STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday 6 March

[ozymandius]

Monday March 6, 2006

COUNTING THE DAYS
DAYS REMAINING IN THE * REGIME 1050 DAYS
DAYS SINCE DEMOCRACY DIED (12/12/00) 1901 DAYS
WHERE'S OSAMA BIN-LADEN? 1601 DAYS
DAYS SINCE ENRON COLLAPSE = 1562
Number of Enron Execs in handcuffs = 19
ENRON EXECS CONVICTED = 3
Other Arrests of Execs = 54


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




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

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON March 3, 2006

Dow... 11,021.59 -3.92 (-0.04%)
Nasdaq... 2,302.60 -8.51 (-0.37%)
S&P 500... 1,287.23 -1.91 (-0.15%)
30-Year Bond 4.66% +0.04 (+0.95%)
10-Yr Bond... 4.68% +0.05 (+0.99%)
Gold future... 568.00 -2.40 (-0.42%)






GOLD, EURO, YEN, Dollars and Loonie


PIEHOLE ALERT

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

For information on protests and other actions Citizens For Legitimate Government

[ozymandius]

1. WrapUp by Tim W. Wood

THE DOW REPORT
Advancers vs. Decliners

According to Dow theory, the Secondary Trend remains positive. Furthermore, nothing has occurred at this time to reverse this positive development. Understand, Dow theory deals with price action, while the market internals allow us to look at the underlying strength or weakness associated with a given trend of a given degree. Today, I want to look at the intermediate-term and what the Advance/Decline data is showing us.

Below is a daily chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. I have labeled the last three intermediate-term lows with an “I.” In Dow theory terminology, these are “Secondary Reaction” lows, and of course the highs that follow are “Secondary Reaction” highs. The green line in the upper window of this chart is a moving average of NYSE advancing issues and the red line is of declining issues.

-see chart-

Notice that in the early stages of the move up into these secondary reaction high points, the advancing issues expand. As the secondary move matures, the advancers begin to lag and the decliners begin to expand as the secondary advance rolls back over into a secondary low. From Martin J. Pring’s book, Technical Analysis Explained, he writes “Breadth indictors measure the degree to which the vast majority of issues are participating in a market move. They therefore monitor the extent of a market trend. Generally speaking, the fewer the number of issues that are moving in the direction of the major averages, the greater the probability of an imminent reversal in trend.” This is exactly what happens as secondary reactions mature and this is visible by the green advancing issues line. So, here we sit with the Secondary Trend positive, but the underlying NYSE breadth of the market is beginning to falter.

-cut-

The bottom line is that yes, the Secondary Trend is positive. But, with deteriorating internals this Secondary advance is obviously beginning to get just a bit tired.

more...

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

[ozymandius]

2. One report today

10:00 AM Factory Orders Jan
Briefing Forecast -5.2%
Market Expects -5.5%
Prior 1.1%

[UpInArms]

32. U.S. Jan. factory orders down 4.5% vs 5.3% forecast

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BD9E6145D%2D3136%2D4516%2D9B4A%2DF67CFAD282A4%7D&dateid=38782%2E4168533912%2D862991289&siteid=mktw&dist=newsfinder

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Orders for U.S.-made factory goods fell 4.5% in January, the Commerce Department said Monday. This is the biggest drop since July 2000. Economists had been expecting factory orders to fall 5.3%, according to a survey conducted by Marketwatch. The drop was not so large because non-durable goods orders rose 2.2%. January durable goods orders were revised up slightly to a 9.9% drop from the initial estimate of a 10.2% drop. The biggest decline came in transportation orders. Ex-transportation, orders rose 1.6% in January. But a key sector, nondefense capital goods, had a record drop of 19.6% in January.

10:00 AM ET 3/6/06 U.S. DEC. FACTORY ORDER UP REVISED 1.6% VS 1.1% PREV

10:00 AM ET 3/6/06 U.S. JAN. FACTORY ORDERS EX-TRANSPORTATION UP 1.6%

10:00 AM ET 3/6/06 U.S. JAN. DURABLE ORDERS REVISED DOWN 9.9% VS 10.2% PREV

10:00 AM ET 3/6/06 U.S. JAN. FACTORY ORDERS BIGGEST DROP SINCE JULY 2000

10:00 AM ET 3/6/06 U.S. JAN. FACTORY ORDERS DOWN 4.5% VS 5.3% FORECAST

[UpInArms]

43. U.S. factory orders fall sharply in Jan. (largest drop since 2000)

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B7B916FA1%2DA4BE%2D4383%2DAF3E%2D488DB8B68C1A%7D&dist=newsfinder&symbol=&siteid=mktw

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Orders for U.S.-made factory goods fell 4.5% in January, the first decline in four months and the sharpest since July 2000, the Commerce Department estimated Monday.

The drop was not a severe as analysts expected after last week's report that durable goods fell sharply in January.

Economists had been looking for a drop of about 5.3% in factory orders, according to a survey conducted by MarketWatch. See Economic Calendar.

But orders were helped by a 2.2% increase in orders of nondurable goods. Read full government report.

And orders for durable goods, such as airplanes, computers and washing machines, did not fall as sharply as first estimated. Durable goods orders fell a revised 9.9% in January, up from the initial estimate of a 10.2% decline.

<snip>

But orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft - so-called core factory orders - plunged a record 19.6% in January. Shipments of core capital goods fell 19.1%.

...more...

[UpInArms]

33. US Jan Pending Homes Sales Down 4.8% y-o-y

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B1850F7E3%2D07C1%2D4BF0%2D8E2E%2DDA5830118291%7D&dateid=38782%2E4183206019%2D862991561&siteid=mktw&dist=newsfinder

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The pending home sales index fell 1.1% in January from December, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. The index is down 4.8% in the past 12 months. The index has fallen every month since peaking in August, averaging nearly a 3 percentage point decline per month until a smaller decline in January. "This looks like we're touching down for the soft landing we've been expecting," said David Lereah, chief economist for the real estate industry group. "We are at a much more sustainable level of home sales now - a welcome cooling from the super-heated conditions that were driving exceptional price gains.

10:00 AM ET 3/6/06 U.S. HOUSING MARKET HEADING FOR SOFT LANDING: REALTORS

10:00 AM ET 3/6/06 U.S. JAN. PENDING HOME SALES DOWN 4.8% YEAR-ON-YEAR

10:00 AM ET 3/6/06 U.S. JAN. PENDING HOME SALES FALL 1.1%

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

54. Soft Landing - Parachute Still Unopened! - LOL!!!

So, the market is declining on a consistent basis. It's down almost 5% in the past year, and shows no signs of slowing down.

But don't worry.....it's a SOFT LANDING! Freaking A!! So, the market is jumping out of a plane....they haven't even slowed down enough yet to open the parachute....but they KNOW FOR A FACT, that we're having a "Soft Landing."

Am I missing something? How do these Bastards just manipulate their summaries so blatantly, and get people to believe it?

[UpInArms]

47. US factory orders, pending home sales slide in Jan

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyid=2006-03-06T153409Z_01_N06259467_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-WRAPUP-1.XML

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - New orders at U.S. factories in January posted the largest drop since 2000 as aircraft orders fell, while pending sales of U.S. homes slipped as the housing market slowed, reports showed on Monday.

Factory orders fell 4.5 percent in January, slightly less than expected but still the biggest drop since July 2000, as orders for durables, machinery, computers, and aircraft fell, a Commerce Department report showed.

Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting factory orders to fall 5.3 percent.

Orders for durable goods, expensive items meant to last three years or more, fell 9.9 percent, the steepest decline since a 14.2 percent drop in July 2000. However, the decline in durables was revised up from a 10.2 percent drop reported Feb. 24.

Stock market reaction was mixed while U.S. Treasury debt prices and the dollar were little changed on the news.

"We had already seen the big retreat in durables orders, so most of the news had been taken out earlier. The Fed will look past the see-saw numbers on things like orders and look at the broader trend, which is still for a fairly strong first-quarter economic performance," said Avery Shenfeld, an economist for CIBC World Markets in Toronto.

...more...

[ozymandius]

3. Crude Futures Fall Ahead of IAEA Meeting

SINGAPORE - Oil prices declined Monday in Asian trading amid expectations that
Iran's oil output won't be affected by the U.N. nuclear watchdog's meeting later in the day on Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

-cut-

The International Atomic Energy Agency will hold a board meeting Monday on Iran, the No. 2 oil producer in OPEC. The board's recommendation to the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions, will likely help determine its immediate course of action.

"People are watching the IAEA meeting, but it has already been factored in," said Tetsu Emori, chief commodities strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures. "We don't expect that Iran would cut production or exports."

more...

[EuroObserver]

12. ElBaradei says deal on Iran atom crisis still feasible

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-03-06T131509Z_01_RON537891_RTRUKOC_0_UK-NUCLEAR-IRAN.xml

Mon Mar 6, 2006 1:16 PM GMT
VIENNA (Reuters) - The International Atomic Energy Agency chief said on Monday he hoped a deal to defuse a standoff over Iran's nuclear aims could be reached soon, as the IAEA board met in a possible prelude to U.N. Security Council action.

Mohamed ElBaradei cited a surge of diplomacy involving Russia and EU powers in which Iran has offered not to pursue industrial-scale uranium enrichment for up to two years. But its insistence on doing sensitive research is a key sticking point.

"I am still very much hopeful that in the next week or so an agreement could be reached," ElBaradei said, while acknowledging that Russia's proposal to enrich uranium for Iran had snagged on Tehran's determination to purify nuclear fuel itself.

Javad Vaeedi, deputy secretary of Iran's national security council, highlighted that obstacle when he told Reuters that enrichment "research and development" in Iran was irreversible.

Western leaders suspect Iran is seeking atomic weapons under cover of a civilian programme for nuclear-generated electricity. Iran denies this but its evasions of IAEA probes and public calls for Israel's destruction have stoked Western suspicions.

ElBaradei believes U.N. intervention, with the option of sanctions against Iran, could close avenues to a diplomatic deal and bolster Iranian hardliners, IAEA sources say. Tehran has warned it could bolt a nuclear safeguards treaty if pushed.

"Confrontation (between the West and Iran) could be counterproductive and would not provide us with a durable solution," ElBaradei, calling for verbal restraint on all sides.

"There is universal recognition that the Iran issue has serious implications for international security. Everyone understands that escalation is not going to help a situation that is highly, highly volatile in the Middle East," he said.

...more...

[EuroObserver]

18. More from same source:

ElBaradei said Iran's insistence on pursuing enrichment research with centrifuge machines remained "a divisive issue, with both parties (EU and Iran) taking a hard line..."

Aliasghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, told Reuters Tehran was awaiting answers from EU powers and Russia on its compromise formula. "To prove Iran's nuclear activities have a peaceful nature, we will show maximum cooperation," he said.

But EU chiefs spurned Iran's overture on Friday because they believe Tehran will not master the technology to run thousands of centrifuge machines in unison for several years anyway.

They again pressed Iran to abandon enrichment research in exchange for guaranteed supplies of purified uranium from Russia. This, in theory, would prevent diversion of sensitive nuclear materials into warhead production on Iranian territory.

Tehran has complained of double standards -- India, Israel and Pakistan enjoy good ties with the West although they built atom bombs in secret -- and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned of unspecified consequences if Tehran faces a U.N. crackdown.

"If they exert political pressure on us, we will revise our decisions and change our behaviour," he said. "There is no need for them to create problems for themselves and for us."

Responding to a U.S. warning of "painful consequences" if Iran pursued its nuclear aims, Gholamali Rashid, the deputy head of the Iranian armed forces, promised to turn the country into a "killing field" for any foreign attackers.

...more...

[Roland99]

21. Tell it to the gas stations. Gas up to $2.49 now. Was $1.99 2 wks ago.

[AnneD]

51. Morning Marketeers,

:donut: Last week gas was $1.99. This week, same station (and probably same gas)$2.14. Same story all over the town...15 cent or more jump. And it's not even spring break yet...

And speaking of Spring, my favourite harbinger of Spring has arrived. I saw Peeps in the store. For those of you (our overseas friends) unfamiliar with this, Peeps are Marshmallow Chicks (they also have bunnies now)covered in coloured sugar)and given in children's Easter baskets. They are ok, but personally, I preform the ritual I call the 'Aging of the Peeps'. I buy them after Easter, puncture the wrapping and let them dry out. In 2-4 weeks I have the perfect delicacy. For more info on Peeps check out this scholarly web site

www.peepresearch.org

[UpInArms]

60. Signs of Spring here, too, AnneD

A bluebird on my clothesline yesterday and 2 robins frolicking in the yard :)

[54anickel]

84. Spring? We just got 4 inches of snow, more this morning. Good news

is a warm up coming our way - with lots of rain...Ugh!

Aged Peeps - My S-I-L does the same thing. Obviously an aquired taste. Personally, I can't stand the things - fresh or aged.





http://www.millikin.edu/staley/fluff/peep_research.html

[AnneD]

97. It never ceases to amaze me....

I have discussed 'Aged Peeps' on other threads and there are quite a few folks that have the same ritual.

[54anickel]

98. Heh-heh, I just googled aged peeps - unfriggenbelievable

Results 1 - 10 of about 264,000 for aged peeps. (0.08 seconds)

[AnneD]

101. WOW....

I'm not alone. I don't consume them in massive amounts but the are great aged and even better aged AND toasted. You can spot us scooping up the Peeps after the holidays when they are 4 for a dollar.

[UpInArms]

24. China to fill strategic oil reserve in '06

http://feeds.asiapacificnews.net/?rid=954be7603bcf1c8f&cat=4a8b544d0e80ba53&f=1

MAR. 6 5:06 A.M. ET China expects to start filling its strategic oil reserves at Zhenhai in the eastern province of Zhejiang by the end of this year, the minister who heads the country's economic planning agency said Monday.

