public outlays fell 0.7%.
Exxon Mobil Corp.'s spending exceeded its cash flow in 2009, drawing
down one of the oil industry's largest treasure troves in a year of
weak energy prices.
The Texas oil giant received $29.9 billion in cash from operations
and asset sales last year while spending $53.12 billion in capital
investments and money given to investors via dividends and share
buybacks. Exxon's cash reserves -- padded by years of booming energy
prices -- shrank to $10.7 billion at the end of 2009 from $31.4 billion
at the close of 2008, according to an annual filing Friday with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.“
Caixin: What is your attitude toward China now? Positive or negative?
“Soros: I’m very cautious, until the economy cools off a little. When it does, I will be more optimistic again.
“James Dunne, senior managing principal of Sandler O’Neill, said 300 to
400 banks could be seized this year, especially as institutions start
to deal with deteriorating commercial real estate loans.
“Monetary policy has worked very well,” said Sebastien
Lavoie, an economist at Laurentian Bank Securities in Montreal.
The Bank of Canada estimates consumers will account for more
than half of a 2.9 percent expansion this year.
When the bank raises rates “it won’t be baby steps; it
will be major jumps,” Lavoie said. The first increase could be
three-quarters of a percentage point, he said, and the rate
could reach 3 percent next year, he said.
The main runway at New York's John F. Kennedy International will be
closed for four months starting March 1. Millions of travelers will
experience delays — including some not flying anywhere near the Big
Apple.
With about one-third of JFK's
traffic and half of its departures being diverted to three smaller
runways, planes will wait on longer lines on the ground for takeoffs
and in the air for landings. Delays at one of the nation's largest
airports will ripple to cities across the U.S., including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Orlando.
Two thousand federal transportation workers were furloughed without
pay on Monday, and the Obama administration said they have a Kentucky
senator to blame for it.
Federal reimbursements to states for
highway programs will also be halted, the Transportation Department
said in a statement late Sunday. The reimbursements amount to about
$190 million a day, according to the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee.
The furloughs and freeze on payments
were the result of a decision last week by Republican Sen. Jim Bunning
to block passage of legislation that would have extended federal
highway and transit programs, the department said. Those programs
expired at midnight Sunday.
The extension of transportation
programs was part of a larger package of government programs that also
expired Sunday, including unemployment benefits for about 400,000
Americans.
Bunning objected to the $10 billion measure, saying it
would add to the budget deficit. He didn't respond to a request Monday for comment.
Oil futures closed lower Monday,
undercut by a higher dollar, worse-than-expected manufacturing data
that suggested lingering pressure on energy demand, and profit-taking
after the contract topped $80 a barrel. Oil for April delivery closed
New York floor trade at $78.70 a barrel, off 96 cents, or 1.2%. Natural
gas for Aril delivery closed at $4.679 per million British thermal
units, down 13 cents, or 2.8%. The most active heating-oil and
natural-gas futures also closed lower.
The Dow Jones industrials closed up 79 points to 10,404. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 35 points to 2,270, and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 11 points to 1,116. Here's how the market compares with a year ago. On March 2, 2009, the first day of trading in March, the Dow fell a whopping 300 point, or 4.2%, to 6,763. A week later, the blue-chip index bottomed at 6,547.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Chile
2/27/10 Chile
Doug Noland: "Massive Treasury and agency MBS issuance – in concert with enormous
Federal Reserve monetization – stabilized an inherently unsound Credit
system. This unprecedented expansion of government finance either
reflated (in the case of financial assets) or stabilized (in the case
of real estate) asset markets, which stabilized the level of finance
flowing to the real economy. Much of the post-Bubble Credit system
remains impaired, resulting in an especially uneven flow of finance
throughout.....Nowhere does the temptation for higher inflation seem as indomitable as
it does here at home. And the markets are fine with it. In the old
days, at least the bond “vigilantes” would have objected. But we live
in the financial age where “spread trades,” myriad Credit instruments,
and speculator profits are all bolstered by reflationary policymaking.
Throughout the system, many feel they would benefit from some
additional inflation, while few fear they would be disadvantaged.
Federal Reserve monetization is cheered. Inflationism dogma is as
beloved as ever....For now, the markets are pleased to accommodate U.S. reflationary
policymaking. The dollar has been strong of late, with
Treasury/agency/GSE MBS yields remaining incredibly low. The market
backdrop kind of makes ECB comments extolling the virtues of price
stability – while lambasting inflationism - seem arcane and out of
touch. Meanwhile, the markets have begun to impose discipline on
profligate borrowers in Europe, while rewarding profligacy here at home
(and elsewhere). One would not expect such a divergence to last
forever. And I don’t expect our current competitive advantage in all
things “inflationism” to pay lasting dividends for our nation’s
currency, debt markets or economy."
John Mauldin: "Without showing yet another chart, bank lending has fallen percentagewise the most in 67 years. The actual amount of bank loans is falling each and every quarter, with no signs of a bottom. Consumers are reducing their debt and leverage. Bank loans are being written off at staggering rates. Over 700 banks (I think that is the figure I saw) are officially on watch by the FDIC, with more banks being closed each week.
There is at least $300-400 billion in losses on commercial real estate waiting to be written down. Housing foreclosures are rising and hundreds of billions have yet to be written off. As more families fall into unemployment or underemployment, there will be more writedowns. Is it any wonder that banks are having to shore up their balance sheets and make fewer loans?
With capacity utilization just off all-time lows, why should we expect businesses to borrow to increase capacity? Inventory levels are much lower than two years ago. Businesses no longer need to finance as much inventory. They simply need less."
Berkshire's net worth rose
19.8% in 2009, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index returned
26.5%, including dividends. Change in net worth is the way Berkshire
Chairman Warren Buffett prefers to measure the company's performance.
The number of rigs drilling
for natural gas in the United States climbed by 12 this week to
near a one-year high of 905, according to a report on Friday by
oil services firm Baker Hughes in Houston.
It was the ninth straight weekly gain and puts the gas rig
count at its highest level since March 6, 2009, when there were
916 gas rigs operating.
The U.S. natural gas drilling rig count has rebounded 36
percent since bottoming at 665 on July 17, its lowest level
since May 3, 2002, when there were 640 active gas rigs.
But the rig count is still well off its recent peak above
1,600 in September 2008, and stands at 65 rigs, or 7 percent,
below the same week last year.
Gross daily natural-gas production in the lower-48
states edged 0.7% lower in December as cold winter stymied output, the U.S.
Energy Information Administration said Friday.
Gross output in the lower-48 states was 62.82 billion cubic feet a day, a
slight decrease from November. The EIA revised its November production figure
slightly higher to 63.28 billion cubic feet a day. Production from Louisiana
continued its climb in December as producers continued to exploit the
Haynesville Shale, a rapidly developing natural-gas field in that state.
However, gas production fell 0.3% in Texas and 2.4% in Wyoming. The biggest
production drop came from New Mexico--where output fell 6.1% as "cold weather
hampered operations," the EIA said.
Analysts and traders have been eyeing the EIA's monthly production report for
signs that the big pullback in drilling activity last year is cutting
significantly into production. Output in the lower-48 states has fallen 0.9%
since August 2008--when the natural-gas rig count was at a peak of 1,606 and
gross output stood at 63.38 billion cubic feet a day.
The Chile quake is on par with the Boxing Day quake and tsunami of 2004 which was a 9 on the Richter Scale.
An iceberg the size of
Luxembourg has broken off from a glacier in Antarctica after being
rammed by another giant iceberg, scientists said on Friday, in an event
that could affect ocean circulation patterns.
The 2,500 sq km (965 sq mile)
iceberg broke off earlier this month from the Mertz Glacier's 160 km
(100 miles) floating tongue of ice that sticks out into the Southern
Ocean.
The collision has since halved the size of the tongue that drains ice from the vast East Antarctic ice sheet.
"The calving itself hasn't been
directly linked to climate change but it is related to the natural
processes occurring on the ice sheet," said Rob Massom, a senior
scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division and the Antarctic
Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre in Hobart, Tasmania.
Both organisations, along with
French scientists, have been studying existing giant cracks in the ice
tongue and monitored the bumper-car-like collision by the second
iceberg, B-9B.
This 97 km long slab of ice is
a remnant of an iceberg of more than 5,000 sq km that broke off, or
calved, in 1987, making it one of the largest icebergs ever recorded in
Antarctica.
Bloomberg (Dawn Kopecki): “Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance company
under federal conservatorship, said it will seek $15.3 billion in aid
from the U.S. Treasury after posting a 10th straight quarterly loss. A
fourth-quarter net loss of $16.3 billion… pushed the company to request
its fifth draw on an unlimited lifeline from the government…”
Mark Hanson about the home-building market:
"In January, builders sold a whopping 1000 houses per day nationally. During the same month, Foreclosures rang up at 4300 and Notice-of-Defaults at 5100 per day nationally. What a mess. I really thought earlier in the year with massive mortgage rate and tax stimuli -- and the purposeful lack of distressed inventory due to HAMP and other mortgage mod and foreclosure prevention initiatives -- that builders had a shot at some volume.
"But their window of opportunity has now passed. With HAFA coming on line and foreclosures, short sales and deeds-in-lieu about to dump significantly more distressed inventory on the market throughout 2010, the odds that of any meaningful pickup in builder output or sales is significantly decreasing daily."
15 San Francisco hotel owners have defaulted on loans, with the Four
Seasons among them. The number falls in line with 12 hotel defaults in
New York City and 20 in San Diego.
Doug Noland: "Massive Treasury and agency MBS issuance – in concert with enormous
Federal Reserve monetization – stabilized an inherently unsound Credit
system. This unprecedented expansion of government finance either
reflated (in the case of financial assets) or stabilized (in the case
of real estate) asset markets, which stabilized the level of finance
flowing to the real economy. Much of the post-Bubble Credit system
remains impaired, resulting in an especially uneven flow of finance
throughout.....Nowhere does the temptation for higher inflation seem as indomitable as
it does here at home. And the markets are fine with it. In the old
days, at least the bond “vigilantes” would have objected. But we live
in the financial age where “spread trades,” myriad Credit instruments,
and speculator profits are all bolstered by reflationary policymaking.
Throughout the system, many feel they would benefit from some
additional inflation, while few fear they would be disadvantaged.
Federal Reserve monetization is cheered. Inflationism dogma is as
beloved as ever....For now, the markets are pleased to accommodate U.S. reflationary
policymaking. The dollar has been strong of late, with
Treasury/agency/GSE MBS yields remaining incredibly low. The market
backdrop kind of makes ECB comments extolling the virtues of price
stability – while lambasting inflationism - seem arcane and out of
touch. Meanwhile, the markets have begun to impose discipline on
profligate borrowers in Europe, while rewarding profligacy here at home
(and elsewhere). One would not expect such a divergence to last
forever. And I don’t expect our current competitive advantage in all
things “inflationism” to pay lasting dividends for our nation’s
currency, debt markets or economy."
John Mauldin: "Without showing yet another chart, bank lending has fallen percentagewise the most in 67 years. The actual amount of bank loans is falling each and every quarter, with no signs of a bottom. Consumers are reducing their debt and leverage. Bank loans are being written off at staggering rates. Over 700 banks (I think that is the figure I saw) are officially on watch by the FDIC, with more banks being closed each week.
There is at least $300-400 billion in losses on commercial real estate waiting to be written down. Housing foreclosures are rising and hundreds of billions have yet to be written off. As more families fall into unemployment or underemployment, there will be more writedowns. Is it any wonder that banks are having to shore up their balance sheets and make fewer loans?
With capacity utilization just off all-time lows, why should we expect businesses to borrow to increase capacity? Inventory levels are much lower than two years ago. Businesses no longer need to finance as much inventory. They simply need less."
Berkshire's net worth rose
19.8% in 2009, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index returned
26.5%, including dividends. Change in net worth is the way Berkshire
Chairman Warren Buffett prefers to measure the company's performance.
The number of rigs drilling
for natural gas in the United States climbed by 12 this week to
near a one-year high of 905, according to a report on Friday by
oil services firm Baker Hughes in Houston.
It was the ninth straight weekly gain and puts the gas rig
count at its highest level since March 6, 2009, when there were
916 gas rigs operating.