Ma Kai, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said construction of the 16-tank Zhenhai facility was finished. Three more strategic oil reserve facilities are due to be completed in 2007 and 2008, he told reporters on the sidelines of China's annual lemgislative session.

The additional three facilities would be filled "in due course" once their construction is completed, Ma said. Those facilities are to be located in Daishan in Zhejiang, in Huangdao in Shandong province southeast of Beijing and in Xingang in Liaoning province in the northeast.

The reserve is meant to cushion China against possible interruptions of foreign supplies. Previous reports said Beijing plans to stockpile up to 100 million barrels of petroleum, or the equivalent of almost a month's national consumption.

<snip>

China supplied its own energy needs for decades from domestic oil fields, but became a net petroleum importer in the 1990s. Driven by a booming economy, it has quickly risen to become the world's third-biggest oil importer, after Japan and the United States.

...more at link...

[UpInArms]

41. April Crude @ $63.45 bbl - April NatGas @ $6.57 mln btus

10:11 AM ET 3/6/06 APRIL CRUDE FALLS 22C TO $63.45/BRL IN EARLY NY TRADING

10:11 AM ET 3/6/06 APRIL NATURAL GAS DOWN 22C, OR 3.2%, AT $6.57/MLN BTUS

[UpInArms]

83. April Crude @ $62.20 bbl - April NatGas @ $6.49 mln btus

12:37 PM ET 3/6/06 APRIL CRUDE FALLS TO ITS LOWEST LEVEL SINCE WEDNESDAY

12:37 PM ET 3/6/06 APRIL CRUDE LAST DOWN $1.47, OR 2.3%, AT $62.20/BRL

12:37 PM ET 3/6/06 APRIL NATURAL GAS DROPS 30C, OR 4.4%, TO $6.49/MLN BTUS

:wow: "lowest since Wednesday" :sarcasm:

[ozymandius]

4. Saudi, Kuwait call for OPEC output rollover to cool off prices

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) - Main Gulf oil producers Saudi Arabia and Kuwait called for
OPEC to maintain its current production ceiling in order to cool off high prices when the cartel meets in Vienna this week.

"I believe because of the ... (high) price, we have to maintain our production. I believe that still the prices are high. For that we have to help prices to be more stable," Kuwaiti Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah told reporters.

In an interview published Monday, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi also said that OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia does not want the organization to cut its output ceiling of 28 million barrels per day (bpd) so as not to push prices further up when it meets on Wednesday.

more...

[ozymandius]

5. World's biggest stock exchange goes public in growth quest

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Founded by some traders under a tree on Wall Street two centuries ago, the world's biggest stock exchange enters a new growth phase this week as it goes public, building a war chest to expand globally and add assets.

The New York Stock Exchange ends 213 years as a member-owned exchange on Tuesday when it seals its purchase of electronic rival Archipelago Holdings (AX.P) and sets up the NYSE Group Inc. (NYSE:NYX - news) which starts trading on Wednesday.

Adding stock options, fixed income products and more over-the-counter trading to its menu, the NYSE will pit itself in the United States against the younger, more nimble Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ - news), the world's second largest exchange.

But with the NYSE planning a share sale within weeks of going public, analysts also expect the new company to be quick off the mark to join the ongoing consolidation among bourses in Europe and even in Asia.

more...

[KoKo]

45. This sounds like a great benefit to those with "seats" on the exchange

who will make a windfall...but seems like a portender of very bad things down the road. Seems like NYSE will become a Casino...and who will be holding the winning cards? Surely not us as investors.

I hope there will be some interesting articles explaining the pitfalls down the road for this. There must be some that are known...when one get's past the hype. :shrug:

[ozymandius]

6. With Little Upcoming News, Stocks May Rest

NEW YORK - Anybody hoping for a stock market rally should probably just take this week off. With little economic data and few earnings reports due, trading likely will be one of those exercises in wait-and-see.

Market watchers certainly can be pleased by the fact that last week, despite bad news that created some price volatility, Wall Street remained resilient for the second week in a row. However, it was also the second straight week where stocks failed to advance.

There's nothing really fundamentally wrong with the market. Corporate profit growth is expected to slow as the year goes on, but for now, Wall Street seems to believe that stocks are fairly valued and a good investment.

:rofl:

more...

[EuroObserver]

7. Nikkei +1.52% Topix +0.84%: Late rebound, low turnover, improved sentiment

(Kyodo) _ Tokyo stocks advanced Monday for the first time in four trading days with Softbank gaining sharply on news that it may buy Vodafone Group PLC's Japanese unit, but overall trading was thin ahead of the Bank of Japan's policy meeting later this week.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average rose 237.82 points, or 1.52 percent, to 15,901.16. The Tokyo Stock Price Index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange gained 13.50 points, or 0.84 percent, to 1,626.46.

Shares fluctuated without clear direction from early on, with the major stock indexes hovering within a narrow range in both positive and negative territory. But with the U.S. dollar's appreciation against the yen spurring buying of export-oriented high-tech and automaker issues and bargain-hunters launching buying, the major indexes gained upward momentum later to climb toward the end of the day's trading.
...

Trading was thin, with volume on the TSE's main section totaling 1,565.09 million shares, down from Friday's 1,731.24 million.

Many investors stuck to the sidelines as they waited to see whether the BOJ will end its five-year-old ultra-loose quantitative-easing monetary policy at its next policy meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, brokers said. ...more...

[EuroObserver]

9. Yen falls sharply as market looks to BOJ meeting

TOKYO, March 6 (Reuters) - The yen fell sharply on Monday as some investors bet that Japanese interest rates would stay far lower than those of other major currencies even after an expected end to the Bank of Japan's ultra-loose monetary policy.

The BOJ is seen ending its five-year-old "quantitative easing" policy as early as this week, and many market players expect the central bank to raise rates from virtually zero by the end of the year.

But the dollar's failure to hold convincingly below 116 yen last week despite mounting speculation for a BOJ policy shift encouraged investors to pile back into higher yielding currencies including the U.S. and Australian dollars, traders said.

"We're seeing continued interest from Japanese investors to sell the yen and go for yield," said Noriyuki Kato, treasury manager at State Street in Tokyo. "And the market has already jumped on the BOJ issue so by the time the fact comes out it could be a non-event."

The dollar hit one-month lows against the euro, Swiss franc and sterling on Monday, dented versus the euro-zone's currency by growing expectations that the European Central Bank will keep boosting interest rates. ...more...

[UpInArms]

17. Japan PM, BOJ's Fukui avoid policy row at dinner

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyid=2006-03-06T123611Z_01_T265131_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-JAPAN-YOSANO.XML

TOKYO, March 6 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui said nothing new about monetary policy at a dinner meeting of the premier's top economic advisers on Monday, members of the advisory panel said.

With the BOJ expected to end its ultra-easy monetary policy as soon as this week, despite mounting calls from government officials to think twice about such a move, news of the meeting had raised speculation that Koizumi might ask the BOJ to put off a policy change.

"They just told the other members what they said in parliament today," Trade Minister Toshihiro Nikai told reporters after the two-hour dinner meeting.

Asked if Koizumi had made any policy request at the meeting, Fukui told reporters afterwards: "There wasn't any."

He did not elaborate.

...more...

[EuroObserver]

8. Europe follows Asia up on strong results, more m&a

Swiss SMI up 0.40% at 7947.44 in Zurich 09:17:39 CET
CAC 40 opens up 0.7% at 5,025.7 in Paris
Xetra Dax 30 opens up 0.5% at 5,750.6 in Frankfurt
FTSE 100 opens up 0.5% at 5,885.1 in London

LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - European stocks rose on Monday, tracking gains in Asian markets, and as oil prices dipped, with Vodafone <VOD.L> boosting telecoms for the second session in a row.

Europe's biggest bank HSBC Holdings <HSBA.L> advanced 2 percent after it reported pretax profit of $21 billion, above average analysts' forecast and a record profit for a UK bank. Vodafone rallied 3 percent, extending Friday's 8-percent surge, as newspapers reported the mobile phone company plans to pay shareholders a 5 billion pound special dividend following any sale of a stake in its Japanese unit.

By 0820 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index <.FTEU3> was 0.6 percent stronger at 1,350.6 points, above a two-week low of 1,335.1 struck last Friday.
...

"The reporting earnings season is bringing increasingly more positive than negative surprises," Charles Dautresme, a strategist at S&P Equity research said in a note.

The top blue-chip gainer was Generali <GASI.MI>, up 4 percent after the Italian insurer beats its own 2005 targets and said it will buy out minorities in its German, Austrian and Swiss units. Among other standouts, shares in BOC <BOC.L> rose 0.7 percent to 1,555 pence after German industrial gases and forklift group Linde <LING.DE> said it will offer 1,600 pence per share in cash to acquire its UK rival. Shares in Linde rallied 3 percent. ...more...

LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 <.FTSE> index hit 5,900 points for the first time since June 2001 on Monday as hopes of a special dividend boosted mobile phone giant Vodafone <VOD.L> and as takeover talk lifted other telecoms stocks.

BT Group <BT.L> added 3.2 percent and Cable & Wireless <CW.L> rose 0.7 percent on bid speculation. Sector consolidation hopes among telecoms generally were also helped after AT&T <T.N> said it would buy BellSouth <BLS.N> for $67 billion.

The FTSE 100 <.FTSE> index was up 34.9 points at 5,893.6 points by 0833 GMT, just under a session high of 5,900 points. ...more...

[EuroObserver]

11. Bourses extend gains as bid talk goes on

(FT) Last Update: 3/6/2006 8:06:48 ET
European stocks were stronger on Monday, driven by bid speculation and positive earnings surprises, with Italy’s Generali leading the way after beating its own targets on full-year earnings. By midday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.8 per cent to 1,353.48, while Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax was 0.6 per cent higher at 5,753.37. In Paris, the CAC 40 climbed 0.8 per cent to 5,030.5 and London’s FTSE 100 gained 1.1 per cent to 5,922.3. Linde, the German industrial gases and forklift company, gained 6.4 per cent to €69.72 agreed to buy Britain’s BOC Group for £8bn. Linde, which will recommend the deal to shareholders later, will pay £16 a share in cash. Enel, the Italian utility, gained 0.2 per cent to €6.92 after it was reported to be chasing a syndicated loan of up to €50bn to help fund a takeover in France. Although the company’s attempt to purchase Suez appeared scuppered last month with the government’s announcement of a merger with Gaz de France, shares in Suez rallied from last week’s losses. ...source...

[EuroObserver]

14. Optimism grows on European economy

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=reutersEdge&storyID=2006-03-06T102418Z_01_NOA637192_RTRUKOC_0_ANALYSIS-EUROPE-ECONOMY.xml

PARIS (Reuters) - Oil prices are high and interest rates are rising, but the euro zone's economy appears to be accelerating in spite of it all.

How strongly or for how long is another question, but for now the recovery story has the upper hand.

Two monthly surveys of companies published this week showed a further heating up of activity in the manufacturing and service sectors in February, reinforcing a recovery scenario of which most economists are already pretty confident.

A week earlier Germany's Ifo survey of business morale hit a 14-year high, apparently unrestrained by oil prices which are above $60 a barrel and heading upwards again.

If a note of caution was needed, Italy provided it this week when it announced zero economic growth for 2005, following news of zero German growth in the last three months of the year and not much better in France or the euro zone as a whole.

"I don't think this is another false dawn but what we have here is another reminder that the incipient recovery remains very fragile," said Jean-Michel Six, chief European economist at credit rating agency Standard & Poor's.

BEG TO DIFFER

Many economists share his measured optimism, the more so since publication on Friday of the NTC research company's index on the of euro zone service sector, which showed growth at a 5-year high. A similar survey on manufacturing was upbeat too.

There are doubters, however, who believe forecasters are too fast to forget that high-frequency indicators have done the same thing in the past without any lasting improvement in the economy.

"We've been there before," said Ronald Janssen, senior economist at the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). "At end 2001/beginning 2002 and beginning 2004, business confidence indicators also picked up but the recovery that resulted was short-lived."

ETUC's equivalent on the employer side, UNICE, sounded a cautious note too after the European Central Bank raised euro zone interest rates for a second time in three months on Thursday, to 2.50 percent.

"UNICE's forthcoming spring economic outlook (report) ... will show that the momentum of the ongoing recovery is fragile and that inflationary pressures should remain contained over the next two years," the UNICE federation said.

Euro zone growth slid to 0.3 percent in the last three months of 2005 from 0.6 percent quarter-on-quarter growth in the July-September period, the strongest quarter of what was a weaker year overall with 1.3 percent growth.

...more...

[EuroObserver]

105. Europe markets continue merry way, for now...

Swiss SMI closed up 0.02% at 7917.18 in Zurich 17:30:36 CET
CAC 40 up 0.4 per cent at 5,010.7 in closing exchanges in Paris 17:37 CET
Xetra Dax 30 closes up 0.6% at 5,754.1 in Frankfurt 17:36 CET
FTSE 100 up 0.6% at 5,891.4 in London as news of record annual profit at HSBC lifts London blue chips to near 5 year high 16:35 GMT
FTSE Eurofirst 300 up 0.6% at 1,350.2 in closing exchanges in London 16:39 GMT
FTSE 250 hits fresh all-time high, up 0.8% at 9,546.0 in closing exchanges in London 16:38 GMT

Bourses end higher, but gains trimmed on nervous Wall St
European stocks were stronger on Wednesday, driven by bid speculation and positive earnings surprises, but gains were capped after Wall Street got off to a hesitant start. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 closed up 0.6 per cent to 1,350.16, while Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax was 0.6 per cent higher at 5,754.06. In Paris, the CAC 40 climbed 0.4 per cent to 5,010.72 and London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.7 per cent to 5,897.8. Linde, the German industrial gases and forklift company, gained 7.5 per cent to €70.45 after it agreed to buy Britain’s BOC Group for £8bn (€11.76bn). Enel, the Italian utility, fell 0.3 per cent to €6.89 after it was reported to be chasing a syndicated loan of up to €50bn to help fund a takeover in France. Although the company’s attempt to purchase Suez appeared scuppered last month with the government’s announcement of a merger with Gaz de France, shares in Suez rallied from last week’s losses. Having fallen more than 7 per cent on downbeat assessments of the merger, Suez bounced 4.6 per cent to €32.64 ...source...