The U.S. natural gas drilling rig count has rebounded 36
percent since bottoming at 665 on July 17, its lowest level
since May 3, 2002, when there were 640 active gas rigs.
But the rig count is still well off its recent peak above
1,600 in September 2008, and stands at 65 rigs, or 7 percent,
below the same week last year.
Gross daily natural-gas production in the lower-48
states edged 0.7% lower in December as cold winter stymied output, the U.S.
Energy Information Administration said Friday.
Gross output in the lower-48 states was 62.82 billion cubic feet a day, a
slight decrease from November. The EIA revised its November production figure
slightly higher to 63.28 billion cubic feet a day. Production from Louisiana
continued its climb in December as producers continued to exploit the
Haynesville Shale, a rapidly developing natural-gas field in that state.
However, gas production fell 0.3% in Texas and 2.4% in Wyoming. The biggest
production drop came from New Mexico--where output fell 6.1% as "cold weather
hampered operations," the EIA said.
Analysts and traders have been eyeing the EIA's monthly production report for
signs that the big pullback in drilling activity last year is cutting
significantly into production. Output in the lower-48 states has fallen 0.9%
since August 2008--when the natural-gas rig count was at a peak of 1,606 and
gross output stood at 63.38 billion cubic feet a day.
The Chile quake is on par with the Boxing Day quake and tsunami of 2004 which was a 9 on the Richter Scale.
An iceberg the size of
Luxembourg has broken off from a glacier in Antarctica after being
rammed by another giant iceberg, scientists said on Friday, in an event
that could affect ocean circulation patterns.
The 2,500 sq km (965 sq mile)
iceberg broke off earlier this month from the Mertz Glacier's 160 km
(100 miles) floating tongue of ice that sticks out into the Southern
Ocean.
The collision has since halved the size of the tongue that drains ice from the vast East Antarctic ice sheet.
"The calving itself hasn't been
directly linked to climate change but it is related to the natural
processes occurring on the ice sheet," said Rob Massom, a senior
scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division and the Antarctic
Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre in Hobart, Tasmania.
Both organisations, along with
French scientists, have been studying existing giant cracks in the ice
tongue and monitored the bumper-car-like collision by the second
iceberg, B-9B.
This 97 km long slab of ice is
a remnant of an iceberg of more than 5,000 sq km that broke off, or
calved, in 1987, making it one of the largest icebergs ever recorded in
Antarctica.
Bloomberg (Dawn Kopecki): “Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance company
under federal conservatorship, said it will seek $15.3 billion in aid
from the U.S. Treasury after posting a 10th straight quarterly loss. A
fourth-quarter net loss of $16.3 billion… pushed the company to request
its fifth draw on an unlimited lifeline from the government…”
Mark Hanson about the home-building market:
"In January, builders sold a whopping 1000 houses per day nationally. During the same month, Foreclosures rang up at 4300 and Notice-of-Defaults at 5100 per day nationally. What a mess. I really thought earlier in the year with massive mortgage rate and tax stimuli -- and the purposeful lack of distressed inventory due to HAMP and other mortgage mod and foreclosure prevention initiatives -- that builders had a shot at some volume.
"But their window of opportunity has now passed. With HAFA coming on line and foreclosures, short sales and deeds-in-lieu about to dump significantly more distressed inventory on the market throughout 2010, the odds that of any meaningful pickup in builder output or sales is significantly decreasing daily."
15 San Francisco hotel owners have defaulted on loans, with the Four
Seasons among them. The number falls in line with 12 hotel defaults in
New York City and 20 in San Diego.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Another Storm
2/26/10 Another Storm
Working gas in storage was 1,853 Bcf as of Friday, February 19, 2010, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net decline of 172 Bcf from the previous week. Stocks were 56 Bcf less than last year at this time and 13 Bcf above the 5-year average of 1,840 Bcf. In the East Region, stocks were 23 Bcf below the 5-year average following net withdrawals of 95 Bcf. Stocks in the Producing Region were 20 Bcf below the 5-year average of 627 Bcf after a net withdrawal of 66 Bcf. Stocks in the West Region were 56 Bcf above the 5-year average after a net drawdown of 11 Bcf. At 1,853 Bcf, total working gas is within the 5-year historical range.
Currently being hammered by very cold temps and wind chills in Western Pa. Looking at the NG supply numbers for 2005-2009 (EIA Web site), we had a drop of slighly less than 100 Bcf per week in the 3 week period from 2/19 thru 3/12. This resulted in a total decrease in overall supply numbers from 1840 to 1542. We should easily be able to surpass this cumulative drop given the weather we have just experienced this past week and the extend North/South Central and Eastern US forecast through 3/12. We could/should easily end up with a remaining storage number below 1500 Bcf for come the 3/12 report!
The U.S. economy grew slightly
faster than previously reported in the fourth quarter, but details of
the revision to gross domestic product show final sales in the United
States were actually weaker than reported a month ago, the Commerce
Department estimated Friday.
U.S. real gross domestic product increased at a 5.9% seasonally
adjusted annualized pace, revised up from 5.7% estimated last month.
The revision was exactly in line with expectations. Nearly two thirds
of the growth was accounted for by changes in inventories, not by final
sales. Compared with the first GDP estimate, inventories were bigger,
business investments were higher, and exports were higher.
The Obama administration may expand
efforts to ease the housing crisis by banning all foreclosures on home loans unless they have been screened and rejected by the
government’s Home Affordable Modification Program.
The proposal, reviewed by lenders last week on a White
House conference call, “prohibits referral to foreclosure until
borrower is evaluated and found ineligible for HAMP or
reasonable contact efforts have failed,” according to a
Treasury Department document outlining the plan.
“It is one of the many ideas under consideration in the
administration’s ongoing housing stabilization efforts,”
Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said in an e-mail. “This
proposal has not been approved and there are no immediate
planned announcements on the issue.”
George Ure: "
* If the price index was up nearly 2% in Q4 2009, what is the explanation for claims of near zero inflation in the CPI figures?
* Explain how GDP can be rising so fast with a 'no jobs' recovery.
* Discuss how 'real' Real GDP is when it doesn't consider monetary inflation. Use the Federal Reserve H.6 money stocks table which shows Dec 2009-Dec 2009 M1 monetary inflation of 6.2% in your discussion.
* Bonus question: With all the empty homes around, and Depression-era real unemployment, explain how it is that GDP hasn't crashed? Specifically reveal how outsourcing hits domestic company sales without creating jobs."The Vaughan Co. Realtors,
the third largest residential real estate brokerage company in New
Mexico, has filed for Chap. 11 bankruptcy protection. Douglas F.
Vaughan, the company’s founder, chairman and CEO, also has filed for
personal bankruptcy protection under Chap. 11.
While the U.S. may
never achieve energy independence, billionaire Texas oilman T. Boone
Pickens predicts Congress will pass key energy legislation by Memorial
Day that can “start us back in the right direction.”
“I think Congress
is ready to address the problem. The problem is we are dependent on oil
from the wrong places,” he said in a meeting Thursday with the Houston
Chronicle editorial board.
The legislation,
known as the Natural Gas Act, would dramatically expand the use of
natural gas as a transportation fuel among heavy- duty fleets. House
and Senate versions of the bill provide tax breaks for natural
gas-powered vehicles and fueling stations.
Pickens, 81, has
been one of the most vociferous advocates of using abundant domestic
natural gas supplies in the transportation sector, which accounts for
most of the 21 million barrels a day of crude oil that America
consumes.
A private equity firm said Friday that it will buy the owner of the
Carl's Jr. and Hardee's restaurants for about $619 million in cash.
Thomas H. Lee Partners will also assume about $309 million in debt from CKE Restaurants Inc.
CKE shareholders will receive $11.05 in cash for each share they own, a
24 percent premium to its Thursday closing price of $8.91.
The EU is pushing Greece to urgently adopt new measures amounting to
more than $5.42 billion, on top of the austerity package already
announced, if it is to achieve its goal of slashing its staggering
budget deficit.
OPEC output reaches 14-month high in February on Saudi gain, survey shows.
ZeroHedge: "When the S&P500 came upon the 3:15pm close, the market had settled
negative, but hardly. The rally was good for 17.50 points from the low
equating to a 1.6% reversal. And in case you didn’t know, a 1% market
move equates to well over $100 billion in market capitalization.
Therefore, this amazing move tacked on ~ $180,000,000,000.00 to the US
(non-rigged) market cap. How nice. Oh, did I mention this was based on
a RUMOR…an UNFOUNDED RUMOR? Not to worry though folks – you can bet
your bottom dollar that the fellas on Fraud Street weren’t about to let
a massive rally fade away to nothing. After the initial period when
AAPL denied the rumor and the market churned around 1097.00, then the
market went even higher. Said another way, Fraud Street kept the gains
based on a known FALSE rumor…and then…wait for it….wait for it…I G N O
R E D the real news of the morning. It was a well timed replay of the
Greek bailout rumor of Feb. 9th. How healthy is this market if its best
moves are 100% fabricated bull$#it? I have another question or two: Who
benefited from this other than Goldman Sachs? I wonder how many magical
S&P500 at-the-money calls were purchased moments before the
explosion? I wonder if the SEC will investigate? Would the Lame Stream
Media ignore this if a false rumor triggered a 1.6% rout? OK, I know
the answer to the last two – and it’s no."
Jim Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky, is single-handedly blocking
Senate action needed to prevent an estimated 1.2 million American
workers from suddenly losing their unemployment benefits next month.
As Democratic senators asked again and again for unanimous consent
for a vote on a 30-day extension Thursday night, Bunning refused to go
along.
And when Sen. Jeff Merkely (D-Ore.) begged him to drop his objection, Politico reports, Bunning replied: "Tough shit."
Bunning says he doesn't oppose extending benefits -- he just doesn't
want the money that's required added to the deficit. He proposes paying
for the 30-day extension with stimulus funds. The Senate's GOP
leadership did not support him in his objections.
The National Association of Realtors said that sales fell 7.2 percent
to an annual rate of 5.05 million units, sharply below market
expectations for a 5.50 million unit pace.
While not fearful of another spike in layoffs,
consumers have turned more gloomy about their job and income prospects,
according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's Surveys of
Consumers.
"Consumers
have been getting more impatient with the slow progress of the stimulus
program, and confidence in the Obama administration's economic policies
has begun to wane," Richard Curtin, director of the surveys, said in a
statement.
The survey's overall index of consumer sentiment was at 73.6 in February, down from 74.4 in January and below the 74.0 forecast by analysts polled by Reuters. The preliminary February reading was 73.7.
(Bloomberg) -- ArcelorMittal South Africa Ltd., a
unit of the world’s biggest steelmaker, threatened “urgent proceedings”
to prevent the producer of most of its iron-ore needs halting supply as
prices of the raw material surge.
Sishen Iron Ore Co., owned by Kumba Iron Ore Ltd.,
“will no longer supply iron ore to ArcelorMittal, on a cost plus 3
percent basis” as set out in their current agreement, the South African
steelmaker said in a statement today.
“It will be negative for Arcelor because they will
have to pay a lot more for iron ore,” Ambrian Partners Ltd. analyst
Peter Davey said by phone from London. “They would have to pay at
market-related prices from Sishen or from export markets.”
Rio Tinto Group, the second-largest iron-ore
producer, and BHP Billiton Ltd., the biggest mining company, are
selling more of the raw material at rising market prices instead of at
rates agreed in annual contract negotiations with steelmakers. Prices
may jump 55 percent in the fiscal year from April 1 on “very tight”
supply, Investec Securities said yesterday.
Steelmakers are in turn seeking to mitigate the
effect of rising costs on profit margins by buying mines. ArcelorMittal
South Africa has set aside funds on its balance sheet to buy mining
resources, Chief Executive Officer Nonkululeko Nyembezi- Heita told
Business Day’s Investors Monthly magazine.
Seeking Assets
The company will “identify mining assets that
complement our activities and we are in the market for iron ore and
coal assets primarily,” she told the Johannesburg-based magazine in an
interview published yesterday. Spokesman Sven Lunsche said that while
the company has “no concrete plans” to buy assets, it is seeking
acquisitions and partnerships.
“ArcelorMittal has rejected SIOC’s repudiation of
the agreement and will institute urgent proceedings against SIOC to
enforce the agreement if the appropriate undertakings are not
received,” the Vanderbijlpark, South Africa-based steelmaker said
today. ArcelorMittal South Africa asked JSE Ltd., operator of
Johannesburg’s stock exchange, to halt trading of its shares until a
further announcement is made on March 3, it said.
Sishen provides “by far the majority” of the iron
ore supplied to ArcelorMittal South Africa, Exxaro Financial Director
Wim De Klerk said in an interview by mobile today. Exxaro owns 20
percent of Sishen. ArcelorMittal South Africa spokeswoman Marion
Green-Thompson declined to comment on the amount of ore the company
uses each year.
U.S. demand for
heating oil through March 5 will be 6 percent above normal for
the period, according to David Salmon, a meteorologist at
Weather Derivatives, which forecasts temperature changes and
the impact on demand for commodities.
The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. today
said that its business barometer climbed to 62.6, from 61.5
last month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 9 points to 10,312, the S&P 500 was recently down 1 point at 1,101.9, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.4 point to 2,234.
Working gas in storage was 1,853 Bcf as of Friday, February 19, 2010, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net decline of 172 Bcf from the previous week. Stocks were 56 Bcf less than last year at this time and 13 Bcf above the 5-year average of 1,840 Bcf. In the East Region, stocks were 23 Bcf below the 5-year average following net withdrawals of 95 Bcf. Stocks in the Producing Region were 20 Bcf below the 5-year average of 627 Bcf after a net withdrawal of 66 Bcf. Stocks in the West Region were 56 Bcf above the 5-year average after a net drawdown of 11 Bcf. At 1,853 Bcf, total working gas is within the 5-year historical range.
Currently being hammered by very cold temps and wind chills in Western Pa. Looking at the NG supply numbers for 2005-2009 (EIA Web site), we had a drop of slighly less than 100 Bcf per week in the 3 week period from 2/19 thru 3/12. This resulted in a total decrease in overall supply numbers from 1840 to 1542. We should easily be able to surpass this cumulative drop given the weather we have just experienced this past week and the extend North/South Central and Eastern US forecast through 3/12. We could/should easily end up with a remaining storage number below 1500 Bcf for come the 3/12 report!
The U.S. economy grew slightly
faster than previously reported in the fourth quarter, but details of
the revision to gross domestic product show final sales in the United
States were actually weaker than reported a month ago, the Commerce
Department estimated Friday.
U.S. real gross domestic product increased at a 5.9% seasonally
adjusted annualized pace, revised up from 5.7% estimated last month.
The revision was exactly in line with expectations. Nearly two thirds
of the growth was accounted for by changes in inventories, not by final
sales. Compared with the first GDP estimate, inventories were bigger,
business investments were higher, and exports were higher.
The Obama administration may expand
efforts to ease the housing crisis by banning all foreclosures on home loans unless they have been screened and rejected by the
government’s Home Affordable Modification Program.
The proposal, reviewed by lenders last week on a White
House conference call, “prohibits referral to foreclosure until
borrower is evaluated and found ineligible for HAMP or
reasonable contact efforts have failed,” according to a
Treasury Department document outlining the plan.
“It is one of the many ideas under consideration in the
administration’s ongoing housing stabilization efforts,”
Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said in an e-mail. “This
proposal has not been approved and there are no immediate
planned announcements on the issue.”
George Ure: "
* If the price index was up nearly 2% in Q4 2009, what is the explanation for claims of near zero inflation in the CPI figures?
* Explain how GDP can be rising so fast with a 'no jobs' recovery.
* Discuss how 'real' Real GDP is when it doesn't consider monetary inflation. Use the Federal Reserve H.6 money stocks table which shows Dec 2009-Dec 2009 M1 monetary inflation of 6.2% in your discussion.
* Bonus question: With all the empty homes around, and Depression-era real unemployment, explain how it is that GDP hasn't crashed? Specifically reveal how outsourcing hits domestic company sales without creating jobs."The Vaughan Co. Realtors,
the third largest residential real estate brokerage company in New
Mexico, has filed for Chap. 11 bankruptcy protection. Douglas F.
Vaughan, the company’s founder, chairman and CEO, also has filed for
personal bankruptcy protection under Chap. 11.
While the U.S. may
never achieve energy independence, billionaire Texas oilman T. Boone
Pickens predicts Congress will pass key energy legislation by Memorial
Day that can “start us back in the right direction.”
“I think Congress
is ready to address the problem. The problem is we are dependent on oil
from the wrong places,” he said in a meeting Thursday with the Houston
Chronicle editorial board.
The legislation,
known as the Natural Gas Act, would dramatically expand the use of
natural gas as a transportation fuel among heavy- duty fleets. House
and Senate versions of the bill provide tax breaks for natural
gas-powered vehicles and fueling stations.
Pickens, 81, has
been one of the most vociferous advocates of using abundant domestic
natural gas supplies in the transportation sector, which accounts for
most of the 21 million barrels a day of crude oil that America
consumes.
A private equity firm said Friday that it will buy the owner of the
Carl's Jr. and Hardee's restaurants for about $619 million in cash.
Thomas H. Lee Partners will also assume about $309 million in debt from CKE Restaurants Inc.
CKE shareholders will receive $11.05 in cash for each share they own, a
24 percent premium to its Thursday closing price of $8.91.
The EU is pushing Greece to urgently adopt new measures amounting to
more than $5.42 billion, on top of the austerity package already
announced, if it is to achieve its goal of slashing its staggering
budget deficit.
OPEC output reaches 14-month high in February on Saudi gain, survey shows.
ZeroHedge: "When the S&P500 came upon the 3:15pm close, the market had settled
negative, but hardly. The rally was good for 17.50 points from the low
equating to a 1.6% reversal. And in case you didn’t know, a 1% market
move equates to well over $100 billion in market capitalization.
Therefore, this amazing move tacked on ~ $180,000,000,000.00 to the US
(non-rigged) market cap. How nice. Oh, did I mention this was based on
a RUMOR…an UNFOUNDED RUMOR? Not to worry though folks – you can bet
your bottom dollar that the fellas on Fraud Street weren’t about to let
a massive rally fade away to nothing. After the initial period when
AAPL denied the rumor and the market churned around 1097.00, then the
market went even higher. Said another way, Fraud Street kept the gains
based on a known FALSE rumor…and then…wait for it….wait for it…I G N O
R E D the real news of the morning. It was a well timed replay of the
Greek bailout rumor of Feb. 9th. How healthy is this market if its best
moves are 100% fabricated bull$#it? I have another question or two: Who
benefited from this other than Goldman Sachs? I wonder how many magical
S&P500 at-the-money calls were purchased moments before the
explosion? I wonder if the SEC will investigate? Would the Lame Stream
Media ignore this if a false rumor triggered a 1.6% rout? OK, I know
the answer to the last two – and it’s no."
Jim Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky, is single-handedly blocking
Senate action needed to prevent an estimated 1.2 million American
workers from suddenly losing their unemployment benefits next month.
As Democratic senators asked again and again for unanimous consent
for a vote on a 30-day extension Thursday night, Bunning refused to go
along.
And when Sen. Jeff Merkely (D-Ore.) begged him to drop his objection, Politico reports, Bunning replied: "Tough shit."
Bunning says he doesn't oppose extending benefits -- he just doesn't
want the money that's required added to the deficit. He proposes paying
for the 30-day extension with stimulus funds. The Senate's GOP
leadership did not support him in his objections.
The National Association of Realtors said that sales fell 7.2 percent
to an annual rate of 5.05 million units, sharply below market
expectations for a 5.50 million unit pace.
While not fearful of another spike in layoffs,
consumers have turned more gloomy about their job and income prospects,
according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's Surveys of
Consumers.
"Consumers
have been getting more impatient with the slow progress of the stimulus
program, and confidence in the Obama administration's economic policies
has begun to wane," Richard Curtin, director of the surveys, said in a
statement.
The survey's overall index of consumer sentiment was at 73.6 in February, down from 74.4 in January and below the 74.0 forecast by analysts polled by Reuters. The preliminary February reading was 73.7.
(Bloomberg) -- ArcelorMittal South Africa Ltd., a
unit of the world’s biggest steelmaker, threatened “urgent proceedings”
to prevent the producer of most of its iron-ore needs halting supply as
prices of the raw material surge.
Sishen Iron Ore Co., owned by Kumba Iron Ore Ltd.,
“will no longer supply iron ore to ArcelorMittal, on a cost plus 3
percent basis” as set out in their current agreement, the South African
steelmaker said in a statement today.
“It will be negative for Arcelor because they will
have to pay a lot more for iron ore,” Ambrian Partners Ltd. analyst
Peter Davey said by phone from London. “They would have to pay at
market-related prices from Sishen or from export markets.”
Rio Tinto Group, the second-largest iron-ore
producer, and BHP Billiton Ltd., the biggest mining company, are
selling more of the raw material at rising market prices instead of at
rates agreed in annual contract negotiations with steelmakers. Prices
may jump 55 percent in the fiscal year from April 1 on “very tight”
supply, Investec Securities said yesterday.
Steelmakers are in turn seeking to mitigate the
effect of rising costs on profit margins by buying mines. ArcelorMittal
South Africa has set aside funds on its balance sheet to buy mining
resources, Chief Executive Officer Nonkululeko Nyembezi- Heita told
Business Day’s Investors Monthly magazine.
Seeking Assets
The company will “identify mining assets that
complement our activities and we are in the market for iron ore and
coal assets primarily,” she told the Johannesburg-based magazine in an
interview published yesterday. Spokesman Sven Lunsche said that while
the company has “no concrete plans” to buy assets, it is seeking
acquisitions and partnerships.
“ArcelorMittal has rejected SIOC’s repudiation of
the agreement and will institute urgent proceedings against SIOC to
enforce the agreement if the appropriate undertakings are not
received,” the Vanderbijlpark, South Africa-based steelmaker said
today. ArcelorMittal South Africa asked JSE Ltd., operator of
Johannesburg’s stock exchange, to halt trading of its shares until a
further announcement is made on March 3, it said.
Sishen provides “by far the majority” of the iron
ore supplied to ArcelorMittal South Africa, Exxaro Financial Director
Wim De Klerk said in an interview by mobile today. Exxaro owns 20
percent of Sishen. ArcelorMittal South Africa spokeswoman Marion
Green-Thompson declined to comment on the amount of ore the company
uses each year.
U.S. demand for
heating oil through March 5 will be 6 percent above normal for
the period, according to David Salmon, a meteorologist at
Weather Derivatives, which forecasts temperature changes and
the impact on demand for commodities.
The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. today
said that its business barometer climbed to 62.6, from 61.5
last month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 9 points to 10,312, the S&P 500 was recently down 1 point at 1,101.9, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.4 point to 2,234.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Natural Gas
2/25/10 Natural Gas
The U.S. Energy Information Administration is expected to report
that 168 billion cubic feet of gas were withdrawn from storage during
that week, according to the average prediction of 15 analysts and
traders in a Dow Jones Newswires survey.
The EIA is scheduled to release its storage data at 10:30 a.m. EST.
The survey's median was 170 billion cubic feet, with a high of a
179 bcf draw and a low of a 147 bcf withdrawal. The storage estimate is greater than last year's pull of 90 bcf from storage and surpasses the five-year average draw, which is 132 bcf.
If the storage estimate is correct, inventories as of Feb. 12 will
total 1.857 trillion cubic feet, about 1% above the five-year average
and 2.7% below last year's level.
Our draws since Dec 1 have totaled 1,775 Bcf to Feb 12. That’s 1.8 Tcf
in 74 days. No other Dec 1-Feb 12 period comes close. Not even the
famed 02-03, which held the top spot, back to 1976, at -1,684 Bcf until
this winter. We beat it by almost 100 Bcf.
Natural gas in storage fell 172 billion cubic feet in the week ended
Feb. 19, the Energy Information Administration said Thursday. Analysts
polled by Dow Jones Newswires were expecting a shallower withdrawal, of
168 billion cubic feet.
The number of people filing initial claims for state unemployment benefits jumped 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 496,000 in the week ended Feb. 20, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It's the highest rate since mid-November and the sixth increase in the first eight weeks of 2010.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected initial claims to drop to 460,000. The four-week average of initial claims rose 6,000 to 473,750.