[KoKo]

10. AT&T/Bell South Buyout involves Bird Hunting in Ga. and Aspens....

(Is this weird or what. :eyes: bird hunting and Aspens once again come up...this time in a business context )


Huge Phone Deal Seeks to Thwart Smaller Rivals
by Ken Benson

-snip-

The merger, one of the dozen largest deals ever, was long the subject of speculation and got a major push in January when the chiefs of both companies went bird hunting together in Georgia

-snip-

After their day out, the men promised to go to their boards and pursue a deal. Several weeks later, the executives met again privately and shook hands on a deal, setting off another three-week marathon of conference calls and meetings.

The deal was given the code name Project Mountain, while AT&T was referred to as Aspen, BellSouth was called Birch and Cingular Cedar. The mountain theme was chosen because, as one person put it, "This deal has been a long climb."

Over the last three weeks, both sides camped out at the midtown Manhattan offices of Sullivan & Cromwell, which represented AT&T. Mr. Whitacre called in from Torino, where he was watching the Olympics. On Saturday, the boards of both companies met to approve the transaction.

http://nytimes.com/2006/03/06/business/06phone.html?hp&...

[UpInArms]

20. AT&T deal a 'flash point' for concerns

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/FvJP8c3FmtwC38WbXxGf2c1?siteid=mktw&dist=morenews

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Even before AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. announced their $67 billion merger, consumer-advocacy groups were speaking out against the combination.

"This merger becomes a critical flash point in this growing concern about the future of the Internet in the United States," Jeff Chester, executive director for the Center for Digital Democracy, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, told MarketWatch.

"This deal is based on the ability of AT&T to control a huge sector of the broadband marketplace. ... We see it as anticompetitive and undemocratic."

A statement from Chester before the deal was announced went further: "If we permit more takeovers, such as AT&T (T 27.99, -0.29, -1.0% ) and BellSouth (BLS 31.46, -0.42, -1.3% ) , we will soon witness a further shrinking of the number of conglomerates dominating our local and national media. ... But are sadly mistaken if they believe there won't be intense opposition to this deal."

The consumer groups and activists blame the 1996 Telecommunications Act for a wave of mergers and consolidation in broadcast, communications and media markets that they say has brought higher prices and fewer options for customers.

...more...

[UpInArms]

22. Job cuts feared as AT&T makes $67 billion bid for BellSouth

http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4588680

ATLANTA -- While AT and T Inc.'s $67 billion bid for BellSouth Corp. would expand the number of voices using the country's largest telecommunications company, it may end up sounding more like a hang up for some employees.

San Antonio-based AT and T expects the acquisition announced Sunday to save it $2 billion annually, partially from job cuts and combining the two work forces.

Officials would not say how many jobs might be cut if the deal is approved by shareholders and regulators over the next year, but staff reductions are common in such mergers. Cingular Wireless LLC, a joint venture of AT and T and BellSouth, cut about 7,000 jobs after its $41 billion acquisition of AT and T Wireless in October 2004.

More savings from the proposed acquisition would come from reduced advertising expenses and combining the backbone network and information-technology operations of the companies.

The purchase of Atlanta-based BellSouth would give AT and T total control of Cingular, the nation's largest cell phone provider, and BellSouth's nine-state network. Together, the three companies employ more than 316,000 people.

...more...

[UpInArms]

58. AT&T sees 10,000 jobs cuts after BellSouth deal

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyid=2006-03-06T160146Z_01_N06253034_RTRIDST_0_TELECOMS-ATT-URGENT.XML

NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - AT&T Inc. (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which has agreed to buy BellSouth Corp.(BLS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for $67 billion in stock, on Monday said it expects to cut some 10,000 jobs between 2007 and 2009, once the acquisition has closed.

The deal, announced on Sunday, would bring ownership of Cingular Wireless, the No. 1 U.S. wireless telephone company, under one roof, which Wall Street analysts have said would streamline management and allow one parent company to enjoy all of the financial benefits.

[UpInArms]

81. more info: that 10,000 is in addition to 13,000 planned job cuts

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&refer=us&sid=aTvWWanfW2go

March 6 (Bloomberg) -- AT&T Inc., the largest U.S. telephone company, plans to eliminate about 10,000 jobs after completing the $67 billion purchase of BellSouth Corp.

The reductions will come in 2007 and 2009, Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner said on a conference call today with analysts. With BellSouth and Cingular, San Antonio-based AT&T's workforce will rise to 317,000 from 189,000. The cuts are about 3 percent of that.

Job reductions represent about 50 percent of the planned $18 billion in cost savings AT&T expects to extract from the purchase. The acquisition will cement AT&T's position as the dominant U.S. provider of local, long-distance and wireless calling and enable it to better fend off new competition from cable-television companies and Internet calling companies.

``It's a realization that the world is changing and it's changing faster and faster,'' AT&T Chief Executive Officer Ed Whitacre said on the call. ``We saw that the sooner we did this, the better off we'd be.''

The reductions are in addition to the 13,000 jobs that AT&T plans to shed as part of last year's combination between SBC Communications Inc. and AT&T Corp., which created the largest U.S. phone provider. BellSouth adds 63,000 workers to the payroll.

[KoKo]

89. Ha! and here's the "Aspen" connection to Blount from your link....

In March 2004, Blunt used a BellSouth jet to fly from Washington to the ski resort of Aspen, Colorado, to attend a fund-raiser for Representative Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican. That was followed by a hop to Denver for another fund-raiser for Representative Bob Beauprez, a Colorado Republican, then a return trip to Washington.


These folks need to "refresh" their "code words" I think... Otherwise it's starting to look like those Aspen's roots really do grow in "clusters."

Sheesh...

And, I wonder if Saxby Chambliss just happens to own a nice "hunting preserve" there in Georgia. Wouldn't surprise me to find a plantation there... with his name on it in a Google search....

[UpInArms]

78. I wonder if Roy Blunt was in on those "hunting trips"?

U.S. Lawmakers Flew Private Jets Over 2,000 Times, Study Shows

The most-frequent flyer: Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the No. 3-ranking House Republican. Blunt reimbursed companies at least 91 times for jet travel during the five-year period, paying back companies such as BellSouth Corp. $125,187, according to the study by PoliticalMoneyLine, a Washington-based company that analyzed Federal Election Commission figures.

<snip>

``A member of Congress can't walk away when a lobbyist plies their trade at 40,000 feet,'' said Kent Cooper, the former head of disclosure at the FEC and a co-founder of PoliticalMoneyLine, which tracks money in politics. ``A corporate jet means no baggage lines, no security delays, no cramped leg room, just relaxation in a plush environment.

<snip>

Blunt is followed by Representative Michael Oxley, an Ohio Republican who's chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Senator Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican who heads the Senate agriculture committee. Nine of the top 10 flyers are Republicans, with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid being the only Democrat.

<snip>

Atlanta-based BellSouth was reimbursed 129 times by lawmakers for corporate flights in the past four years, for a total of $160,624, ranking third behind Greenwich, Connecticut- based smokeless tobacco maker UST Corp. and Memphis-based FedEx Corp.

BellSouth tries to provide a plane for a member of Congress if one is available, and the company averages about 25 flights a year, said Bill McCloskey, a Washington-based spokesman. The company also tries to place a lobbyist on the flight, he said.

[KoKo]

87. Sounds like he could have been.

Looks like a deal no matter whether it was Blount or the rest of them.... It's too bad AT&T is now Texas based because this is something I'll bet Spitzer in NY would go after. Maybe someone will make the connection and get some action started.

Thanks for all the links on this, UIA's. :-)'s

[UpInArms]

13. daily dollar watch

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

Last trade 89.83 Change +0.28 (+0.31%)

Speculative Traders Sharply Reduce Their Implied Dollar Long Positions

http://www.dailyfx.com/story/charting_center/futures_positioning__cot_report/7144_speculative_traders_sharply_reduce_their_implied_dollar_long.html

US Dollar Index: The NYBOT traded contract saw the commercials add to their net short positions as index fell below the psychologically important 90.00 handle. Weekly Volume rose to almost 20K contracts, with the On Balance Volume indicator continuing to signal an increase of the upside volume. Speculative positions increased their net long exposure to 15,353 net long contracts, while commercials increased their short exposure to the contract to 15,100 net short contracts. Open interest fell by 1,923 contracts to 30,389 contracts outstanding.

<snip>

EUR: Euro speculative traders sharply increased their net long positions to 18,402 contracts, with overall open interest rising sharply by additional 8,381 contracts from the previous week to 159,681 contracts outstanding. Commercial traders significantly increased their existing net short positions to 25,649 net commercial short contracts outstanding, as institutional traders expect the pair to once again head lower.

<snip>

JPY: Japanese Yen speculative traders sharply reduced their positions as pair tested offers above the 115.00 handle, with speculative traders reducing their exposure to 22,821 net short contracts outstanding. Commercials continued to decrease their net long positions with 20,036 net long contracts remaining in the market. Open interest fell by 1,692 contracts to 201,773 contracts outstanding.

...more...

Dollar Gives Up Further Ground To Majors

http://www.dailyfx.com/story/dailyfx_reports/daily_technicals/7126_dollar_gives_up_further_ground_to.html

EUR/USD – Euro bulls continued to push the pair higher with the latest swing to the upside encountering greenback offers 1.2057, a level marked by the 200-day SMA. A further move to the upside will most likely see the pair advance toward 1.2116, a level marked by the 50.0 Fib of the 1.2588-1.1639 USD rally. In case greenback longs fail to push back the advancing single currency bulls, a further move to the upside will most likely see the pair extend its gains toward 1.2189, a level established by the January 31 daily high. A further break to the upside will most likely see the EUR/USD head above the 1.2200 figure and target the dollar offers around 1.2221, a level established by the 61.8 Fib of the 1.2588-1.1639 USD rally. Indicators are mixed with positive momentum indicator diverging from negative MACD below the zero line, while neutral oscillators give either side enough room to maneuver.

<snip>

USD/JPY – Japanese Yen longs continued to head higher after failing to gain traction below the 116.00 figure and above the 50-day SMA at 116.69. As greenback bulls dominate the price action, a move to the upside will most likely see the USD/JPY head higher and wit ha break above 117.00 figure make its way toward 117.38, a level established by the 23.6 Fib of the 104.16-121.46 USD rally and is further reinforced by the 20-day SMA. A further move on the part of the greenback longs will most likely see the pair head higher and wit ha move above the 118.00-119.00 zone target the yen offers around 119.36, a level defended by the February 3 daily high. A sustained momentum on the part of the greenback bulls will most likely see the dollar bulls push the pair toward the psychologically important 120.00 handle. Indicators are mixed with negative momentum indicator diverging from positive MACD above the zero line, while oversold Stochastic gives dollar longs a chance for a countermove.

...more...

[UpInArms]

39. BOK (Bank of Korea) posts $1.9 billion record loss

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200603/06/200603062159147639900090509052.html

Korea's central bank said yesterday it posted a record loss in 2005 due to its efforts to prevent state intervention in the currency market from boosting the nation's money supply.

The Bank of Korea registered a net loss of 1.9 trillion won ($1.9 billion) last year, compared with a shortfall of 150 billion won a year earlier and an earlier estimate of 1.5 trillion won.

The record loss caused the central bank's retained earnings to tumble to 3.8 trillion won in 2005 from 5.8 trillion won in 2003, the bank said.

The central bank attributed last year's huge loss to a jump in the amount of monetary stabilization bonds issued to prevent a rise in the money supply stemming from intervention in the currency market by the nation's foreign exchange authorities.

The nation's foreign exchange authorities intervened heavily in the foreign exchange market last year in a desperate bid to keep the won from rising against the U.S. dollar.

<snip>

According to the central bank, the amount of outstanding monetary stabilization bonds came to 155.2 trillion won at the end of last year, up 12.4 trillion won from a year ago.

...more...

[UpInArms]

15. U.S. Treasuries steady to lower; yield at 1-yr high

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyid=2006-03-06T055112Z_01_T186545_RTRIDST_0_MARKETS-JAPAN-TREASURIES.XML

TOKYO, March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury prices were steady to slightly lower in Asia on Monday, with the 10-year yield matching one-year highs hit late last week in the wake of a strong activity reading in the U.S. services sector.

The Institute for Supply Management's index of services sector activity rose to 60.1 from 56.8 in January, topping economists' forecast for a more modest rise to 58.0.

The data underscored the market view that the Federal Reserve will raise its key federal funds rate two more times this year to 5.0 percent, and some players are starting to forecast that the Fed may raise rates further than that.

"Treasury yields had been too low given the outlook for the Fed's rate hikes," said a trader at a Japanese bank. "I think yields will gradually rise to reflect the chances of more rate hikes.

...more...

[UpInArms]

16. Treasury benchmark yield at 4.724%

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B9117148D%2DF27D%2D4053%2DB0D6%2D30EBD5AD6A43%7D&dateid=38782%2E3436953472%2D862984426&siteid=mktw&dist=newsfinder

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Treasury prices were under sharp pressure once more at Monday's opening, sending the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to its highest level since June, 2004. In recent sessions Treasury prices have been pressured by concerns that interest rates may be on the rise in the U.S., Japan and the euro zone. They also have been hurt by strong competition from corporate supply and worries that foreign central banks are diversifying away form U.S. assets. The benchmark 10-year note last was down 10/32 at 98-7/32 with a yield ($TNX 47.14, +0.30, +0.6% ) of 4.724%.

[UpInArms]

50. Printing Press Report: Fed buys coupons, adding permanent reserves

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyid=2006-03-06T154315Z_01_N06352877_RTRIDST_0_MARKETS-FED-OPERATIONS-URGENT.XML

NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve said on Monday that it was adding permanent reserves to the banking system by buying coupons.

The Fed said it was buying coupons with maturities ranging from September 15, 2010 to February 15, 2014.

There were three exclusions. Further details of the operations are available at: http://www.ny.frb.org/markets/omo/dmm/temp.cfm

The benchmark fed funds rate last traded at 4.5 percent, the Fed's target for the overnight lending rate on loans between banks.

Earlier, the Fed added temporary reserves to the banking system through overnight system repurchase agreements.

[UpInArms]

57. Treasury halts new fund investments to avoid debt limit

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B34DA9C70%2D2688%2D4904%2DB355%2D1A3FF2F53ACF%7D&dateid=38782%2E458493287%2D862995576&siteid=mktw&dist=newsfinder

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. Treasury on Monday suspended new investments in a government retirement fund to avoid hitting the $8.18 trillion national debt ceiling. This is the latest move by the Treasury to avoid bumping up against the debt limit and follows another move Friday to save $15 billion. Treasury Secretary John Snow told congressional leaders Monday that Treasury has now taken "all prudent and legal actions to avoid reaching the statutory debt limit." New borrowing capacity will run out in mid-March, according to Treasury. Monday's action halts new investments in the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund.

[UpInArms]

63. US Treasury acts to stay under debt limit

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyid=2006-03-06T162701Z_01_WBT004902_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-DEBT-URGENT.XML

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department said on Monday it is auctioning a 6-day cash management bill and suspending new investments of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund to stay below the government's $8.18 trillion debt limit.

Treasury said it is also likely to auction a one-day cash management bill to avoid breaching the debt ceiling while meeting projected mid-March cash needs.



http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm

03/02/2006        $8,270,651,337,575.14


 Current
  Month

03/01/2006        $8,269,768,312,946.41

<snip>

09/28/2001        $5,807,463,412,200.06
09/29/2000        $5,674,178,209,886.86

[UpInArms]

69. US Treasury using last debt limit tool - Quarles

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyid=2006-03-06T164539Z_01_WBT004904_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-TREASURY-DEBT-QUARLES-URGENT.XML

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Randal Quarles said on Monday the government had accessed the last of its liquidity tools to stay under its $8.184 trillion statutory debt ceiling.

The treasury said earlier it is auctioning a 6-day cash management bill and suspending new investments of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund. It said it also will likely auction a one-day cash management bill to avoid breaching the ceiling.

Treasury previously dipped into other government pension ane foreign exchange funds and has halted sales of State and Local Government Series securities (SLGS).

"Today we have begun accessing the last one. So we've used all the other tools," Quarles said following a speech to state treasurers.

Quarles, who is in charge of domestic finance, also said the government was "running out of room" under the debt ceiling and it was imperative that Congress act to lift it before the March legislative recess.

...more...

[AnneD]

70. So what is the diffrence between private companies...

not putting enough money in their pensions....and the government not putting 'new investments' in the Civil Service Retirement and Disability fund. The main thing is that the government CAN raise taxes (which is why a tax based pension is safer-but STILL). Sounds like the government is playing the same shell game they are doing on WS.

[UpInArms]

74. see my post #73

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2147812&mesg_id=2148331

[UpInArms]

85. update

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyid=2006-03-06T171940Z_01_N06272853_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-DEBT-UPDATE-1.XML

Treasury officials said despite these moves, and others it has taken in recent days, the government is expected to breach the congressionally set threshold by mid-March.

In a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert, Treasury Secretary John Snow said Treasury had taken all "prudent and legal" actions to avoid hitting the ceiling and urged Congress pass an increase immediately.

The Treasury will sell $7 billion of six-day cash management bills on Tuesday, March 7, and expects to auction a second, smaller, one-day cash management bill that will settle on March 14, maturing March 15.

"These actions will allow us to simultaneously remain below the statutory debt limit and meet our projected mid-March cash needs," the Treasury said in a statement.

Randal Quarles, Treasury's undersecretary for domestic finance, told an audience of state treasurers there were "real costs" associated with maneuvers to stay under the limit.

[54anickel]

90. GACK!!! Why does that give me the chills?

On Friday, Treasury used the $15 billion in the Exchange Stabilization Fund, a seldom-used pool of money earmarked to stabilize currency rates, Treasury officials said.

[ozymandius]

109. Could it be?

Will propping up the dollar consist of raiding every mattress the government owns?

[w8liftinglady]

104. I'm naive-what will the outcome of this be?

[54anickel]

120. Probably nothing. Right now it's a political game of chicken.

The Treasury says the cupboard is bare and goes to Congress to approve a loan to buy more cookies since the Congress ate them all.

Congress puffs up and says no way, I just got you a loan last week. You need to show some discipline and prove you can make those cookies last longer first.

Treasury says sure, guess I'll be putting everyone on a diet and starts by cutting the cookies to those who will scream the loudest and/or be hurt the most.

Congress gets the munchies for more cookies themselves and not wanting to loose votes and support, approves raising the debt limit. But, they got to on record for being tough with themselves. :eyes:


At least that's how it's always played out in the past, but it's mostly been played for the "entertainment" of the domestic crowd.

The game is a bit more interesting this time around because the debt is soooo large and completely dependent on foreign banks and investors. Interest rates are rising and making the dollar attractive at a time when they'd like the dollar to go down (makes paying back the debt easier). So, how do you "uglify" the buck without also drying up money from Treasuries? This public display sure makes the buck look rather homely. It's a hit they are willing to take. They'll be able to counter any unforeseen deep damage (if it occurs) later this month when they do away with the reporting of M-3. I think that is what has given them the nerve to mess with the ESF this time around. Meanwhile they are using other tactics to drive pension funds into the bond market.

Just my guess anyway. I'm talkin' outta my ass here. :shrug:

[UpInArms]

121. Wonderful analogy 54anickel! Add to that going to the baker and

trying to get him to put more filling in those cookies for free :evilgrin:

US's Adams-talks with China on yuan "productive"

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - Recent talks between U.S. and Chinese officials on China's exchange rate policies were productive, a senior U.S. official said on Monday, but officials would not provide further details.

"We raised the issue that we've raised publicly and that we've raised privately before, and it was a productive conversation," Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs Tim Adams told reporters at a briefing.

The United States wants China to allow more flexibility in trading of its currency, the yuan.

[54anickel]

123. Tee-hee. And I'll bet the baker will agree to it, but he's also going

to make them smaller, while charging the same price per dozen. B-)

[EuroObserver]

125. (*) small print: a dozen will henceforth consist of eleven (11) units...

...subject to revision (downward) without notice and without right of appeal.

[TrogL]

126. don't forget

(*)two plus two equals five for some large values of "two"

[UpInArms]

127. This will henceforth be called "The New and Improved Economy"!

smaller box, less product, higher price

[54anickel]

92. Shutdown looms if Senate doesn't up credit

But most Democrats and some Republicans say they won't vote for the increase on grounds that the budget must be brought under control.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/03/news/economy/senate_budget.reut/index.htm

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A nasty budget fight is brewing in Congress as Senate Democrats and some conservative Republicans said Friday that they will not support efforts this month to increase U.S. borrowing authority, a move needed to avoid a government default.

Democrats, who hope to gain control of the House and Senate in this year's congressional elections, are looking for a debate on the credit limit to highlight the nation's mounting debt at a time when President Bush also is pushing to make his tax cuts permanent.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid put all 55 Senate Republicans on notice that they "are going to have to belly up to the bar and vote to increase the debt," saying it was Republican budgets that have created the massive deficit spending requiring more federal borrowing.

"Democrats are not going to vote to increase this debt," Reid said.

Without an increase in U.S. borrowing authority, the federal government could face default. That would mean Washington would not be able to continue writing checks for a variety of activities, from meeting federal workers' payrolls to paying some retiree benefits. Federal parks could close, aid for the poor could be withheld and the space shuttle likely would be docked.

more...

[UpInArms]

61. 10-year yields highest since hikes began - curve still inverted

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BB74903A4%2DE3F7%2D4A31%2DB82F%2D49B76F087727%7D&dist=newsfinder&symbol=&siteid=mktw

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Yields on 10-year Treasury notes climbed again Monday, reaching their highest levels since June 2004, just before the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates.

The benchmark 10-year note last was down 6/32 at 98-11/32 with a yield of 4.71%, the highest since June 28, 2004.

Yields were higher across the maturity curve on Monday. The curve remained inverted, with a 5 basis-point spread between the yield on the 2-year note and the 30-year bond. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

There was little economic data on tap on Monday, leaving traders to focus on technical factors to drive trades.

The Commerce Department said factory orders plunged 4.5% in January, about as expected. See full story.

The National Association of Realtors said its pending home sales index slowed 1.1% in January and is now down 4.8% in the past 12 months. Read more.

In recent sessions Treasury prices have been pressured by concerns that interest rates may be on the rise in the United States, Japan and the euro zone. Higher rates in Europe and Japan would pressure U.S. interest rates because they would provide more attractive investment opportunities outside the United States.

...more...

[UpInArms]

65. US Treasury yields at 21-month high; focus on Fed

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyid=2006-03-06T163139Z_01_N06394937_RTRIDST_0_MARKETS-BONDS-UPDATE-1.XML

NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury debt prices fell for fourth straight session on Monday as data on factory orders and the real estate market did little to change views that the Federal Reserve will push interest rates higher.

January U.S. factory orders fell a bit less than expected but still recorded their biggest drop since July 2000. However, the report was full of upward revisions of individual components that offered support to the view that the Fed was probably not finished raising short-term interest rates.

That kept downward pressure on prices and yields on benchmark 10-year notes climbed to their highest since June 2004, when the Federal Reserve launched its current campaign to keep economic growth on track by raising interest rates.

January data on pending real estate sales were mixed. They came in higher than expected, but given an upward revision in the prior month's data, actually registered a month-on-month drop suggestive of slowing of home sales.

"The two series are kind of canceling each other out, but the bottom line is that everybody is looking ahead to Friday's non-farm payrolls report," said Mary Ann Hurley, a bond trader with D.A. Davidson & Co. in Seattle. "The heaviness continues," she added.

...more...

[UpInArms]

116. Treasuries extend slide as momentum favors bears

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyid=2006-03-06T205543Z_01_N06562505_RTRIDST_0_MARKETS-BONDS-UPDATE-3.XML

NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury debt prices tumbled for a fourth session on Monday, pushing benchmark yields to their highest since mid-2004 as the market's downward momentum forced investors to rush for the exits.

Investors with long-standing bets that short-term interest rates would rise faster than long-term ones appeared to be bailing out en masse, forcing a serious slide in longer-dated bond prices.

Benchmark 10-year notes dropped 15/32 for a yield of 4.74 percent, up from 4.68 percent on Friday and some 20 basis points higher than where they stood just one month ago.

The breach above key chart levels generated a snowballing effect that helped yields post their sharpest four-day spike in nine months. Bond bears are now gunning for 4.88 percent.

Sentiment had soured in fixed-income markets across the globe on signs that both the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan would rein in loose monetary policies.

The jump in yields was also helping narrow the gap between short- and long-term rates, unwinding a recent inversion of the yield curve.

...more...

[UpInArms]

19. GM unloads most of its Suzuki stake, raises $2 billion

http://today.reuters.com/misc/PrinterFriendlyPopup.aspx?type=ousiv&storyID=2006-03-06T113652Z_01_WEN2166_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESSPRO-AUTOS-GM-SUZUKI-DC.XML

TOKYO (Reuters) - Embattled U.S. auto giant General Motors Corp. <GM.N> said on Monday it would sell 17.4 percent of its stake in Suzuki Motor Corp. <7269.T> back to the Japanese car maker, raising around $2 billion in much-needed cash to restore its tattered balance sheet.

The sale, which would leave GM with a pre-1998 level of 3 percent in Suzuki.

It ends months of speculation about a possible unraveling of their equity relationship after the world's biggest auto maker unloaded its entire 20 percent stake in Japan's Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. <7270.T> last year, also to raise money.

The Detroit-based auto maker lost $8.6 billion in 2005 and is undergoing sweeping restructuring driven in part by new board member Jerry York, an aide to GM's largest individual shareholder, Kirk Kerkorian. York has called for more aggressive turnaround efforts, including the sale of various assets around the world.

<snip>

The reported sale of the stake in Suzuki also stoked market reaction to the possibility of a sale of GM's 7.9 percent stake in Isuzu Motors Ltd. <7202.T>, sending the Japanese truck maker's shares down 2.84 percent to 377 yen.

...more...

[54anickel]

23. Globalization's New Underclass (Roach)

http://www.morganstanley.com/GEFdata/digests/20060303-fri.html#anchor0

Billed as the great equalizer between the rich and the poor, globalization has been anything but. An increasingly integrated global economy is facing the strains of widening income disparities -- within countries and across countries. This has given rise to a new and rapidly expanding underclass that is redefining the political landscape. The growing risks of protectionism are an outgrowth of this ominous trend.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Globalization has long been portrayed as the rising tide that lifts all boats. The surprise is in the tide -- a rapid surge of IT-enabled connectivity that has pushed the global labor arbitrage quickly up the value chain. Only the elite at the upper end of the occupational hierarchy have been spared the pressures of an increasingly brutal wage compression. The rich are, indeed, getting richer but the rest of the workforce is not. This spells mounting disparities in the income distribution -- for developed and developing countries, alike.