In the week ended Feb. 6, the number of people collecting extended
federal benefits fell by 320,000 to 5.68 million, not seasonally
adjusted. Altogether, 11.55 million people were collecting some type of
unemployment benefits in the week of Feb. 6, down from the previous
week's level of 11.8 million.
The number of people filing
initial claims for state unemployment benefits jumped 22,000 to a
seasonally adjusted 496,000 in the week ended Feb. 20, the Labor
Department reported Thursday. It's the highest rate since mid-November
and the sixth increase in the first eight weeks of 2010. Economists
surveyed by MarketWatch expected initial claims to drop to 460,000. The
four-week average of initial claims rose 6,000 to 473,750. In the week
ended Feb. 6, the number of people collecting extended federal benefits
fell by 320,000 to 5.68 million, not seasonally adjusted. Altogether,
11.55 million people were collecting some type of unemployment benefits
in the week of Feb. 6, down from the previous week's level of 11.8
million.
Orders for
U.S-made durable goods soared 3% in January to a seasonally adjusted
$175.7 billion on higher bookings for civilian airplanes, the Commerce
Department estimated Thursday. . December's orders were revised sharply
higher as well to a 1.9% increase from 1%. The 3% gain in orders was
the biggest gain since July. Economists were looking for a 1.5% gain in
total durable goods orders in January. Most of the strength in January,
however, came from the 126% increase in volatile civilian aircraft
orders. Excluding the 15.6% gain in transportation orders, orders fell
0.6% in January.
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) on Thursday said it would buy the North American business of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. (CCE)
in a deal that will result in about $4 billion in cash to shareholders
of the Atlanta-based soft drink giant's largest bottler. The Coca-Cola
Company's acquisition of the assets and liabilities of CCE's North
American business includes consideration of Coca-Cola's current 34%
equity ownership in CCE, valued at $3.4 billion. The deal includes the
assumption of $8.9 billion of CCE debt and all of the bottling
company's North American assets and liabilities. Coca-Cola Enterprises
will buy Coke's bottling operations in Norway and Sweden for $822
million as part of the deal. Coca-Cola Enterprises will also get the
right to acquire Coke's 83% equity stake in its German bottling unit.
Charley Blaine: "More than 11.3 million residential properties with mortgages --
about 24% of all such properties with mortgages -- were "underwater" at
the end of 2009.
That means the homes were worth less than the value of their mortgages."
Japan's total public debt is nearing
the value of household wealth, a sign the government bond market is
approaching a "tipping point," according to Mizuho Securities Co.
Gold closed up $11.30 to $1,108.50/oz.
Down nearly 200 points during the session, the Dow Jones Industrial ended at 10,321.03, off 53.13 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 Index shed 2.3 points, or 0.2%, to end at 1,102.94, while the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.68 points to 2,234.22.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration is expected to report
that 168 billion cubic feet of gas were withdrawn from storage during
that week, according to the average prediction of 15 analysts and
traders in a Dow Jones Newswires survey.
The EIA is scheduled to release its storage data at 10:30 a.m. EST.
The survey's median was 170 billion cubic feet, with a high of a
179 bcf draw and a low of a 147 bcf withdrawal. The storage estimate is greater than last year's pull of 90 bcf from storage and surpasses the five-year average draw, which is 132 bcf.
If the storage estimate is correct, inventories as of Feb. 12 will
total 1.857 trillion cubic feet, about 1% above the five-year average
and 2.7% below last year's level.
Our draws since Dec 1 have totaled 1,775 Bcf to Feb 12. That’s 1.8 Tcf
in 74 days. No other Dec 1-Feb 12 period comes close. Not even the
famed 02-03, which held the top spot, back to 1976, at -1,684 Bcf until
this winter. We beat it by almost 100 Bcf.
Natural gas in storage fell 172 billion cubic feet in the week ended
Feb. 19, the Energy Information Administration said Thursday. Analysts
polled by Dow Jones Newswires were expecting a shallower withdrawal, of
168 billion cubic feet.
The number of people filing initial claims for state unemployment benefits jumped 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 496,000 in the week ended Feb. 20, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It's the highest rate since mid-November and the sixth increase in the first eight weeks of 2010.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected initial claims to drop to 460,000. The four-week average of initial claims rose 6,000 to 473,750.
In the week ended Feb. 6, the number of people collecting extended
federal benefits fell by 320,000 to 5.68 million, not seasonally
adjusted. Altogether, 11.55 million people were collecting some type of
unemployment benefits in the week of Feb. 6, down from the previous
week's level of 11.8 million.
The number of people filing
initial claims for state unemployment benefits jumped 22,000 to a
seasonally adjusted 496,000 in the week ended Feb. 20, the Labor
Department reported Thursday. It's the highest rate since mid-November
and the sixth increase in the first eight weeks of 2010. Economists
surveyed by MarketWatch expected initial claims to drop to 460,000. The
four-week average of initial claims rose 6,000 to 473,750. In the week
ended Feb. 6, the number of people collecting extended federal benefits
fell by 320,000 to 5.68 million, not seasonally adjusted. Altogether,
11.55 million people were collecting some type of unemployment benefits
in the week of Feb. 6, down from the previous week's level of 11.8
million.
Orders for
U.S-made durable goods soared 3% in January to a seasonally adjusted
$175.7 billion on higher bookings for civilian airplanes, the Commerce
Department estimated Thursday. . December's orders were revised sharply
higher as well to a 1.9% increase from 1%. The 3% gain in orders was
the biggest gain since July. Economists were looking for a 1.5% gain in
total durable goods orders in January. Most of the strength in January,
however, came from the 126% increase in volatile civilian aircraft
orders. Excluding the 15.6% gain in transportation orders, orders fell
0.6% in January.
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) on Thursday said it would buy the North American business of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. (CCE)
in a deal that will result in about $4 billion in cash to shareholders
of the Atlanta-based soft drink giant's largest bottler. The Coca-Cola
Company's acquisition of the assets and liabilities of CCE's North
American business includes consideration of Coca-Cola's current 34%
equity ownership in CCE, valued at $3.4 billion. The deal includes the
assumption of $8.9 billion of CCE debt and all of the bottling
company's North American assets and liabilities. Coca-Cola Enterprises
will buy Coke's bottling operations in Norway and Sweden for $822
million as part of the deal. Coca-Cola Enterprises will also get the
right to acquire Coke's 83% equity stake in its German bottling unit.
Charley Blaine: "More than 11.3 million residential properties with mortgages --
about 24% of all such properties with mortgages -- were "underwater" at
the end of 2009.
That means the homes were worth less than the value of their mortgages."
Japan's total public debt is nearing
the value of household wealth, a sign the government bond market is
approaching a "tipping point," according to Mizuho Securities Co.
Gold closed up $11.30 to $1,108.50/oz.
Down nearly 200 points during the session, the Dow Jones Industrial ended at 10,321.03, off 53.13 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 Index shed 2.3 points, or 0.2%, to end at 1,102.94, while the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.68 points to 2,234.22.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
New Home Sales Plunge
2/24/10 New Home Sales Plunge
Sales of new U.S. homes plunged 11.2% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000, the lowest rate on record dating back to 1963, the Commerce Department estimated Wednesday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch forecast sales to rise slightly to 355,000, with buyers taking advantage of a new federal tax credit. Sales in December were revised higher to 348,000 from 342,000 previously reported. Sales are down 6.1% compared with January 2009's 329,000, which was the previous record-low rate. The number of homes for sale rose 0.4% to 234,000 in January. At the January sales pace, it would take 9.1 months to sell that inventory.
Total returns prepared in its fiscal year-to-date fell 8.2%, Block said. "In light of the foregoing preliminary tax season results, the company's previously announced guidance for fiscal 2010 will not be reached," the company said in a press release Wednesday. Block shares fell 11% in pre-open trade.
Bowne & Co., the New York printer, definitively agreed to be acquired for $11.50 a share, or $481 million, by R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., the companies said in a Tuesday statement. On Tuesday, Bowne shares closed at $6.97, indicating that R.R. Donnelley, the Chicago printer, is paying a 65% premium. The boards of both companies have approved the terms.
A winter storm threatened to dump more than a foot (30 centimeters) of snow across parts of upstate New York and New England, while forecasters warned of an even more powerful system hitting the northeast tomorrow.
“You may hear it called a ‘snow hurricane’ because blizzard may not even do it justice,” said Alex Sosnowski, an expert senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. “It is like we’re getting a decade’s worth of storms all in one season.”
Warnings for the current storm stretch from Maine through New Hampshire, Vermont and New York state, as well as Connecticut and Massachusetts, according to the National Weather Service. Rain was falling today in New York, while inland it was snowing in Albany, where as much as 13 inches of snow were forecast through the night and today, the agency said.
U.S. mortgage applications fell for a third straight week, with demand for home purchase loans sinking to the lowest level in 13 years as inclement weather weighed, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.
George Ure: " On Page 4 of the FDIC's Quarterly banking report for Q4 '08 and Q4 2009.
When you to click over to the report here and down about 3/4's of the way look for the line item "Notional Amount of Derivatives" where you will see Q4 of 2008 was listed as $212-trillion m (just 14.93 times 2008 GDP.
But Q4 2009 shows the notional value of derivatives at what? $213,568,137,000,000."
Fitch Ratings-Barcelona/London-23 February 2010: Fitch Ratings has today downgraded the Long-term and Short-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) of Greece's four largest banks, National Bank of Greece (NBG), Alpha Bank (Alpha), Efg Eurobank Ergasias (Eurobank) and Piraeus Bank (Piraeus) to 'BBB' from 'BBB+' and 'F3' from 'F2' respectively. The Outlook on the Long-term IDRs is Negative.
In January, employers took 1,761 mass layoff actions involving 182,261 workers. Both measures increased in January after four consecutive over-the-month decreases. Manufacturing events and initial claims both increased in January to 486 and 62,556, respectively.
Barbara Kiviat: "Is the option adjustable-rate mortgage the next subprime disaster? For anyone who remembers that souring subprime loans kicked off the real estate meltdown, that's a scary thought. Recent analysis from Standard & Poor's (S&P) anticipates that a full 37.5% of such loans (dubbed option ARMs) that were written in 2007, at the height of lax lending, will eventually go bad. The kicker is that most option ARMs undergo payment spikes after five years, which means the brunt of the impact has yet to be felt. That will change in late 2010, delivering another blow to the fragile housing market just as it begins to regain strength."
ZeroHedge: "Jose Pinera provides an Entitlement State 101 lecture, in which Chile's former Labor and Social Security Minister demystifies the U.S.'s $100 trillion unfunded benefits problem. Since Pinera is the man who many years ago privatized Chile's entitlement system, America, and the entire Western system, which for the past century has been relying on unfunded liabilities to provide benefits to the population in the hopes that funding day will never come, may do well to listen to what he has to say. His message: the American way of life, more so than anything else, in which reckless spending, living on credit and not saving for the future, is precisely why the US will be bankrupt very soon. Chile swallowed the bitter pill 30 years ago and after a lot of pain, managed to get out of the hole. Will enabler state #1, America, fail where this allegedly "backward" South American country succeeded?"
"There's a risk of a double dip recession round the corner," Shah said. "Given the sovereign debt crisis that is going around the Mediterranean countries, this is going to put a lot of pressure on Europe."
The economic outlook for Europe is deteriorating very rapidly and that is adding to the factors dragging on the economic recovery, Shah told CNBC.
* Irving, Texas.
* Commercial Mortgage Default Rate in U.S. More Than Doubles. The default rate for commercial property mortgages held by U.S. banks more than doubled in the fourth quarter and may reach a peak of 5.4 percent at the end of next year, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc. The default rate for loans on office, retail, hotel and industrial properties surged to 3.8 percent from 1.6 percent a year earlier, the New York-based real estate research firm said yesterday in a report. The default rate for loans on apartment buildings climbed to 4.4 percent from 1.8 percent. “The level of distress continues to rise irrespective of improving economic trends,” Sam Chandan, Real Capital’s global chief economist, said in a telephone interview.
In 2010, Blockbuster intends to close 500 to 545 underperforming stores in the U.S.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 91.75 points to 10,374.16. The S&P 500 Index rose 10.64 points to 1,105.24. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 22.46 points to 2,235.9.
General Growth Properties Inc. said Wednesday that it will secure $2.625 billion from Brookfield Asset Management Inc. as part of its recapitalization plan. Brookfield will invest $2.5 billion at $10 a share for new General Growth shares and up to $125 million at $5 a share for existing stock. It will also pay accrued interest to unsecured creditors as part of the package. General Growth is counting on the deal to exit bankruptcy on a standalone basis, the mall operator said.
Sales of new U.S. homes plunged 11.2% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000, the lowest rate on record dating back to 1963, the Commerce Department estimated Wednesday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch forecast sales to rise slightly to 355,000, with buyers taking advantage of a new federal tax credit. Sales in December were revised higher to 348,000 from 342,000 previously reported. Sales are down 6.1% compared with January 2009's 329,000, which was the previous record-low rate. The number of homes for sale rose 0.4% to 234,000 in January. At the January sales pace, it would take 9.1 months to sell that inventory.
Total returns prepared in its fiscal year-to-date fell 8.2%, Block said. "In light of the foregoing preliminary tax season results, the company's previously announced guidance for fiscal 2010 will not be reached," the company said in a press release Wednesday. Block shares fell 11% in pre-open trade.
Bowne & Co., the New York printer, definitively agreed to be acquired for $11.50 a share, or $481 million, by R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., the companies said in a Tuesday statement. On Tuesday, Bowne shares closed at $6.97, indicating that R.R. Donnelley, the Chicago printer, is paying a 65% premium. The boards of both companies have approved the terms.
A winter storm threatened to dump more than a foot (30 centimeters) of snow across parts of upstate New York and New England, while forecasters warned of an even more powerful system hitting the northeast tomorrow.
“You may hear it called a ‘snow hurricane’ because blizzard may not even do it justice,” said Alex Sosnowski, an expert senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. “It is like we’re getting a decade’s worth of storms all in one season.”
Warnings for the current storm stretch from Maine through New Hampshire, Vermont and New York state, as well as Connecticut and Massachusetts, according to the National Weather Service. Rain was falling today in New York, while inland it was snowing in Albany, where as much as 13 inches of snow were forecast through the night and today, the agency said.
U.S. mortgage applications fell for a third straight week, with demand for home purchase loans sinking to the lowest level in 13 years as inclement weather weighed, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.
George Ure: " On Page 4 of the FDIC's Quarterly banking report for Q4 '08 and Q4 2009.
When you to click over to the report here and down about 3/4's of the way look for the line item "Notional Amount of Derivatives" where you will see Q4 of 2008 was listed as $212-trillion m (just 14.93 times 2008 GDP.
But Q4 2009 shows the notional value of derivatives at what? $213,568,137,000,000."
Fitch Ratings-Barcelona/London-23 February 2010: Fitch Ratings has today downgraded the Long-term and Short-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) of Greece's four largest banks, National Bank of Greece (NBG), Alpha Bank (Alpha), Efg Eurobank Ergasias (Eurobank) and Piraeus Bank (Piraeus) to 'BBB' from 'BBB+' and 'F3' from 'F2' respectively. The Outlook on the Long-term IDRs is Negative.
In January, employers took 1,761 mass layoff actions involving 182,261 workers. Both measures increased in January after four consecutive over-the-month decreases. Manufacturing events and initial claims both increased in January to 486 and 62,556, respectively.
Barbara Kiviat: "Is the option adjustable-rate mortgage the next subprime disaster? For anyone who remembers that souring subprime loans kicked off the real estate meltdown, that's a scary thought. Recent analysis from Standard & Poor's (S&P) anticipates that a full 37.5% of such loans (dubbed option ARMs) that were written in 2007, at the height of lax lending, will eventually go bad. The kicker is that most option ARMs undergo payment spikes after five years, which means the brunt of the impact has yet to be felt. That will change in late 2010, delivering another blow to the fragile housing market just as it begins to regain strength."
ZeroHedge: "Jose Pinera provides an Entitlement State 101 lecture, in which Chile's former Labor and Social Security Minister demystifies the U.S.'s $100 trillion unfunded benefits problem. Since Pinera is the man who many years ago privatized Chile's entitlement system, America, and the entire Western system, which for the past century has been relying on unfunded liabilities to provide benefits to the population in the hopes that funding day will never come, may do well to listen to what he has to say. His message: the American way of life, more so than anything else, in which reckless spending, living on credit and not saving for the future, is precisely why the US will be bankrupt very soon. Chile swallowed the bitter pill 30 years ago and after a lot of pain, managed to get out of the hole. Will enabler state #1, America, fail where this allegedly "backward" South American country succeeded?"
"There's a risk of a double dip recession round the corner," Shah said. "Given the sovereign debt crisis that is going around the Mediterranean countries, this is going to put a lot of pressure on Europe."
The economic outlook for Europe is deteriorating very rapidly and that is adding to the factors dragging on the economic recovery, Shah told CNBC.
* Irving, Texas.
* Commercial Mortgage Default Rate in U.S. More Than Doubles. The default rate for commercial property mortgages held by U.S. banks more than doubled in the fourth quarter and may reach a peak of 5.4 percent at the end of next year, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc. The default rate for loans on office, retail, hotel and industrial properties surged to 3.8 percent from 1.6 percent a year earlier, the New York-based real estate research firm said yesterday in a report. The default rate for loans on apartment buildings climbed to 4.4 percent from 1.8 percent. “The level of distress continues to rise irrespective of improving economic trends,” Sam Chandan, Real Capital’s global chief economist, said in a telephone interview.
In 2010, Blockbuster intends to close 500 to 545 underperforming stores in the U.S.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 91.75 points to 10,374.16. The S&P 500 Index rose 10.64 points to 1,105.24. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 22.46 points to 2,235.9.
General Growth Properties Inc. said Wednesday that it will secure $2.625 billion from Brookfield Asset Management Inc. as part of its recapitalization plan. Brookfield will invest $2.5 billion at $10 a share for new General Growth shares and up to $125 million at $5 a share for existing stock. It will also pay accrued interest to unsecured creditors as part of the package. General Growth is counting on the deal to exit bankruptcy on a standalone basis, the mall operator said.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Elliott Wave
2/23/10 Elliott Wave
"Fourth quarter retail segment performance was well above our expectations due to stronger-than-expected holiday sales, combined with well-controlled inventories and disciplined expense controls," said Target Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel. "In 2010, we expect our guest traffic trends and sales of discretionary categories to benefit from broader implementation of our new merchandise initiatives as well as a continued modest recovery in the economy, and believe Target will continue to gain profitable market share."
Macy's forecast profit this year of $1.55 to $1.60 a share with same-store sales increasing in the range of 1% to 2%
In 2010, it expects earnings per share from continuing operations to grow by around 15.5% to $1.79. "Despite the tough economic environment, we were able to make solid progress against our key initiatives in 2009," said Home Depot CEO Frank Blake.
The S&P composite index of home prices in 20 metropolitan areas declined 0.2 percent in December, matching the dip in November, for a 3.1 percent annual drop.
A Reuters survey had forecast that prices would be unchanged for the month and down 3.2 percent annually.
The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. national home price index, which covers all nine census divisions, fell 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter from the same time a year earlier. This measure, like the 20-city and 10-city indexes, have seen smaller annual declines all through 2009.
Nearly 20 percent of the U.S. workforce lacked adequate employment in January and struggled to make ends meet with reduced resources and bleak job prospects, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday. In findings that appear to paint a darker employment picture than official U.S. data, Gallup estimated that about 30 million Americans are underemployed, meaning either jobless or able to find only part-time work.
Underemployed people spent 36 percent less on household purchases than their fully employed neighbors in January, while six out of 10 were not hopeful about their chances of finding adequate work in the coming month, the poll said.
Sears Holdings Corp., the nation's No. 1 department store chain by revenue, will shut 21 underperforming stores May 9.
Elliott Wave Int'l: "It's been nearly 11 months since the outset of the Primary wave 2 rally; by these critical economic measures the rebound is barely registering.The wide disparity between the hope of investor expectations and the reality of economic strength shows that the great bear market -- already ten years old -- remains in its early stages. As the next legdown matures, hope will turn to despair, and it will become impossible to ignore the persistence of the economic contraction."
Rob Kirby: "Something of significance occurred last week that went unreported in the mainstream financial press. This important development was the admission of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] that it was suppressing information that would expose precious metals market manipulation."
State tax revenues declined by 4.1 percent nationwide during the final quarter of calendar 2009, the fifth consecutive quarter of reduced collections, according to a report issued today by the Rockefeller Institute of Government.
The five straight quarters of year-over-year decline in overall tax collections represent a record length of such decreases, the Institute said. Collections from each of the two major revenue sources, income and sales taxes, also fell for a fifth straight quarter
U.S. consumer confidence fell in February to the lowest in 10 months, as consumers' short-term outlook for the jobs market worsened, according to a private report released Tuesday.
After touching a 16-month high, the Conference Board reported its index fell 11 points to 46 from an upwardly revised 56.5 in January. Last month's fall was sharper than expected.
The number of distressed banks in the U.S. rose to 702 in the fourth quarter, the highest level in sixteen years, according to a report released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Tuesday. That number is up from 552 at the end of September and 416 at the end of June. This is the largest number of banks on its "problem list" since June 1993.
Crude oil futures edged higher in electronic trade late Tuesday after the American Petroleum Institute reported inventories dropped last week, indicating greater-than-anticipated demand. The industry group said stockpiles for the week ended Feb. 19 fell 3.13 million barrels. Analysts polled by Platts were expecting stockpiles to rise by 2 million barrels. Gasoline stocks, however, rose 1.738 million barrels versus an expected gain of 500,000 barrels. Distillate stocks fell 834,000, and the refinery utilization rate rose to 80.8% from 79.9% in the prior week. Oil for April delivery rose to $79.05 a barrel from a close of $78.86. Oil ended Tuesday's floor session with a 1.8% loss.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 100.97 points, or 1%, to 10,282.41. The S&P 500 Index declined 13.41 points, or 1.2%, to end at 1,094.6, while the Nasdaq Composite Index finished at 2,213.44, or 28.59 points, or 1.3%.
"Fourth quarter retail segment performance was well above our expectations due to stronger-than-expected holiday sales, combined with well-controlled inventories and disciplined expense controls," said Target Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel. "In 2010, we expect our guest traffic trends and sales of discretionary categories to benefit from broader implementation of our new merchandise initiatives as well as a continued modest recovery in the economy, and believe Target will continue to gain profitable market share."
Macy's forecast profit this year of $1.55 to $1.60 a share with same-store sales increasing in the range of 1% to 2%
In 2010, it expects earnings per share from continuing operations to grow by around 15.5% to $1.79. "Despite the tough economic environment, we were able to make solid progress against our key initiatives in 2009," said Home Depot CEO Frank Blake.
The S&P composite index of home prices in 20 metropolitan areas declined 0.2 percent in December, matching the dip in November, for a 3.1 percent annual drop.
A Reuters survey had forecast that prices would be unchanged for the month and down 3.2 percent annually.
The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. national home price index, which covers all nine census divisions, fell 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter from the same time a year earlier. This measure, like the 20-city and 10-city indexes, have seen smaller annual declines all through 2009.
Nearly 20 percent of the U.S. workforce lacked adequate employment in January and struggled to make ends meet with reduced resources and bleak job prospects, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday. In findings that appear to paint a darker employment picture than official U.S. data, Gallup estimated that about 30 million Americans are underemployed, meaning either jobless or able to find only part-time work.
Underemployed people spent 36 percent less on household purchases than their fully employed neighbors in January, while six out of 10 were not hopeful about their chances of finding adequate work in the coming month, the poll said.
Sears Holdings Corp., the nation's No. 1 department store chain by revenue, will shut 21 underperforming stores May 9.
Elliott Wave Int'l: "It's been nearly 11 months since the outset of the Primary wave 2 rally; by these critical economic measures the rebound is barely registering.The wide disparity between the hope of investor expectations and the reality of economic strength shows that the great bear market -- already ten years old -- remains in its early stages. As the next legdown matures, hope will turn to despair, and it will become impossible to ignore the persistence of the economic contraction."