The United States and China exemplify the full range of pressures bearing down on the income distribution. With per capita income of $38,000 and $1,700, respectively, the US and China are at opposite ends of the global income spectrum. Yet both countries have extreme disparities in the internal mix of their respective income distributions. This can be seen in their so-called Gini coefficients -- a statistical measure of the dispersion of income shares within a country. A Gini Index reading of “0” represents perfect equality, with each segment of the income distribution accounting for a proportionate share of total income. Conversely, a reading of “100” represents perfect inequality, with the bulk of a nation’s overall personal income being concentrated at the upper end of the distribution spectrum. In other words, the higher the Gini Index, the more unequal the income distribution. The latest Gini Index readings for the US (41) and China (45) are among the highest of all the major economies in the world -- pointing to a much greater incidence of inequality than in economies with more homogeneous distributions of income, such as Japan (25), Europe (32), and even India (33).

While the US and China suffer from similar degrees of income inequality, they have arrived at this point through very different means. In the case of the US, there is nothing new about elevated readings of income inequality. America’s Gini coefficient has been on the rise for over 35 years -- moving up from about 35 in 1970 to over 40 today. What is new is how America’s income distribution has become more unequal in a period of rapidly rising productivity growth -- a development that has been accompanied by an extraordinary bout of real wage stagnation over the past four years. Economics teaches us that in truly competitive labor markets such as America’s, workers are paid in accordance with their marginal productivity contribution. Yet that has not been the case for quite some time in the US. Over the past 16 quarters, productivity in the nonfarm US business sector has recorded a cumulative increase of 13.3% (or 3.3% per annum) -- more than double the 5.9% rise in real compensation per hour (stagnant wages plus rising fringe benefits) over the same period.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the relationship between productivity growth and worker compensation has broken down as the forces of globalization have intensified. First in manufacturing, now in services, the global labor arbitrage has been unrelenting in pushing US pay rates down to international norms. But the real wage compression in the US has not been uniform across the income spectrum. In large part, that has occurred because increasingly broad segments of the American labor market are now exposed to a uniquely powerful competitive force -- the IT-enabled arbitrage. Courtesy of the hyper-speed of sharply accelerating Internet penetration, the global labor arbitrage has pushed into areas that historically have been unaccustomed to wage competition. In earlier research I found that the disconnect between compensation and productivity growth during the current economic expansion has been much greater in services than in manufacturing. This once nontradable segment of the US economy is now feeling the increasingly powerful forces of the global labor arbitrage for the first time ever (see my 8 July 2005 dispatch, “Back to the Drawing Board”).

more....

[54anickel]

79. World Trade Needs a Global Cartel for Labor (Loooong piece)

http://henryckliu.com/page38.html

According to the current terms of global trade under dollar hegemony, the penalty for a non-dollar economy that uses dollar foreign capital is a low domestic standard of living to support a high return denominated in dollars on foreign capital. Since dollar profits for foreign capital cannot be used in the local non-dollar economy, such profits must leave the domestic economy in one form or another, either through direct repatriation, or in economies with currency control, through central bank foreign exchange reserves. Thus there are no recycling economic benefits to the non-dollar domestic economy from dollar profits earned by foreign investment. Such is the pugnacious nature of foreign direct investment (FDI). Under finance globalization, the unregulated competition among non-dollar economies for dollar-denominated FDI condemns domestic living standards to negative growth. The quest to profit from the lowest wages through cross-border wage arbitrage has been the driving force behind trade globalization, reducing trade from a process of gaining comparative advantage between trading economies to one of reinforcing absolute advantage for capital at the expense of labor for the benefit of global capital denominated in dollars. Cross-border wage arbitrage can hardly be classified as a proper division of labor in the Smithian sense, which implies rising wages through specialization. Structural systemic low wages are exploitation, not specialization of labor. Such exploitation need to be resisted by the formation of a global labor cartel such as an Organization of Labor-intensive Exporting Countries (OLEC).

snip>

In Ricardo’s view, poverty is not the result of the rich getting more than the poor, but the result of economic underdevelopment due to lack of savings. This has been the position adopted by most market liberals. Yet it is a fantasy to claim the existence of a free market for labor or that unemployment can provide savings for the unemployed. The labor market remains the most politically regulated commodity market in the international political economy where disparity of mobility between capital and labor is extreme. At the height of the high-tech bubble, Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board, testified before Congress that if low-wage workers overseas cannot move to fill jobs in the developed economies due to immigration constraints, the jobs will have to migrate to the workers in the developing economies to avoid inflation. The new Iron Law of Wages now operates in the globalized economy on cross-border wage arbitrage to produce low prices for consumer products in the high-wage economies that fewer and fewer consumers can afford because of rising job loss in high-wage economies. Countries like China and India are trading in their progressive socialist programs for Dickensian industrial hell while advanced economies like the US have become voluntary victims of home-grown economic imperialism that comes with dollar hegemony. There was never a more ripe time to revive labor solidarity as now. The most promising solution appears to be a global cartel for labor in the form of OLEC.

A Global Cartel for Labor Is Needed to Reverse Anti-labor Terms of Global Trade

The year of US independence, 1776, was a year of grand treatises in economics and politics. Adam Smith published his Wealth of Nations, the Abbé de Condillac his Commerce et le Gouvernement, Jeremy Bentham his Fragments on Government and Tom Paine his Common Sense. British mercantilism had led to a rebellion by the colonists in North America to establish a home-grown liberal republican government dedicated to laissez-faire, a statist policy against monopolistic mercantilism and in opposition to British “free-to-exploit” trade in the name of free trade. Today, job protection by governments should not be mistaken as trade protectionism. As long as a world order of nation states exists, economic nationalism must be the basis of international trade. Trade must enhance national wealth for all participating nations, not merely to enrich global transnational capital at the expense of universal economic democracy. National wealth is directly dependent on high wages. In a global economy, the decline in wealth in some nations will cause the decline in wealth in all nations. Terms of trade that depress wages are economically regressive, and should be reordered by a global cartel for labor.

Markets are not natural phenomena. As Karl Polanyi (1886-1964) pointed out, markets are recent developments in human history. Capitalism is a historical anomaly because while previous economic arrangements were "embedded" in social relations, in capitalism, the situation is reversed - social relations are defined by economic arrangements. In human history, rules of reciprocity, redistribution and communal obligations were far more frequent than market arrangements. Furthermore, not only does capitalism not exhibit historical humanistic values, its ascendancy actually destroys such values irreversibly.

Free markets are an oxymoron. Government is fundamentally involved in markets through the very creation and enforcement of property rights, an artificial socio-political concept without which markets cannot exit. Government regulation is also indispensable in preventing the natural emergence of monopolies in unregulated markets. Free markets for labor do not exist because of a disparity of market power between employers and employees. Workers must work to earn current income to feed their families daily. Subsistent wage means workers have no savings to get them through rainy days. Entrepreneurs can delay investing their capital until the market price of labor is right. Hunger quickly destroys labor’s market power and lowers the market price of labor to near or even below subsistence levels. Thus the prevalent monopoly of capital needs to be countered by a cartel for labor.

snip>

Modern Capital Comes From Worker Pensions

As for accumulation of capital, modern finance has shown that the bulk of capital comes nowadays from the pension funds of workers, which is the deferred income of currently employed labor. In the US economy, no one saves voluntarily any more, not because a change in the US character, but because with low wages and rising asset values not registered as inflation, no one can afford to save, having to spend all income plus accumulating debt just to manage. This is why the entire economy is operating on debt. Most savings now come from pension funds payment into which the average worker has no legal choice but to contribute with company matching from his/her first day of work, with benefits not collectable until some three decades later.

Pension funds like CalPERS (California Public Employee Retirement System), not even a private sector fund as it is all government employees, are huge and they are the new institutional capitalists. CalPERS alone holds shares in 1,600 US companies with assets of $167 billion in 2004. It owns so much equity and bonds that in many cases, such as The Disney Company, they cannot sell their share holdings without adversely affect the price of the rest of their holdings, much like foreign central bank holdings of dollars. Pension funds are forced to stage shareholder revolts within corporate governance to change ineffective management to get the market price of its share-holdings back up. That is how Michael Eisner, Chairman of Disney, lost support of 45% of the voting shares and had to resign his chairmanship. CalPERS also opposed the reappointment of former Citicorp Chairman Sanford I. Weill, and Chief Executive Officer Charles O. Prince as company directors. CalPERS holds 26,712,930 Citigroup shares out of 5.05 billion shares outstanding. It said Citigroup would be "better served" by having an independent director in the place of Mr. Weill. It withheld votes for six other Citigroup directors. It also withheld support from Warren E. Buffett, who was running for re-election to the Coca-Cola Company’s board. The fund also withheld votes for directors at ten other companies: Sprint, Wachovia, PG&E, Burlington Resources, Charter One Financial, Mellon Financial, South Trust, State Street, Stryker and Washington Mutual. Yet no pension has gone on record to disinvest from corporations that outsource their clients jobs.

These pension funds operate like insurance companies, spreading out their risk through the theory of large numbers by hiring an army of fund managers among whom they expect 5% would lose money, 40% would break even with the SP500 and 50% will beat the SP500 and 5% would do spectacularly with thousand-fold returns. Every year, they fire the underperforming 5% and bring in a new crop of replacement fund managers. Also the actuary is such that pensioners die and stop collecting retirement benefits way before the principle are consumed, so the funds get bigger and bigger over time, like a giant mushroom in a financial science fiction. These pension funds are like a virus, feeding on workers whose retirement money they control for their own institutional obsession on growth at the expense of worker job security. If the US ever privatizes social security, all US workers will be enslaved by these institutional tyrants.

In the new economy of finance capitalism, with capital coming also from labor; and the high return on labor's retirement funds from cross-border wage arbitrage is robbing the same workers of their jobs. As Pogo used to say: the enemy, they are us. The new capitalism uses worker capital to exploit workers while financiers skim off huge profits without having to risk any capital of their own. Investment bankers routinely make between $2-30 million in annual income by “creating value” out of thin air, arranging IPOs, mergers, and structured finance deals that pension funds, known collectively as institution investors, buy into. An institutional salesman on Wall Street is one who talks pension funds into investing in deals like the one that Orange County in California fell into that eventually led to its bankruptcy in 1994. The salesman is the power behind every Wall Street firm. The salesman does not even dream up the deals which are put together by bright young graduates in math and physics augmented with MBAs, who are paid only $1-2 million working 18 hour days that burn them out in a few years. That is how New York condos can sell for $10 million at US$3000 per square foot. And none of these financiers save. They are all leveraged to the hilt out of pride, not necessity, for they all know it’s not how much you own, but how much you owe that counts. Die with all the debt you can accumulate. Only fools die with savings.

more...

[AnneD]

80. Thanks...

54anickle. I learned something new. Used the GINI index to check for future retirement sights (High index if I retire wealthy, lower if I retire poor):evilgrin:

[UpInArms]

82. Globalization is definitely letting the GINI out of the bottle ... eom

[AnneD]

95. Girlfriend...

you so bad :spank: :evilgrin:

[54anickel]

25. BIS says emerging markets surge on higher risk tolerance

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2006-03-05T202259Z_01_L0397904_RTRUKOC_0_UK-ECONOMY-BIS-EMERGING.xml&archived=False

LONDON (Reuters) - A surge higher in the value of emerging market assets can be attributed to more than simply better economic fundamentals, the Bank for International Settlements said in its latest quarterly report.
Rising risk tolerance of international investors sent emerging market stock indexes soaring while also squeezing sovereign bond yield spreads to record narrow levels.

The report highlighted massive foreign capital inflows into emerging markets.

It cited Institute of International Finance data estimates that $60 billion in net portfolio equity flows occurred in 2005. Debt inflows exceeded $160 billion, including substantial investment in local currency debt, the data showed.

"Available data suggest that foreign investors continued to channel substantial amounts to emerging markets in the early part of 2006," the report said.

more...

[54anickel]

30. Had to add this...from same article

But it also said that in early 2006, "sovereign spreads clustered together more closely than ever before. This raises questions about whether investors are discriminating sufficiently among borrowers."

A broad measure of emerging market debt, the JP Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index (EMBI) Global Diversified showed yield spreads over benchmark U.S. Treasuries had narrowed to 194 on February 24, the BIS said, about 100 basis points below the previous record low reached in mid-1997, around the onset of the Asian financial crisis.

[UpInArms]

31. US mortgage bonds face risk if house prices fall-BIS

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyid=2006-03-05T200116Z_01_L03315106_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-BIS-HOUSING.XML

FRANKFURT, March 5 (Reuters) - The expansion of new types of home loans in the United States means mortgage bond holders may be exposed to bigger than expected losses if the housing market cools, Bank of International Settlements staff research said.

An article published in the latest BIS quarterly review said the boom in private mortgage lending and the extension of loans to households with less than perfect credit histories had exposed investors to higher risks.

"The significance of this additional risk has been disguised in recent years by housing price appreciation," researcher Allen Frankel said. But now there were signs of the market cooling.

"To the extent that some investors may have failed to recognise the degree of sensitivity of their MBS investments to housing market developments, they may be exposed to losses in excess of what they had anticipated."

Non-traditional mortgages helped extend a five-year rally in the U.S. housing market by reducing monthly payments and allowing homebuyers to afford ever-pricier houses.

But some economists now worry that as interest rates rise, so will defaults as borrowers may find themselves unable to make payments, also pressuring the banks that offered the mortgages and the investors who hold much of the risk due to their purchases of mortgage-backed securities.

...more...

[54anickel]

66. America's Glorious Empire of Debt (Bonner)

http://www.321gold.com/editorials/bonner/bonner030606.html

snip>

Down at the bottom of the pyramid are petty agents spreading deceit and misinformation - such as the aforementioned "tax guy." You would think a young woman could trust her certified tax advisor to give her sound counsel. Instead, he urges her to get into the most bubbly property market in American history. Naturally, she went for it, aided no doubt by a whole industry of professional dissemblers. Press reports tell us that appraisers routinely stretch valuations to help close a deal. Mortgage lenders know perfectly well the appraisals are lies, but they wink at them with one eye while winking at the borrower's phony income declaration with the other. Again, according to the press reports, lenders no longer verify income claims. They have gone blind!