Rob Kirby: "Something of significance occurred last week that went unreported in the mainstream financial press. This important development was the admission of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] that it was suppressing information that would expose precious metals market manipulation."
State tax revenues declined by 4.1 percent nationwide during the final quarter of calendar 2009, the fifth consecutive quarter of reduced collections, according to a report issued today by the Rockefeller Institute of Government.
The five straight quarters of year-over-year decline in overall tax collections represent a record length of such decreases, the Institute said. Collections from each of the two major revenue sources, income and sales taxes, also fell for a fifth straight quarter
U.S. consumer confidence fell in February to the lowest in 10 months, as consumers' short-term outlook for the jobs market worsened, according to a private report released Tuesday.
After touching a 16-month high, the Conference Board reported its index fell 11 points to 46 from an upwardly revised 56.5 in January. Last month's fall was sharper than expected.
The number of distressed banks in the U.S. rose to 702 in the fourth quarter, the highest level in sixteen years, according to a report released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Tuesday. That number is up from 552 at the end of September and 416 at the end of June. This is the largest number of banks on its "problem list" since June 1993.
Crude oil futures edged higher in electronic trade late Tuesday after the American Petroleum Institute reported inventories dropped last week, indicating greater-than-anticipated demand. The industry group said stockpiles for the week ended Feb. 19 fell 3.13 million barrels. Analysts polled by Platts were expecting stockpiles to rise by 2 million barrels. Gasoline stocks, however, rose 1.738 million barrels versus an expected gain of 500,000 barrels. Distillate stocks fell 834,000, and the refinery utilization rate rose to 80.8% from 79.9% in the prior week. Oil for April delivery rose to $79.05 a barrel from a close of $78.86. Oil ended Tuesday's floor session with a 1.8% loss.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 100.97 points, or 1%, to 10,282.41. The S&P 500 Index declined 13.41 points, or 1.2%, to end at 1,094.6, while the Nasdaq Composite Index finished at 2,213.44, or 28.59 points, or 1.3%.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Bloom Energy
2/22/10 Bloom Energy
Mike Burk: "The market is overbought.
The Russell 2000 (R2K) has been up for 8 consecutive days rising 7.7% over that period. The last time the R2K was up for 8 consecutive days was April 5, 2004 and after that peak it fell 11.7% over the next 5 weeks and did not hit a new high until the following November."
ZeroHedge: "As Stone McCarty points out "It is also probably not an accident that the announcement of tomorrow's discount rate hike (and next month's shortening of loan maturities) comes just after the release of the January 26-27 FOMC minutes. The discussion in those minutes further serves to underscore the technical, as opposed to policy, nature of today's move." Yet we think that there is more to this, as the Fed will sooner or later be forced to come face to face with a broken monetary system, in which it stands to lose all control should it not tighten in advance of a potential monetary supply explosion which would lead not only to hyperinflation (should the Fed gets its way, and consumers finally start borrowing), but also to full loss of the Fed's control over the American monetary system. Keep a close eye on this chart: we are confident that the Fed Funds will be hiked before there is another unsymmetrical increase in the discount rate. Alas, the economy is far too weak to sustain a tightening posture at this point. As to what kind of aberrations in the market this action could lead to, we will investigate in the coming days and weeks."
CalculatedRisk predicts 2010 to account for more number of bank failures than 2009 but lesser than the peak of 534 in 1989.
ZeroHedge: "Our findings demonstrate that of the nearly $130 billion in additional cash on the books of S&P 500 companies from June 2008, through September 2009, two key sources, net working capital and a reduced capex spend, have generated over $150 billion, meaning organic operations have accounted for a whopping -$20 billion (yes, negative) of incremental cash."
John Hussman: "Presently, the 4-week moving average of initial claims for unemployment is running at 468,500. This level is normally consistent with monthly payroll job losses on the order of 80,000. Against that, however, we are likely to get significant short-term job growth from census hiring, which can be expected to exert a positive impact on non-farm payrolls through mid-year. I continue to view the 4-week average of initial claims as one of the more informative series to monitor regarding the employment situation."
Schlumberger Ltd agreed to buy Smith International in a $11.34 billion all-stock deal that will boost the oilfield services leader's revenue to double that of its nearest rival.
The deal, still subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, values Smith Stock at $45.84, a 37.5 percent premium over Thursday's closing price, according to a joint statement by the companies on Sunday.
Airgas has announced that its board of directors has voted unanimously against recommending the unsolicited buyout offer from Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. The deal rejected is the most recent $60.00 per share in cash, via an unsolicited tender offer. The board is recommending that Airgas shareholders do not tender their shares to Air Products. The company said that Air Products’ offer significantly undervalues Airgas.
Rob Hanna: " There appears to be a good chance the market will at least test its January highs before it breaks its February lows."
for those who haven't noticed the trend this year we have consumed 42 percent more natural gas than the 5 year average. 5 year avg consumption is 879 bcf and we've consumed 1251 bcf this year....for a 372 bcf increase or 42 percent. and yet natural gas prices are down? wtf? law of supply and demand not playing a factor here as 5 year supply is 2020 bcf, and we're at 2025 bcf as of last report. that's only 5 bcf above the 5 year average storage levels. with demand as high as it's been we should be way up this year in natural gas...not down in prices. eventually the market will correct itself. within a week or two we'll likely be well below the 5 year average. smells like a setup on the bears.
Reliance Industries Ltd., owner of the world's largest oil-refining complex, raised its offer for bankrupt LyondellBasell Industries AF to about $14.5 billion, according to two people with knowledge of the offer.
Drivers pick up enough passengers to qualify for carpool lanes, saving 15 minutes to an hour or more in gridlock plus the usual $4 bridge toll. Riders get a free trip to San Francisco's Financial District.
And everybody gets to scare their friends on the East Coast by boasting about riding with strangers.
But on July 1, an economic shift may test this unregulated system and the reciprocity behind it. As part of a package of toll increases, Bay Area toll bridge officials have decided to do the unthinkable: They're ending the free ride. For the first time, carpools will pay $2.50 to cross state-owned bridges.
That's created a conundrum for the casual carpooling community. Does the driver, who will need to pay the toll through a FasTrak transponder, cough it up in full? Do the passengers - usually two - each pony up $1.25? Or is an even split - 83.33 cents per person - warranted?
Demand is escalating for multi-generational housing as buyers scale down during the deepest housing crisis since the Great Depression, according to a survey by Coldwell Banker Real Estate in Parsippany, New Jersey.
Thirty-seven percent of the company's real estate agents polled in January said that in the past year, buyers were increasingly shopping for homes that fit more than one generation.
Almost 70 percent of the agents said they expect economic conditions will drive still greater demand for this type of housing over the next year.
"More buyers are pooling investments, considering bringing mom and dad into it," said Diann Patton, a Coldwell Banker real estate consumer specialist based in Grass Valley, California, in an interview with Reuters.
The Chicago Fed National Activity Index was +0.02 in January, up from –0.58 in December.
Winter's worst proved to be far worse than imagined, with as much as five feet of snow burying much of the nation - from Texas through the upper Ohio Valley, to the Mid-Atlantic Coast, and lower New England - in back-to-back-to-back storms.
Life ground to a halt, transportation systems found themselves parked, commerce ceased and - instead of the widely anticipated new round of sales and healthy winter profits - businesses experienced lost revenue and higher costs for everything from employee absences and parking-lot plowing to rooftop shoveling and pipe replacement. So what took place? Natural gas prices fell below $5. In sum, use rose 42% but prices fell. So much for the impact of demand on price.
Lowe's (LOW) says 13 of 23 regions posted positive comp. sales; sees H2 better than H1
Yuan strengthened the most in 11 months on speculation govt will allow more flexibility.
Bloom Energy was launched in Silicon Valley on Wednesday. It’s a refrigerator-sized box which can give the power supply to the whole house. It’s the production of Silicon Valley.
From eight years working was carrying on this project, & raised the funds of $400 million which covers VCs, Kleiner Perkins (financiers in Netscape, Amazon, GoogleGoogleGoogle & many more).
It has “BloomBox” houses fuel cells which operate on oxygen & natural gas, bio gas, landfill gas, & solar energy.
Google was the 1st customer of the company which is running datacenter on 4 bloom boxes for more then one & half year. They operate on natural gas. One of its customer is eBay also, which works on five Bloom boxes in San Jose & had saved $100,000 in energy costs in nine months.
On CBS’ 60 Minutes, Bloom Box will be advertised firstly on television.
Charlie Munger: "Basicland is now under new management, using a new governmental system. It also has a new name: Sorrowland."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 18.97 points to 10,383.38. The S&P 500 Index shed 1.16 points to 1,108.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 1.84 points to 2,242.03.
Yields on 10-year notes rose 2 basis points, to 3.79%. Yields on 30-year bonds increased 3 basis points to 4.74%.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world’s largest maker of lab instruments, made an unsolicited takeover offer of about $6 billion for Millipore Corp., according to a person close to the situation.
Millipore hired Goldman Sachs as financial adviser after receiving the bid and a deal could be reached as early as next week, said the person who declined to be identified because the talks aren’t public. Millipore rose $16.01, or 22 percent, to $87.35 at 4 p.m. New York time in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Thermo Fisher fell $1.12, or 2.3 percent, to $48.10.
Mike Burk: "The market is overbought.
The Russell 2000 (R2K) has been up for 8 consecutive days rising 7.7% over that period. The last time the R2K was up for 8 consecutive days was April 5, 2004 and after that peak it fell 11.7% over the next 5 weeks and did not hit a new high until the following November."
ZeroHedge: "As Stone McCarty points out "It is also probably not an accident that the announcement of tomorrow's discount rate hike (and next month's shortening of loan maturities) comes just after the release of the January 26-27 FOMC minutes. The discussion in those minutes further serves to underscore the technical, as opposed to policy, nature of today's move." Yet we think that there is more to this, as the Fed will sooner or later be forced to come face to face with a broken monetary system, in which it stands to lose all control should it not tighten in advance of a potential monetary supply explosion which would lead not only to hyperinflation (should the Fed gets its way, and consumers finally start borrowing), but also to full loss of the Fed's control over the American monetary system. Keep a close eye on this chart: we are confident that the Fed Funds will be hiked before there is another unsymmetrical increase in the discount rate. Alas, the economy is far too weak to sustain a tightening posture at this point. As to what kind of aberrations in the market this action could lead to, we will investigate in the coming days and weeks."
CalculatedRisk predicts 2010 to account for more number of bank failures than 2009 but lesser than the peak of 534 in 1989.
ZeroHedge: "Our findings demonstrate that of the nearly $130 billion in additional cash on the books of S&P 500 companies from June 2008, through September 2009, two key sources, net working capital and a reduced capex spend, have generated over $150 billion, meaning organic operations have accounted for a whopping -$20 billion (yes, negative) of incremental cash."
John Hussman: "Presently, the 4-week moving average of initial claims for unemployment is running at 468,500. This level is normally consistent with monthly payroll job losses on the order of 80,000. Against that, however, we are likely to get significant short-term job growth from census hiring, which can be expected to exert a positive impact on non-farm payrolls through mid-year. I continue to view the 4-week average of initial claims as one of the more informative series to monitor regarding the employment situation."
Schlumberger Ltd agreed to buy Smith International in a $11.34 billion all-stock deal that will boost the oilfield services leader's revenue to double that of its nearest rival.
The deal, still subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, values Smith Stock at $45.84, a 37.5 percent premium over Thursday's closing price, according to a joint statement by the companies on Sunday.
Airgas has announced that its board of directors has voted unanimously against recommending the unsolicited buyout offer from Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. The deal rejected is the most recent $60.00 per share in cash, via an unsolicited tender offer. The board is recommending that Airgas shareholders do not tender their shares to Air Products. The company said that Air Products’ offer significantly undervalues Airgas.
Rob Hanna: " There appears to be a good chance the market will at least test its January highs before it breaks its February lows."
for those who haven't noticed the trend this year we have consumed 42 percent more natural gas than the 5 year average. 5 year avg consumption is 879 bcf and we've consumed 1251 bcf this year....for a 372 bcf increase or 42 percent. and yet natural gas prices are down? wtf? law of supply and demand not playing a factor here as 5 year supply is 2020 bcf, and we're at 2025 bcf as of last report. that's only 5 bcf above the 5 year average storage levels. with demand as high as it's been we should be way up this year in natural gas...not down in prices. eventually the market will correct itself. within a week or two we'll likely be well below the 5 year average. smells like a setup on the bears.