In California, house prices have raced so far ahead of incomes that barely one in ten buyers can afford the median house. Yet thanks to "creative finance," more houses are being sold than ever before. Thus the foundation of the debt pyramid is laid down in a bed of mutual deceit and cupidity, and covered with another level of fabrications. Lenders do not stick around to see how the loans work out. Instead, they pretend the credits are good, and package the mortgages into convenient units so that investors can buy them. The financiers know damned well that many buyers can't really afford to pay for the houses they buy, but they see no point in mentioning it. Nor do the investors want to know.

They're in on the scam, too. The smartest of them even have figured out how it works: The Fed holds down short-term rates below the inflation rate so that investors in long-term mortgage financing and buyers of U.S. Treasury obligations can make an easy profit.

Further up the steps of imperial debt are whole legions of analysts, economists, and full-time obfuscators whose role is to make us all believe six impossible things before breakfast and a dozen more before dinner. Quack economists at the Bureau of Labor Statistics do to numbers what guards at Guantanamo did to prisoners. They rough them up so badly, they are ready to say anything. This abuse of statistics is what allows Americans to deceive themselves about their own economy. It is healthy, they say. It is growing. It is stable. All these so-called facts are little more than elaborate prevarications.

Economists, commentators, and policymakers take up these distortions and add their own twists. It is obvious to anyone who bothers to think about it that an economy that spends more than it earns is in decline. But try to find an economist willing to say so! They've all become like rich notables in the time of Trajan, doing the emperor's work whether they are on his payroll or not. They will tell you the economy is expanding, but it is an expansion similar to what happens when a compulsive eater escapes from a fat farm. The longer he is on the loose, the worse off he becomes.

more...

[UpInArms]

26. pre-opening blather

09:13 am : S&P futures vs fair value: +1.3. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +6.0.

09:00 am : S&P futures vs fair value: +1.1. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +5.5. The cash market continues to head towards a flat to somewhat higher start. Investors will have just one piece of economic data to digest today. The January Factory Orders report is due out at 10:00 ET, but it's not likely to have much affect on trade. Economists expect to see a 5.5% transportation-related decline. The biggest event on the economic calendar is the employment release on Friday. The market is also awaiting Texas Instruments' (TXN) mid-quarter update, which will be delivered after today's close.

08:33 am : S&P futures vs fair value: +0.9. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +6.0. The S&P is poised for a flat to modestly higher open, while the Nasdaq continues to head towards a moderately higher start. Along with a relatively busy M&A front, a pullback in the price of oil is a supportive factor. Friday marked crude's fourth consecutive gain, but it's eased 0.9% to just over $63.00 per barrel in early trading. The IAEA's meeting to discuss a deadline for imposing possible sanctions against Iran and the upcoming OPEC meeting (March 8) will help keep the energy market in the spotlight.

07:56 am : S&P futures vs fair value: +1.3. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +6.0. Futures trade is signaling an upside open. Research in Motion (RIMM) shares are surging as a result of its patent dispute settlement, and the Nasdaq is headed for a particularly higher start. A host of deals on the merger and acquisition front are also helping to set the early tone. AT&T (T) and BellSouth (BLS) have agreed to a $67 billion merger, and Education Management Corp. (EDMC) has agreed to a $3.4 billion buyout. The Wall Street Journal reported that Germany's Linde AG will buy BOC Group for $14 billion, and that Public Storage (PSA) is nearing a deal to acquire Shurguard Storage Centers (SHU) for $3.2 billion.

[54anickel]

27. In Deal With India, Bush Has Eye on China

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fg-usindia4mar04,1,2964410.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage

WASHINGTON — A key factor behind the nuclear cooperation agreement reached this week between the United States and India was a simple trade-off: The White House was willing to risk losing ground in the worldwide campaign to limit the spread of nuclear weapons for a deal with India that could help it counter the rising power of China.

Despite widespread criticism that the pact sets back global nuclear nonproliferation efforts, Bush administration officials praise the deal for its promise of better ties with a thriving democracy and reduced competition for world oil.

snip>

The Bush administration has made nonproliferation one of its top priorities, and is trying to limit the nuclear ambitions of Iran. But the pact with India could hurt that goal. Many experts think the U.S.-India agreement is likely to convince nonnuclear nations that they can proceed with bomb-building programs in the face of international disapproval, and eventually win back American support.

In the past, the administration has stressed the importance of the U.S.-Japanese strategic relationship to ensure it has a close and capable ally on China's southeastern flank. The deal with India reflects a desire to build an alliance on China's southwestern boundary. The agreement, which requires congressional approval, would lift a moratorium on civilian nuclear cooperation and allow for India's continued work on nuclear arms.

snip>

India and China say they don't want to compete with each other militarily. In 2003, they signed an agreement to build a "long-term constructive and cooperative partnership" based on "peaceful coexistence." Indeed, their relations have improved in recent years, as seen in the settlement of border disputes and an agreement aimed at reducing competition for oil.

Yet some experts warn that India and China are also taking steps that could lead to confrontation. China, for example, is helping Pakistan build a submarine base at Gwadar, in Baluchistan province, where Pakistan accuses India of backing insurgents to destabilize the area.

more...

[UpInArms]

28. 9:42 EST pink is the morning's color

Dow 11,013.42 -8.17 (-0.07%)
Nasdaq 2,298.84 -3.76 (-0.16%)
S&P 500 1,285.61 -1.62 (-0.13%)
10-Yr Bond 4.722 +0.38 (+0.81%)

NYSE Volume 2,196,209,000
Nasdaq Volume 190,814,000

adding blather:

09:40 am : The equity market opened on positive turf, but has just dipped into the red. Merger Monday activity is garnering a lot of attention, but has not stirred much spirited buying. The $67 billion AT&T (T) and BellSouth (BLS) merger is in the spotlight. The deal will create the world's largest telecom company, and sparks speculation over further consolidation within the sector. Verizon (VZ) is in focus. Other deals include Education Management Corp.'s (EDMC) $3.4 billion buyout, Germany's Linde AG's $14 billion purchase of BOC Group, JP Morgan's (JPM) purchase of Kohl's credit card business, and GM's sale of a large part of its Suzuki stake. Weighing on sentiment is the yield on the 10-year note's (-08/32) rise to 4.71%. Separately, a supportive factor is Research in Motion (RIMM), up 13.1%, which announced its $612.5 million patent dispute settlement with NTP.DJ30 -9.21 NASDAQ -1.22 SP500 -0.95

[UpInArms]

29. Rhetorical Questions: Is M&A activity deceptive?

Why would people think that Company A has more value if it sells off a sub-company to Company B?

Why would people thnk that Company B has more value if it buys a sub-company from Company A?

How can each of those companies now have greater value if the same company has been swapped from one to the other?

[54anickel]

36. Heh-heh, I heard they pass these out at the close of the deal....

[UpInArms]

37. and all this time it thought they gave them a book

so that they could walk around like this

[54anickel]

40. Those are reserved for the analysts and economists that write up the

fawning articles on what a great move the merger is. :eyes:

[UpInArms]

34. 10:02 EST Mixin' it up

Dow 11,014.14 -7.45 (-0.07%)
Nasdaq 2,303.47 +0.87 (+0.04%)
S&P 500 1,286.30 -0.93 (-0.07%)
10-Yr Bond 4.718 +0.34 (+0.73%)

NYSE Volume 2,196,209,000
Nasdaq Volume 350,132,000

[UpInArms]

35. Ex-Enron CFO Fastow set to face former bosses and connect the dots

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=businessNews&storyid=2006-03-06T064430Z_01_N05209631_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENRON-TRIAL.xml

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Andrew Fastow, Enron Corp's former financial chief and the architect of its most devious accounting schemes, will the take the stand this week as the star witness at the trial of his former bosses Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.

The appearance of Fastow, 44, as early as Monday afternoon or Tuesday, comes midway through the prosecution's case.

It will follow on the heels of several witnesses who testified that former CEOs Lay and Skilling knew of, and often directed, the financial shell game to hide billions of dollars in losses to create a rosy picture at the energy trader.

"Andy Fastow knows where all the bodies are buried and he's going to connect the dots," said Jake Zamansky of Zamansky and Associates, a New York law firm that represents victims of securities fraud.

<snip>

Perhaps the most dramatic testimony came at the end of the day on Thursday when the former Internet unit executive Kevin Hannon told the jury a damning analyst report on the company in May 2001 prompted Skilling to say "They're on to us."

...more...

[54anickel]

38. Playing the lottery for your retirement needs

I really hate the smug tone toward the end of this article. They are messing with people's lives here, and this guys answer is "sucks to be you - look for a different job". Guess I'm in a nasty mood this morning.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3700750.html

Should you have a lottery ticket in your 401(k)?

The question came to mind as I completed an examination of the 3,438 publicly traded companies with 10-year records in the Morningstar database. If you worked for a winning company — one that had stunning stock market returns over the last 10 years — you could be wealthy already. If you worked for a losing company — one that had poor stock market returns over the same period — your employer's contribution has either gone nowhere or disappeared.

Your retirement hangs on the difference.

snip>

Now, as The Great Reneging builds momentum, younger workers face frozen pensions or no pension at all. Corporate managements are shrinking the entire structure of employee benefits. Young workers also face uncertain Social Security benefits. Worse, they face the possibility that their employment taxes will increase even as their future Social Security benefits decrease.

Result? A lot of retirement security — too much — is riding on your corporate lottery ticket.

more...

[specimenfred1984]

46. I Call it "Speculate or DIE"!

That's the choice given to people now, unless you want to buy 5% CDs in a 10% inflationary environment and lose that way.

90% of people lose money when speculating, that fact is always left out of fluff pieces in "investment" publications and major government policy ideas pushed by corrupt goons. That smug tone they use is garbage, like the writing in the Nat. Enquirer. To me that tone always says "Hey look at me, I'm lying my ass off".

[54anickel]

53. "Hey look at me, I'm lying my ass off"...YES! That puts to words my

gut reaction to the smug tone of the article. Thanks for helping me articulate that.

"Speculate or DIE"! That certainly explains what the analysts term "an appetite for risk". Not a very comforting choice available these days.

[AnneD]

68. ITA

I am a saver and am lucky enough to have a state pension (defined benefit). The pension is my bedrock foundation, my 403b is what I have set aside to make my retirement more comfortable. If I had only my 403b for retirement, I would be so screwed and in the panic mode now (I lost 1/4th in the dot com bust, over all I was up 8% over initial investments-nothing to write home about). Even being a saver is not enough to rebuild a loss, esp if it comes at a critical time. I firmly believe in saving for retirement, but Wall Street is not the proper vehicle for the base of your retirement. Maybe for more comfort and as a hedge against inflation, but building your retirement on a WS foundation is like building a house in sand.

[specimenfred1984]

62. And We All Need to Learn How to Speak Chinese Too

in addition to becoming our own portfolio managers, healthcare specialists and IT experts:

----- MARSHALL LOEB'S DAILY MONEY TIP
Speaking the language

The cheapest way to get started is with a self-taught course that combines audio tapes or CD's and a textbook. A course in Mandarin from Audio-Forum will cost you $225 for five hours of cassettes and course books and you can study everything from Afrikaans to Zulu. -----

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BED936301%2D1421%2D45DF%2DA251%2D6E1D5BDBF20E%7D&siteid=myyahoo&dist=myyahoo

[UpInArms]

42. Silver futures climb, but gold dulls

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B03733EDE%2D972A%2D4FA9%2DB191%2D583C7820218E%7D&dist=newsfinder&symbol=&siteid=mktw

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Silver futures climbed Monday morning, but failed to reach a fresh 22-year high as gold prices edged lower for a second session.

"The silver ETF (exchange-traded fund) has really got the silver crow excited," said Ned Schmidt, editor of the Value View Gold Report.

But "what is amusing about all this is that the silver ETF is news about a year old," he said in a recent report, raising the question of whether the market will "sell on the news since it bought on the rumor."

The May contract for silver was up 2.5 cents at $10.26 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after trading as high as $10.29.

On Friday, it climbed as high as $10.31, a level not seen since at least 1984 as traders bet that the silver ETF in registration from Barclays Global Investors may soon begin trading. See related story.

Meanwhile, gold for April delivery fell 70 cents to $567.30 an ounce. It climbed Friday to its highest intraday level since Feb. 6, but ended that session down $2.40 at $568. See April gold chart.

...more...

[UpInArms]

44. Dana Corp. chief financial officer retires

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=businessNews&storyid=2006-03-06T135741Z_01_N06237094_RTRUKOC_0_US-AUTOS-DANA.xml

DETROIT (Reuters) - Auto and truck parts maker Dana Corp. <DCN.N>, which filed for bankruptcy for its U.S. operations last week, on Monday said Chief Financial Officer Robert Richter had retired.

Richter will remain available to the company on a consulting basis, it said.

Richter had been with Dana for 26 years and was named CFO in 1999.

The Toledo, Ohio-based company has not yet appointed a successor to Richter and is working to fill the position as quickly as possible, said Chuck Hartlage, a spokesman for Dana.

Dana, a producer of frames, axles and drive shafts, last week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing declining production at the U.S. automakers that are its largest customers and high materials costs.

...more...

[UpInArms]

72. Moody's sees Dana bankruptcy having some CDO impact

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyid=2006-03-06T170003Z_01_N06267241_RTRIDST_0_MARKETS-DANA-CDOS.XML

NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service said on Monday that the bankruptcy filing of car and truck parts supplier Dana Corp. (DCN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) will have "some" impact on the ratings of U.S. collateralized debt obligations.

Dana filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors on Friday, citing general financial deterioration in the auto industry and its inability to renew or expand credit facilities in a timely manner as reasons for its bankruptcy.

Moody's said it has rated 120 U.S. CDOs that have exposure to both Dana Corp. and its finance unit Dana Credit Corp., 96 of which are "cash deals," which are typically backed by loans or bonds, while 24 are "synthetic," meaning they are backed by credit-default swaps.

Collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, are portfolios of bonds, loans, asset-backed or other securities. Investors can buy bonds backed by the portfolios, and choose among different options for how much risk to take -- and how big a yield to earn.

...more...

[UpInArms]

118. Fitch downgrades Dana issuer default rating to 'D' - defaulted on debt

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B99536BC3%2D8A78%2D4EF7%2DB3B2%2D2D255854460E%7D&dateid=38782%2E6471470602%2D863017128&siteid=mktw&dist=newsfinder

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Fitch Ratings said Monday it has downgraded Dana Corp.'s (DCN 0.66, -0.38, -36.5% ) issuer default rating to D from C, following the auto part's supplier's announcement that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and defaulted on its debt agreements. Fitch also affirmed and removed from rating watch negative the CC rating and RR4 recovery rating on Dana's unsecured notes. Recovery ratings were based on the company's pre-existing capital structure in a stress scenario and do not incorporate any changes to the capital structure, operating profile or other events that would affect recoveries post-petition, the agency said. Fitch's recovery analysis projected that the secured bank facility would achieve full recovery while unsecured debtholders would recover only 30% to 50% of face value. Fitch believes that recovery values for unsecured debtholders will be impaired by the decline in asset value and earnings potential of Dana's operations, administrative and trade creditor claims, and the super-priority status of first-lien debtor-in-possession loan providers.

[54anickel]

48. New Orleans Offers $8 Bln of Aid for Rebuilding, Gets No Takers

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a2t9fF32tfoU&refer=us

March 6 (Bloomberg) -- Almost $8 billion in tax-exempt financing awaits companies willing to invest in New Orleans, devastated by floodwaters when Hurricane Katrina hit six months ago. As of March 1, only one company had applied.

snip>

The federal Gulf Opportunity Zone Act, signed into law Dec. 21, authorized the Go Zone bonds to help businesses recover and invest in Louisiana. The bonds offer access to credit at lower rates than regular corporate debt.

That hasn't been enough. Companies want assurances that new levees will protect their investments and that new federal maps won't put them in the middle of flood plains. None has gotten what it wants.

snip>

By June, the levees are to be restored to their pre-Katrina strength and by September 2007 they are to meet design standards that were supposed to have been met before Katrina -- able to withstand a category 3 storm. President George W. Bush is proposing an additional $1.4 billion for natural coastal barrier restoration and enhancements to the levee system.

It would take about $15 billion to strengthen the levees enough to protect New Orleans from a category 5 storm, Demma said.

``Presumably we'll have a better system than pre-Katrina, but not a level of protection needed,'' said developer Pres Kabacoff. While he and others still plan to build on high ground called the ``sliver on the river,'' Kabacoff said he's not seeing any investment in lower sections of town.

more...

[Roland99]

52. How much fill would $8 billion buy?

[54anickel]

56. The cynic in me tells me the Fed foot-dragging on drawing up plans

and designating flood plains is an attempt to drive values down and owners out. Introduce enough FUD to create a fire sale mentality so their cronies can snatch up the bargains. Keep an eye on the sky for the areas where the buzzards begin to circle....

[wordpix]

113. this is a real possibility but by the time the levees are ready for Cat 5

hurricane, who knows who will be in power? Hopefully, it's the Dems.

Not living there but being a conservationist, I hope they restore the wetlands and not let anyone build in low lying areas.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

55. 15 Billion For Levees? - Nope, Sorry....Too Much.

We need that money to fight for "democracy" in Iraq. Besides, New Orleans is just a major.......errrrrr......."former major" American city.

[AnneD]

76. A Katrina alert for all you gardeners....

It has been discovered that some of the cheap wood chips being marketed (we have found the wood chips here) have come from trees in NOLA. Big FYI...they may have Formosa termite in the bags. Formosa termites are tough and agressive and were becoming a real threat to NOLA. Be careful what you buy and check the chips before spreading them.

[UpInArms]

49. DaimlerChrysler Finds Improper Payments (Bribery)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030600486.html

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Automaker DaimlerChrysler AG said Monday that an internal investigation of bribery claims found evidence of "improper payments" in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. It said several employees had been dismissed or suspended.

The company disclosed the findings in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

The German-American automaker is still under investigation by the SEC and the Department of Justice over whether it violated U.S. anti-bribery laws.

"We have determined that improper payments were made in a number of jurisdictions, primarily in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe," the company said in its filing. "These payments raise concerns under the U.S. FCPA, German law, and the laws of other jurisdictions."

"In connection with our internal investigation, we have identified and self-reported potential tax liabilities to tax authorities in several jurisdictions," it added. "These tax liabilities of DaimlerChrysler AG and certain foreign affiliates result from misclassifications of, or the failure to record, commissions and other payments and expenses."

...more...

[UpInArms]

59. Bend Over Alert: Public pensions need shift - US Treasury's Quarles

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyid=2006-03-06T161211Z_01_WBT004901_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-TREASURY-QUARLES-URGENT.XML

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - State and local government pension plans should make more use of Treasury Inflation Protected Securities and long-dated nominal Treasury securities, a top U.S. Treasury official said on Monday.

U.S. Treasury Under Secretary for Domestic Finance Randal Quarles also told a conference of the National Association of State Treasurers in Washington that the Bush administration expected strong job growth, with "attendant income effects."

[Nickster]

71. But....but....didn't Dubya say those Treasury Bonds were just pieces of

paper? I'm so confused.....

[UpInArms]

73. looks like they are attempting to shove those pieces of paper

somewhere when the BOJ and China stop buying them :eyes:

edited to add:

and those are the very pieces of paper that the Social Security Trust Fund (which they are threatening to bankrupt) is holding - and the instruments that are supposedly just IOUs that the gov does not intend to honor.

[AnneD]

77. In agreement...

just like the airlines, these assweasels are cutting the pensions to beef up the bottom line and hide a bit of red ink. The Bush gov is trying to pull a United Airline pension fundung scheme on us.

[UpInArms]

64. 11:33 EST Doing the Happy Dance!

Dow 11,036.80 +15.21 (+0.14%)
Nasdaq 2,309.33 +6.73 (+0.29%)
S&P 500 1,287.97 +0.74 (+0.06%)
10-Yr Bond 4.708 +0.24 (+0.51%)

NYSE Volume 832,932,000
Nasdaq Volume 831,060,000

11:00 am : Declines in seven of the ten economic sectors are keeping the indices below the unchanged mark. The Treasury market is serving as a bearish overhang for the equity market today. The yield on the 10-year note, which is now down seven ticks, is currently at a 20-month high of 4.71%. Yields are up across the curve, and the two-ten year yield curve remains inverted. At this point, the two-year note is offering investors 4.75%. The global interest rate environment continues to weigh on bond traders' sentiment. Domestically, the market awaits Friday's February employment report, for which economists expect a solid gain of 210K jobs. The economic front continues to sit center stage as the markets attempt to gauge just how far the Fed will need to go with its tightening cycle. DJ30 -11.53 NASDAQ -1.07 SP500 -2.52 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1538/1242/610.0 mln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1870/1124/372.2 mln

10:30 am : An advance in the Technology sector (+0.5%) joins Telecom (+1.7%) in supporting the market, but an increased decline in the Energy sector (-1.4%) is an offsetting factor. At this point, two of the Tech sector's brightest sports are Cisco (CSCO 21.43 +0.39) and Sun Microsystems (SUNW 4.53 +0.10). With respect to the former, it and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT 27.05 +0.12) announced a collaboration for real-time business capabilities at the VoiceCon 2006 conference today. As a side note, Cisco is one of our recommended holdings for active investors. With respect to Sun Micro, news that Northern Gas Networks has selected a Sun infrastructure to support the overhaul of its IT system has attracted buyers. DJ30 -6.40 NASDAQ +0.79 SP500 -1.59 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1508/1164/502.1 mln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1825/1144/335.4 mln

[UpInArms]

67. Starwood to open W Hotels location in Dubai in 2008

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B5EE1EDB9%2DE3F0%2D447E%2DB88D%2D402CA1DF6F97%7D&dateid=38782%2E4815985301%2D862998074&siteid=mktw&dist=newsfinder

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (HOT 63.89, +0.28, +0.4% ) said Monday it plans to open a new location in Dubai under its W Hotels luxury hotel brand in 2008. W Dubai Festival City will be W Hotels' first location in the Middle East. Starwood has entered into an agreement with the Al Futtaim Group, the developer behind Dubai Festival City, and has agreed to manage the 350-room hotel. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

"W"????

[UpInArms]

75. 12:15 EST numbers and M&A Rah Rah Blather

Dow 11,012.54 -9.05 (-0.08%)
Nasdaq 2,302.91 +0.31 (+0.01%)
S&P 500 1,284.64 -2.59 (-0.20%)
10-Yr Bond 4.720 +0.36 (+0.77%)

NYSE Volume 1,019,496,000
Nasdaq Volume 990,293,000

12:00 pm : Since the opening bell, the market's major averages have traded within a tight range that encircles the flat line. Today's round of merger and acquisition action has garnered much attention, but it's failed to catalyze spirited buying action. Rising Treasury yields are weighing on equity trade, and the market continues the flat trend that has characterized the past two weeks.

A $67 billion deal between AT&T (T 27.60 -0.39) and BellSouth (BLS 35.10 +3.64) dominates headlines. The merger will create the world's largest telecommunications company with a market cap of as much as $170 billion. AT&T anticipates synergies of $18 billion, and the purchase gives it full ownership of Cingular Wireless - which is the number one mobile-phone company in the U.S. The deal has fed speculation over more telecom consolidation and integration during 2006. Verizon (VZ 33.52 -0.06) is particularly in focus, and has today announced that it is working to acquire Vodafone's (VOD 21.86 +0.86) 45% stake in Verizon Wireless. Adding to its market-leading 10.8% year-to-date gain, the Telecom sector has advanced 2.3% and leads trade.

Other deals this Merger Monday include Education Management Corp.'s (EDMC) $3.4 billion buyout, J.P. Morgan's (JPM) approximate $1.5 billion purchase of Kohl's (KSS 50.25 +1.45) credit card business, and General Motors' (GM 20.03 +0.82) sale of a large part of its Suzuki stake. The latter transaction is expected to generate about $2 billion in cash, and news of it helps support the Consumer Discretionary (unch) sector today. The Technology sector has risen 0.5% and helps bolster the market. On a related note, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIMM 81.39 +9.47) disclosed its $612.5 million patent dispute settlement. That stock has surged, and it's one of the Nasdaq's drivers.

Ending its four-day gaining streak, the price of oil has declined 1.8% to $62.50 per barrel. Other than sparking some market-dragging selling across the Energy sector (-1.8%), the pullback appears to be having a muted effect. Uncertainty over potential sanctions against Iran for its nuclear ambitions and ahead of the March 8 OPEC meeting limits enthusiasm. Anticipation ahead of Friday's February jobs data may also be helping to keep buying action in check, but it is likely that the market will continue its flat trading pattern.

The global interest rate environment continues to weigh on investors' sentiment, and today's Treasury market is serving as a bearish backdrop for stocks. At this point, the yield on the benchmark 10-year note is at a 20-month high of 4.72%. DJ30 +4.64 NASDAQ +4.29 SP500 -0.83 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1472/1394/903.7 mln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1839/1270/603.1 mln

[54anickel]

86. Tomgram: The Precipice, the Brink, the Abyss -- Iraq

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=65191

snip>

In not naming the "situation in Iraq," the media and the public seem to have followed in the administration's footsteps. You can search the press, for instance, almost in vain for "the Iraq War," and when, on occasion, you do find it, that "war" is always lower-cased. Nor do people speak, say, of ‘Raq, the way in the last years of Vietnam, Americans (following the lead of the soldiers there) spoke of ‘Nam. In fact, though we now know, according to a unique Zogby poll just taken, that 72% of American soldiers stationed in Iraq today want the United States to "exit" within a year (over half within six months, and over a quarter tomorrow), if they have their own name or nickname for the conflict, we are blissfully ignorant of it.

War without a Name, Name without a War

The lack of a name for our "effort" in Iraq should not be seen as some kind of bizarre oversight, or even a reflection of the confusing or nondescript nature of that conflict. After all, the Bush administration regularly puts great time and effort into naming things. It has, for instance, created various Orwellian names for its programs in a game of opposites -- the Clear Skies Act, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, and so on. And much thought went into what to label the actual invasion of Iraq. After, at least one rumored false step -- Operation Iraqi Liberation (with its obviously unacceptable acronym) -- it was dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), a name the President has proudly used many times since, but which officially was over when he landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003 and declared "major combat operations" ended.

Not naming something can be as much an act as naming it. Nearly three years have passed since George Bush stood under a "mission accomplished" banner on the deck of that aircraft carrier. Almost 2,300 Americans have now been killed and almost 17,000 wounded in Iraq; untold numbers of Iraqis -- undoubtedly well over 100,000 -- have died since our invasion, while families and livelihoods have been destroyed and, ever more commonly, neighborhoods ethnically cleansed and religious institutions damaged or destroyed. The country itself has been turned into an impoverished failed state, riddled with terrorists, filled with sectarian or religious militias, bled by a still growing insurgency, and threatened by ethnic and religious divisions which seem to widen by the week. Its government exists, to the degree it does, inside a fortified zone in a capital city that itself seems beyond normal rule, and whose streets are controlled by a variety of armed groups, militias, police, and gangs. Even for the Americans, the now-famous "Pottery Barn rule" of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, "You break it, you own it," is proving surprisingly untrue. The Americans seem to control little but the Green Zone and the giant military bases they occupy. And all for an unnamed conflict.

If, by some miracle, the archives of the Bush administration are finally pried open, I have no doubt we'll discover, as with so much else that was named by these officials, that the decision not to name "the situation in Iraq" was carefully considered and fully discussed. After all, they (and various neocons supporters in or on the edges of the government) have spent parts of the last few years constantly experimenting with names for the "war" that counts for them: The Global War on Terror, acronymed GWOT, aka World War IV, the Millennial War, the Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism, and (recently enshrined in the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review as well as attributed to Centcom commander and popularizer Gen. John Abizaid)) the Long War.

more...