Reliance Industries Ltd., owner of the world's largest oil-refining complex, raised its offer for bankrupt LyondellBasell Industries AF to about $14.5 billion, according to two people with knowledge of the offer.
Drivers pick up enough passengers to qualify for carpool lanes, saving 15 minutes to an hour or more in gridlock plus the usual $4 bridge toll. Riders get a free trip to San Francisco's Financial District.
And everybody gets to scare their friends on the East Coast by boasting about riding with strangers.
But on July 1, an economic shift may test this unregulated system and the reciprocity behind it. As part of a package of toll increases, Bay Area toll bridge officials have decided to do the unthinkable: They're ending the free ride. For the first time, carpools will pay $2.50 to cross state-owned bridges.
That's created a conundrum for the casual carpooling community. Does the driver, who will need to pay the toll through a FasTrak transponder, cough it up in full? Do the passengers - usually two - each pony up $1.25? Or is an even split - 83.33 cents per person - warranted?
Demand is escalating for multi-generational housing as buyers scale down during the deepest housing crisis since the Great Depression, according to a survey by Coldwell Banker Real Estate in Parsippany, New Jersey.
Thirty-seven percent of the company's real estate agents polled in January said that in the past year, buyers were increasingly shopping for homes that fit more than one generation.
Almost 70 percent of the agents said they expect economic conditions will drive still greater demand for this type of housing over the next year.
"More buyers are pooling investments, considering bringing mom and dad into it," said Diann Patton, a Coldwell Banker real estate consumer specialist based in Grass Valley, California, in an interview with Reuters.
The Chicago Fed National Activity Index was +0.02 in January, up from –0.58 in December.
Winter's worst proved to be far worse than imagined, with as much as five feet of snow burying much of the nation - from Texas through the upper Ohio Valley, to the Mid-Atlantic Coast, and lower New England - in back-to-back-to-back storms.
Life ground to a halt, transportation systems found themselves parked, commerce ceased and - instead of the widely anticipated new round of sales and healthy winter profits - businesses experienced lost revenue and higher costs for everything from employee absences and parking-lot plowing to rooftop shoveling and pipe replacement. So what took place? Natural gas prices fell below $5. In sum, use rose 42% but prices fell. So much for the impact of demand on price.
Lowe's (LOW) says 13 of 23 regions posted positive comp. sales; sees H2 better than H1
Yuan strengthened the most in 11 months on speculation govt will allow more flexibility.
Bloom Energy was launched in Silicon Valley on Wednesday. It’s a refrigerator-sized box which can give the power supply to the whole house. It’s the production of Silicon Valley.
From eight years working was carrying on this project, & raised the funds of $400 million which covers VCs, Kleiner Perkins (financiers in Netscape, Amazon, GoogleGoogleGoogle & many more).
It has “BloomBox” houses fuel cells which operate on oxygen & natural gas, bio gas, landfill gas, & solar energy.
Google was the 1st customer of the company which is running datacenter on 4 bloom boxes for more then one & half year. They operate on natural gas. One of its customer is eBay also, which works on five Bloom boxes in San Jose & had saved $100,000 in energy costs in nine months.
On CBS’ 60 Minutes, Bloom Box will be advertised firstly on television.
Charlie Munger: "Basicland is now under new management, using a new governmental system. It also has a new name: Sorrowland."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 18.97 points to 10,383.38. The S&P 500 Index shed 1.16 points to 1,108.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 1.84 points to 2,242.03.
Yields on 10-year notes rose 2 basis points, to 3.79%. Yields on 30-year bonds increased 3 basis points to 4.74%.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world’s largest maker of lab instruments, made an unsolicited takeover offer of about $6 billion for Millipore Corp., according to a person close to the situation.
Millipore hired Goldman Sachs as financial adviser after receiving the bid and a deal could be reached as early as next week, said the person who declined to be identified because the talks aren’t public. Millipore rose $16.01, or 22 percent, to $87.35 at 4 p.m. New York time in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Thermo Fisher fell $1.12, or 2.3 percent, to $48.10.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Bank Closures
2/20/10 Bank Closings
La Jolla Bank in the San Diego area was among four banks shuttered by authorities Friday, bringing the total to 20 financial institutions closed since the beginning of the year.
La Jolla's deposits will be taken over by OneWest Bank of Pasadena, Calif., the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.
La Jolla had $3.6 billion in total assets and $2.8 billion in deposits. OneWest has entered into a loss-share transaction on $3.3 billion of La Jolla's assets, the FDIC said. The FDIC was appointed as receiver by the Office of Thrift Supervision, which closed La Jolla Bank.
Other banks closed Friday included George Washington Savings Bank of Orland Park, Ill., which was shuttered by the Illinois Department of Financial Professional Regulation's banking division. Again, the FDIC was appointed as receiver for the bank, whose deposits will be taken over by FirstMerit Bank of Akron, Ohio. George Washington Savings had $412.8 million in total assets.
La Coste National Bank of La Coste, Texas, will be taken over by Community National Bank of Hondo, Texas. The sole branch of La Coste National had $53.9 million in assets.
in 2010, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in a press release issued late Friday. The FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with privately held Mutual of Omaha Bank. Mutual of Omaha will assume all the deposits of Marco. Marco Community had $119.6 million in assets and $117.1 million in deposits as of Dec. 31. Mutual of Omaha entered into a loss-share agreement on $104.8 million of Marco's assets, the FDIC said. Marco depositors can access their money via checks or debit cards Friday night and over the weekend, the agency added.
Germany's finance ministry has sketched out a plan in which countries using the euro currency will provide aid worth between 20 billion and 25 billion euros ($27-$33.7 billion) for Greece, a magazine reported on Saturday.
Citing "initial considerations" by the ministry, German weekly Der Spiegel said the share of financial aid for Greece would be calculated according to the proportion of capital each country holds in the European Central Bank.
Bloomberg (Kathleen M. Howley): “A record number of Americans were in danger of losing their homes in the fourth quarter… Loans in foreclosure rose to 4.58% of all mortgages, while those more than 90 days overdue… climbed to 5.09%...”
Doug Noland: "So the Bernanke Fed has apparently devised a new rate target – the rate it will pay banks on excess reserve holdings. We’ll have to wait for additional details, as well as to see how this new monetary regime works in practice. From what I’ve read so far, it has the appearance of a handy expedient; a tool similar in form to the fed funds target rate - but without the baggage of an implied policy of managing the rate through the addition or, more importantly, removal of Fed liquidity. The Fed hopes to have the luxury of raising the rate it pays on reserves held at the Federal Reserve, without forcing the system-wide overnight funds rate higher. The Fed would today certainly prefer to separate the tasks of raising rates and removing system liquidity and, once apart, implement respective “tightenings” at varying paces (rates up very slowly… liquidity removal even slower).
Certainly not without justification, the markets came to the recognition that yesterday’s increase in the discount rate did not signal any imminent tightening of financial conditions. It will be interesting to see if the markets eventually end up calling a bluff on Fed “exit” policies more generally."
Steven Pearlstein, Wash. Post: "But the more I look into it, the more I'm beginning to think there is a fairly simple way to meet President Obama's short-term pledge of reducing carbon emissions in the United States by 17 percent over the next decade.
The silver bullet: Decommission about two-thirds of the electric-generating capacity fueled by cheap and plentiful coal, and replace it with power generated from cheap and plentiful natural gas, which emits half as much carbon for each megawatt of electricity."
IBD: "The Department of Energy expects shale gas to account for 50% of natural gas production by 2020 if not sooner."
CitiBank: "Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change," Citigroup said on statements received by customers all over the country.
What's going on? It seems that this is something of an error. The seven day notice policy only applies to customers in Texas, Ira Stoll reports at The Future of Capitalism. It was accidentally included on customer statements nationwide.
"Whatever the explanation, it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in Citi," Stoll writes. "But it's hard to believe a bank would be sending out a notice like that on its statements."
If Greece fails to comply with all of the demands from the rest of the EU, and then experiences a genuine liquidity crisis in April and May, the most obvious next step for the region is to push Greece into the arms of the IMF. The IMF would then provide a program of financial support, with appropriate amounts of conditionality, to give Greece a couple of years to implement the appropriate fiscal adjustment. - JP Morgan
The number of rigs drilling for natural gas in the United States rose by two this week to an 11½-month high of 893, according to a report Friday by oil services firm Baker Hughes in Houston.
It was the eighth straight weekly gain and puts the gas rig count at its highest level since March 6, 2009, when there were 916 gas rigs operating.
The U.S. natural gas drilling rig count has rebounded 34 per cent after bottoming at 665 on July 17, its lowest level since May 3, 2002, when there were 640 active gas rigs.
But the rig count is still well off its recent peak above 1,600 in September 2008, and still stands at 125 rigs, or 12 per cent, below the same week last year.
La Jolla Bank in the San Diego area was among four banks shuttered by authorities Friday, bringing the total to 20 financial institutions closed since the beginning of the year.
La Jolla's deposits will be taken over by OneWest Bank of Pasadena, Calif., the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.
La Jolla had $3.6 billion in total assets and $2.8 billion in deposits. OneWest has entered into a loss-share transaction on $3.3 billion of La Jolla's assets, the FDIC said. The FDIC was appointed as receiver by the Office of Thrift Supervision, which closed La Jolla Bank.
Other banks closed Friday included George Washington Savings Bank of Orland Park, Ill., which was shuttered by the Illinois Department of Financial Professional Regulation's banking division. Again, the FDIC was appointed as receiver for the bank, whose deposits will be taken over by FirstMerit Bank of Akron, Ohio. George Washington Savings had $412.8 million in total assets.
La Coste National Bank of La Coste, Texas, will be taken over by Community National Bank of Hondo, Texas. The sole branch of La Coste National had $53.9 million in assets.
in 2010, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in a press release issued late Friday. The FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with privately held Mutual of Omaha Bank. Mutual of Omaha will assume all the deposits of Marco. Marco Community had $119.6 million in assets and $117.1 million in deposits as of Dec. 31. Mutual of Omaha entered into a loss-share agreement on $104.8 million of Marco's assets, the FDIC said. Marco depositors can access their money via checks or debit cards Friday night and over the weekend, the agency added.
Germany's finance ministry has sketched out a plan in which countries using the euro currency will provide aid worth between 20 billion and 25 billion euros ($27-$33.7 billion) for Greece, a magazine reported on Saturday.
Citing "initial considerations" by the ministry, German weekly Der Spiegel said the share of financial aid for Greece would be calculated according to the proportion of capital each country holds in the European Central Bank.
Bloomberg (Kathleen M. Howley): “A record number of Americans were in danger of losing their homes in the fourth quarter… Loans in foreclosure rose to 4.58% of all mortgages, while those more than 90 days overdue… climbed to 5.09%...”
Doug Noland: "So the Bernanke Fed has apparently devised a new rate target – the rate it will pay banks on excess reserve holdings. We’ll have to wait for additional details, as well as to see how this new monetary regime works in practice. From what I’ve read so far, it has the appearance of a handy expedient; a tool similar in form to the fed funds target rate - but without the baggage of an implied policy of managing the rate through the addition or, more importantly, removal of Fed liquidity. The Fed hopes to have the luxury of raising the rate it pays on reserves held at the Federal Reserve, without forcing the system-wide overnight funds rate higher. The Fed would today certainly prefer to separate the tasks of raising rates and removing system liquidity and, once apart, implement respective “tightenings” at varying paces (rates up very slowly… liquidity removal even slower).
Certainly not without justification, the markets came to the recognition that yesterday’s increase in the discount rate did not signal any imminent tightening of financial conditions. It will be interesting to see if the markets eventually end up calling a bluff on Fed “exit” policies more generally."
Steven Pearlstein, Wash. Post: "But the more I look into it, the more I'm beginning to think there is a fairly simple way to meet President Obama's short-term pledge of reducing carbon emissions in the United States by 17 percent over the next decade.
The silver bullet: Decommission about two-thirds of the electric-generating capacity fueled by cheap and plentiful coal, and replace it with power generated from cheap and plentiful natural gas, which emits half as much carbon for each megawatt of electricity."
IBD: "The Department of Energy expects shale gas to account for 50% of natural gas production by 2020 if not sooner."
CitiBank: "Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change," Citigroup said on statements received by customers all over the country.
What's going on? It seems that this is something of an error. The seven day notice policy only applies to customers in Texas, Ira Stoll reports at The Future of Capitalism. It was accidentally included on customer statements nationwide.
"Whatever the explanation, it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in Citi," Stoll writes. "But it's hard to believe a bank would be sending out a notice like that on its statements."
If Greece fails to comply with all of the demands from the rest of the EU, and then experiences a genuine liquidity crisis in April and May, the most obvious next step for the region is to push Greece into the arms of the IMF. The IMF would then provide a program of financial support, with appropriate amounts of conditionality, to give Greece a couple of years to implement the appropriate fiscal adjustment. - JP Morgan
The number of rigs drilling for natural gas in the United States rose by two this week to an 11½-month high of 893, according to a report Friday by oil services firm Baker Hughes in Houston.
It was the eighth straight weekly gain and puts the gas rig count at its highest level since March 6, 2009, when there were 916 gas rigs operating.
The U.S. natural gas drilling rig count has rebounded 34 per cent after bottoming at 665 on July 17, its lowest level since May 3, 2002, when there were 640 active gas rigs.
But the rig count is still well off its recent peak above 1,600 in September 2008, and still stands at 125 rigs, or 12 per cent, below the same week last year.
The Fed
2/19/10 The Fed
The Federal Reserve announced late Thursday that it was raising its discount rate in order to push banks to borrow from the private market for short-term credit. In a statement, the Fed said it would raise its discount, or primary credit rate, to 0.75% from 0.50% effective on Friday. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke signaled last week that the Fed was mulling the move. Fed watchers had expected the move to come at the next Fed meeting in March. Today's action shows a sense of urgency on the part of the Fed officials. The Fed said the move is intended to "normalize" their operations as the financial crisis winds down. The change is not a tightening and does not signal any change in monetary policy, the Fed said.
With shelter costs dropping sharply, U.S. core consumer prices fell a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in January, the first decline since 1982, the Labor Department estimated Friday. Core prices, which exclude food and energy costs, are considered a good indicator of underlying inflationary pressures. Prices fell for hotel fares, home ownership costs, new cars, airfares and clothing. Overall, the consumer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in January for the fifth straight month. Higher energy and medical costs more than offset the largest decline in services prices since 1982. Inflation was weaker than expected by economists, who were forecasting a 0.3% increase in the overall CPI and a 0.1% gain in the core CPI.
Oil services firm Schlumberger Ltd. is in advanced talks to acquire Smith International Inc., The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the negotiations. A deal combine two of the world's biggest oil services companies, with Schlumberger's revenue nearly doubling that of its nearest competitor following a deal, the report said. Smith currently has a capitalization fo $7.5 billion, and a typical 20% deal premium would take the transaction to the $9 billion range, the report added.
Although Schlumberger and Smith are both part of the diverse oil-field services sector, they compete directly in relatively few businesses. Smith is best known as a manufacturer of drill bits and related equipment, while Schlumberger makes most of its money finding and evaluating oil reservoirs, drilling wells, and pumping out the oil.
Those differences could help ease pressure from antitrust regulators.
Take a hard look at America's balance sheet and "you have to be concerned," says Charles Ortel, managing director of Newport Value Partners.
Total gross U.S. debt is now $50 trillion or 12 times the nation's total gross income, according to Ortel, whose debt calculation excludes unfunded mandates such as Social Security and Medicaid but does include corporate debt which he says are "potentially eligible for bailouts."
Furthermore, Ortel says the Federal Reserve overestimates U.S. household net worth, because most of the "asset" side of the ledger is based on real estate valuations he says are overinflated.
"A strict, hard look at the national net worth statement will tell you that our assets are lower than you think and our debt is higher than you think," he says.
The foreclosure wave is likely to swamp many smaller community banks across the country, and many well-known properties, including Washington's Mayflower Hotel and the Boulevard at the Capital Centre in Largo, are at risk, industry analysts say.
Population-weighted, from the Plains east, this winter will likely beat the 2000-2001 winter season to become the coldest winter since 1983-1984, according to Joe Bastardi, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.com, with the weather in the last 10-15 days of this month probably cold enough to officially make this winter the coldest in a quarter century, he said.
Robert Pollin: "Unemployment in the United States stands officially at 9.7 percent. This represents 14.8 million people out of work. By a broader official measure that includes people employed fewer hours than they would like and those discouraged from looking for work, the unemployment rate is 16.5 percent, or about 25 million people in a total labor force of about 153 million. We have not seen comparable unemployment rates since 1983, twenty-seven years ago, and before that, not since the 1930s Depression."
ZeroHedge: "The Federal Reserve's balance just hit another record high, at $2.29 trillion, jumping by a whopping $54 billion sequentially (the biggest weekly increase since mid-November). Securities held outright: $1,967 billion (an increase of $60.9 billion MoM, resulting from $56 billion increase in MBS and $5 nillion in Agency Debt), or a huge $53.6 billion increase sequentially. The fed is now 95% complete with its purchases of MBS, and 96% complete with purchases of Agencies. The Fed has completed $167.2 billion of its $175 billion agency debt purchase program through February 17. The Fed's MBS total is now $1.188 trillion, and by the end of the first quarter of 2010, the Fed will have purchased $1.25 trillion."
WSJ: “Our budget deficit is a problem, but it’s not the core issue.
“Our shadow government, the financial industrial complex, is our potential Greece. High unemployment lingers, higher interest rates are on the horizon and U.S. aid to the mortgage markets is coming to an end. Government guarantees in the markets will be withdrawn leaving them exposed to the whims of confidence.
“Amid that uncertain state, Wall Street is chugging along as if the last few years were merely a blip. At Citigroup Inc., the financial innovators are readying a new, complex derivative that would act as kind of financial crisis insurance. Citigroup believes the derivative, dubbed CLX, won’t put Citi or taxpayers at risk, but they concede the contracts aren’t foolproof, a story we’ve heard before.”
Bernanke last month invited the Government Accountability Office to conduct a “full review” of the central bank’s actions tied to the bailout that swelled to $182.3 billion. “In light of your professed commitments and your apparent desire to cooperate with this committee’s investigation, I am writing to request that you voluntarily produce to this committee all records and communications in the possession of the Federal Reserve” regarding the rescue, Issa wrote. Issa is seeking to widen the probe into what he’s called a “backdoor bailout” of banks that got funds from AIG after its rescue and efforts by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to withhold details from the public about the payments. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who ran the New York Fed when AIG was bailed out in 2008, testified last month that the payments were necessary and that subordinates made disclosure decisions.
The Telegraph: "Britain is at risk of a Govenment deficit crisis worse than that of Greece, sparking serious fears over the economic stability of the country."
The Federal Reserve announced late Thursday that it was raising its discount rate in order to push banks to borrow from the private market for short-term credit. In a statement, the Fed said it would raise its discount, or primary credit rate, to 0.75% from 0.50% effective on Friday. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke signaled last week that the Fed was mulling the move. Fed watchers had expected the move to come at the next Fed meeting in March. Today's action shows a sense of urgency on the part of the Fed officials. The Fed said the move is intended to "normalize" their operations as the financial crisis winds down. The change is not a tightening and does not signal any change in monetary policy, the Fed said.
With shelter costs dropping sharply, U.S. core consumer prices fell a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in January, the first decline since 1982, the Labor Department estimated Friday. Core prices, which exclude food and energy costs, are considered a good indicator of underlying inflationary pressures. Prices fell for hotel fares, home ownership costs, new cars, airfares and clothing. Overall, the consumer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in January for the fifth straight month. Higher energy and medical costs more than offset the largest decline in services prices since 1982. Inflation was weaker than expected by economists, who were forecasting a 0.3% increase in the overall CPI and a 0.1% gain in the core CPI.
Oil services firm Schlumberger Ltd. is in advanced talks to acquire Smith International Inc., The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the negotiations. A deal combine two of the world's biggest oil services companies, with Schlumberger's revenue nearly doubling that of its nearest competitor following a deal, the report said. Smith currently has a capitalization fo $7.5 billion, and a typical 20% deal premium would take the transaction to the $9 billion range, the report added.
Although Schlumberger and Smith are both part of the diverse oil-field services sector, they compete directly in relatively few businesses. Smith is best known as a manufacturer of drill bits and related equipment, while Schlumberger makes most of its money finding and evaluating oil reservoirs, drilling wells, and pumping out the oil.
Those differences could help ease pressure from antitrust regulators.
Take a hard look at America's balance sheet and "you have to be concerned," says Charles Ortel, managing director of Newport Value Partners.
Total gross U.S. debt is now $50 trillion or 12 times the nation's total gross income, according to Ortel, whose debt calculation excludes unfunded mandates such as Social Security and Medicaid but does include corporate debt which he says are "potentially eligible for bailouts."
Furthermore, Ortel says the Federal Reserve overestimates U.S. household net worth, because most of the "asset" side of the ledger is based on real estate valuations he says are overinflated.
"A strict, hard look at the national net worth statement will tell you that our assets are lower than you think and our debt is higher than you think," he says.
The foreclosure wave is likely to swamp many smaller community banks across the country, and many well-known properties, including Washington's Mayflower Hotel and the Boulevard at the Capital Centre in Largo, are at risk, industry analysts say.
Population-weighted, from the Plains east, this winter will likely beat the 2000-2001 winter season to become the coldest winter since 1983-1984, according to Joe Bastardi, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.com, with the weather in the last 10-15 days of this month probably cold enough to officially make this winter the coldest in a quarter century, he said.
Robert Pollin: "Unemployment in the United States stands officially at 9.7 percent. This represents 14.8 million people out of work. By a broader official measure that includes people employed fewer hours than they would like and those discouraged from looking for work, the unemployment rate is 16.5 percent, or about 25 million people in a total labor force of about 153 million. We have not seen comparable unemployment rates since 1983, twenty-seven years ago, and before that, not since the 1930s Depression."
ZeroHedge: "The Federal Reserve's balance just hit another record high, at $2.29 trillion, jumping by a whopping $54 billion sequentially (the biggest weekly increase since mid-November). Securities held outright: $1,967 billion (an increase of $60.9 billion MoM, resulting from $56 billion increase in MBS and $5 nillion in Agency Debt), or a huge $53.6 billion increase sequentially. The fed is now 95% complete with its purchases of MBS, and 96% complete with purchases of Agencies. The Fed has completed $167.2 billion of its $175 billion agency debt purchase program through February 17. The Fed's MBS total is now $1.188 trillion, and by the end of the first quarter of 2010, the Fed will have purchased $1.25 trillion."
WSJ: “Our budget deficit is a problem, but it’s not the core issue.
“Our shadow government, the financial industrial complex, is our potential Greece. High unemployment lingers, higher interest rates are on the horizon and U.S. aid to the mortgage markets is coming to an end. Government guarantees in the markets will be withdrawn leaving them exposed to the whims of confidence.
“Amid that uncertain state, Wall Street is chugging along as if the last few years were merely a blip. At Citigroup Inc., the financial innovators are readying a new, complex derivative that would act as kind of financial crisis insurance. Citigroup believes the derivative, dubbed CLX, won’t put Citi or taxpayers at risk, but they concede the contracts aren’t foolproof, a story we’ve heard before.”
Bernanke last month invited the Government Accountability Office to conduct a “full review” of the central bank’s actions tied to the bailout that swelled to $182.3 billion. “In light of your professed commitments and your apparent desire to cooperate with this committee’s investigation, I am writing to request that you voluntarily produce to this committee all records and communications in the possession of the Federal Reserve” regarding the rescue, Issa wrote. Issa is seeking to widen the probe into what he’s called a “backdoor bailout” of banks that got funds from AIG after its rescue and efforts by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to withhold details from the public about the payments. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who ran the New York Fed when AIG was bailed out in 2008, testified last month that the payments were necessary and that subordinates made disclosure decisions.
The Telegraph: "Britain is at risk of a Govenment deficit crisis worse than that of Greece, sparking serious fears over the economic stability of the country."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)