[EuroObserver]

108. Not bad, but still not highlighting the massive DU poisoning

of people and, indeed, entire ecosystems...

[54anickel]

88. Global Asset Inflation and Lessons to be Learned:

Last entry in the Credit Bubble Bulletin

http://www.prudentbear.com/creditbubblebulletin.asp

We are in the midst of the Greatest Global Asset Inflation Ever. Contrary to the entrenched conventional view, this development is the manifestation of extraordinary underlying Monetary Disorder and as such has profound ramifications. All the same, surging perceived wealth stokes the delusion that we live in The Golden Age of Free-Market Global Capitalism. These are especially precarious times, in particular with respect to the confluence of Bubbling asset markets, inflated expectations, an epidemic of leveraged speculation, and wide-open global Credit. In tandem with excesses, New Paradigm notions become only more outlandish.

“We have to recognize that the very reason capitalism exists is to have asset price increases. That is the point of capitalism, so we shouldn’t bemoan the fact that asset prices are increasing.” Louis-Vincent Gave, in a December interview with the estimable Kate Welling (Dec. 15, Welling@Weeden, “Brave New World or Bust”).

Well, we definitely should bemoan it. Not only is asset inflation certainly not “the very reason capitalism exists,” the recent Global Asset Bubble Affliction poses a very serious clear and present danger. The essence of Capitalism is the free market interplay of supply and demand to determine a structure of relative prices that create favorable incentives and just rewards – positive impetus for individual economic agents that in aggregate nurture behavior that is best for the system as a whole.

Economic Sphere profits should drive the process, not the circumstance today where a wildly inflating Financial Sphere completely dominates the creation and dissemination of perceived wealth and resources. Systemic Asset inflation and Bubbles nurture price distortions and patently unsound incentives. The essence of robust and dynamic Capitalism is a market system that adjusts and self-corrects, rewards and disciplines. Asset inflation and Bubbles have a powerful propensity to avoid self-correction, while meandering to dangerous and self-reinforcing extremes.

I find it rather ironic that the most outspoken contemporary proponents of free market Capitalism seem to have the least appreciation for its pressing vulnerabilities. In this regard, I will forever pin blame on the flawed analysis of the circumstances and developments that culminated with financial collapse and The Great Depression, analysis championed by Milton Friedman and, later, by his “disciples” including our new Fed Chairman.

more...

[trogdor]

91. 1:53 and HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!

Dow	10,965.16	-56.43
Nasdaq	2,287.53	-15.07
S&P 500	1,279.78	-7.45

[Roland99]

93. Someone kidnap the faeries?

[54anickel]

94. Blather writers appear to be at a loss for words. No updates. I'm

guessing it's in response to Treasuries, but wtf do I know. :shrug:

Anything "scary" in LBN?

[Roland99]

99. Treasury yields nearing 5% may start sucking funds out of equities.

http://quotes.freerealtime.com/dl/frt/N?tmn_id={C2B078A9-88F4-4F6C-9F3A-E8002D51C295}

Note the catapaulting, though, of a soft landing for the housing market near the end of that article.

[54anickel]

100. "Yielditis" HA! That's a good one.

"You might say the market has 'yielditis,'" said Peter Cardillo, chief equities strategist at S.W. Bach. "That's what is putting a cap on the good news in the market."

[ozymandius]

107. Friday's Marketwatch stock broker said this would happen.

If yields increase to such generous yields and the money market funds move accordingly - then we'll see a whole lot of stock brokers out of business as the markets tank.

[Roland99]

111. Would this end up, then, being something akin to the dot-com bust?

A trickle-down effect?

[ozymandius]

119. It's money seeking safety.

Money doing what it always does. Probably not a huge bust - but enough to make people wonder about what is fair value.

[Roland99]

122. Well, I just hope my fears don't come to pass: Great Depression 2.0.

This market is rife with artificial stimulants.

[Career Prole]

102. Until a better explanation arises

I find myself chuckling at the memory of Darren McGavin in "A Christmas Story", in the family flivver returning home with the Xmas tree exclaiming
Dadgum it! A blow-out!!
:wow:

[54anickel]

96. Dow Jones Indexes and Citigroup to launch first Islamic bond index

http://www.ameinfo.com/79603.html

Dow Jones Indexes and Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking, both leading global index providers, today announced that they intend to launch the Dow Jones Citigroup Sukuk Index, the first index that seeks to measure the performance of global bonds complying with Islamic investment guidelines.

The index, which is intended to launch April 2, was created primarily for use as the benchmark for investors seeking exposure to Shari¡¦ah-compliant fixed-income investments. In addition, the index may serve to increase secondary market trading in this growing asset class and facilitate cross-market relative value trading among different asset classes.

The Dow Jones Citigroup Sukuk Index will include investment-grade, U.S. dollar-denominated Islamic bonds¡Xalso known as Sukuk¡Xissued in the global market. At launch, the Index initially will track seven issues: Islamic Development Bank, Solidarity Trust Services Ltd, BMA International Sukuk, Qatar Global Sukuk, Malaysia Global Sukuk, Sarawak Sukuk and Dubai Global Sukuk.

To be included in the Index, an Islamic bond must comply with both Shari¡¦ah law and the Bahrain-based Auditing & Accounting Organization of Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) standards for tradable Sukuk. Once a bond meets these criteria, Dow Jones Indexes and Citigroup will apply market-based criteria such as minimum maturity of one year, minimum issue size of US$250 million, and an explicit or implicit rating of at least BBB-/Baa3 by leading rating agencies.

more...

[AnneD]

103. Read this and thought of the movie

The Freshman. To those that saw it, there was a scane where Marlon Brando was on the line to his broker. The half of the conversation went..."wadda ya mean I lost money. I doonea like it when I lose money. Maybe you should check it again" I just got a flash of Ben Laden calling from a cave in Afghanistan threatening a gihad against Citibank because they lost some of his money.....:rofl:

[ozymandius]

106. WTF? i just checked in after several hours....

3:09
Dow 10,940.66 -80.93 (-0.73%)
Nasdaq 2,284.52 -18.08 (-0.79%)
S&P 500 1,277.11 -10.12 (-0.79%)
10-Yr Bond 47.40 +0.56 (+1.20%)
NYSE Volume 1,846,865,000
Nasdaq Volume 1,754,249,000

everyone is getting hammered

3:00 pm : Since the last update, the market has stood near session-lows. The 10-year note, off 14 ticks, is now yielding 4.74%. Nine of the ten economic sectors remain submerged, and Telecom (+1.0%) has more than halved its intra-day gain. While most of the market is in the red, there are a few pockets of relative strength. The more defensive Consumer Staples sector, down 0.4%, is the best-performing laggard. Within it, the soft drink and brewing industries are mainting gains. Healthcare, also known for its defensive attributes, is being supported by a 1.2% rise in its supplier industry. Upgraded Millipore (MIL 71.88 +3.26) shares are behind that advance. DJ30 -81.89 NASDAQ -19.29 SP500 -10.33 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1986/1007/1.68 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 2339/916/1.21 bln

[54anickel]

110. Heh-heh, from your post #6 this AM

That's led to what traders call a "range-bound" market, and they tend to say it with more than a little disappointment. Investors can make money so long as stocks go somewhere — up or down. But a range-bound market means there's just not enough price movement to work with.

The Federal Reserve's next interest rate decision March 28 could come with an economic outlook that clarifies matters, but that's a long way off. Until Wall Street gets a better picture of the economy, the market will stay stuck, perhaps with 100-point swings on a given day, but ultimately stuck in the same range as the past two weeks.



:wtf: First they say range-bound, not enough movement to work with, then they turn around and talk about 100-point swings in a day like they're no big deal - not even worth taking notice. Sounds to me like they are trying to calm nerves and keep folks from heading for the exits.

[UpInArms]

112. 3:46 EST not so bad after al

Dow 10,962.50 -59.09 (-0.54%)
Nasdaq 2,286.90 -15.70 (-0.68%)
S&P 500 1,278.51 -8.72 (-0.68%)
10-Yr Bond 4.738 +0.54 (+1.15%)

NYSE Volume 2,094,089,000
Nasdaq Volume 1,974,401,000

3:25 pm : Going into the final half hour of trade, the indices are edging off of their session lows. The 10-year's yield has inched off of its session-low, and with that the equity market has somewhat stabilized. Nonetheless, sellers remain in control of the action. The market's breadth reflects the bearish bias that has dominated trade today. On the NYSE, declining issues presently have a 24-to-nine lead over their advancing counterparts. Decliners on the Nasdaq, meanwhile, have an 11-to-20 advantage over advancers. For the duration of today's trade, decliners have outnumbered advancers on both boards. DJ30 -67.40 NASDAQ -16.48 SP500 -9.19 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1975/1049/1.75 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 2352/917/1.27 bln

3:00 pm : Since the last update, the market has stood near session-lows. The 10-year note, off 14 ticks, is now yielding 4.74%. Nine of the ten economic sectors remain submerged, and Telecom (+1.0%) has more than halved its intra-day gain. While most of the market is in the red, there are a few pockets of relative strength. The more defensive Consumer Staples sector, down 0.4%, is the best-performing laggard. Within it, the soft drink and brewing industries are mainting gains. Healthcare, also known for its defensive attributes, is being supported by a 1.2% rise in its supplier industry. Upgraded Millipore (MIL 71.88 +3.26) shares are behind that advance. DJ30 -81.89 NASDAQ -19.29 SP500 -10.33 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1986/1007/1.68 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 2339/916/1.21 bln

[EuroObserver]

114. Bush seeks to restore ‘pork-barrel spending’ veto

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/27303c04-ad2a-11da-9643-0000779e2340.html
By Christopher Swann in Washington
Published: March 6 2006 16:00 | Last updated: March 6 2006 18:42

george w bushThe White House on Monday proposed legislation to restore the president’s power to veto specific spending measures, a move that could sharply increase his authority to block items deemed wasteful, “pork barrel” spending.

President George W. Bush said the proposed law would be designed “to meet Supreme Court standards” and would “give me the authority to strip special-interest spending and earmarks out of a bill and then send them back to Congress for an up-or-down vote.”

The Republican-controlled Congress gave the president a line-item veto in 1996, but it was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1998, with six of the nine justices ruling that it overstepped the president’s constitutional authority.

Mr Bush’s effort to restore the veto comes at a time of mounting concern in both the White House and Congress about the inability of either to restrain the growth in government spending. The Congressional Budget Office said on Friday that the budget deficit would rise to $371bn (£212bn, €312bn) this year, from $318bn in 2005, despite record tax revenues.

While most of the spending growth has come from the military and homeland security, and from entitlement programmes such as Medicare and Social Security, it has been exacerbated by the growth of so-called “earmarks” – specific spending measures targeted at favoured constituencies by members of Congress.

Circumventing the Supreme Court’s judgment on the line-item veto will be challenging, however. The 1996 bill allowed the president to strip out specific spending items, and required a two-thirds majority vote by Congress to reinstate them.

...more...

[Roland99]

117. One man's pork is most of America's health.

[UpInArms]

115. PlusFunds seeks bankruptcy protection, cites Refco

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyid=2006-03-06T194810Z_01_N06350090_RTRIDST_0_FINANCIAL-PLUSFUNDS-REFCO.XML

NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - PlusFunds Group Inc., a New York provider of hedge fund products, on Monday filed for bankruptcy protection, after some of its assets were tied up because of Refco Inc.'s (RFXCQ.PK: Quote, Profile, Research) own Chapter 11 filing.

Upon court approval, PlusFunds intends to sell its business to FTVentures, a private equity firm that invests in companies providing technology and services to financial institutions. It has $623 million of assets under management, and offices in New York and San Francisco.

The purchase price would be $5 million, including $2 million of cash and up to $3 million of assumed obligations, a court filing shows. PlusFunds also hired David Peress, a principal of XRoads Solutions Group, as chief restructuring officer.

PlusFunds offers private investment vehicles to investors seeking exposure to hedge funds, and receives fees tied to assets under management.

In an affidavit filed with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan, Peress said events following the Oct. 17 bankruptcy of Refco, a broker-dealer, precipitated the Chapter 11 filing.

Peress said that before Refco's bankruptcy, $312 million of customer assets at PlusFunds' SPhinX Managed Futures Fund were transferred to Refco from Refco Capital Markets, an unregulated broker-dealer unit. The money was later moved to accounts at other financial institutions, he said.

...more...

[ozymandius]

124. closing numbers and blather

Dow 10,958.59 -63.00 (-0.57%)
Nasdaq 2,286.03 -16.57 (-0.72%)
S&P 500 1,278.26 -8.97 (-0.70%)
10-Yr Bond 47.38 +0.54 (+1.15%)
NYSE Volume 2,280,193,000
Nasdaq Volume 2,159,150,000

4:20 pm : Mid-afternoon, the market fell out of what had been a very narrow trading range that surrounded the unchanged mark. Behind the equity market's fall was a rise in Treasury yields. Specifically, the yield on the benchmark 10-year jumped to 4.74% - a level not seen since June of 2004. A second factor behind today's losses was a drop in crude. The broader market failed to take a bullish cue, and selling across the Energy sector resulted in a market-dragging 2.8% loss.

The global interest rate environment continues to weigh on bond traders' sentiment. Additionally, economists' expectations for a solid February employment report, which is due out on Friday, added to Treasuries' troubles. The rate-sensitive Utilities sector took a hit and registered a 2.2% loss. As mentioned, it was the Energy sector that weighed heaviest. Prices across the energy complex were substantially lower. Crude futures ended their four-day gaining streak and dropped 2.3% on oversupply concerns. Several OPEC ministers today asserted that the cartel will maintain supply levels at its meeting on Wednesday. Additionally, the IAEA's chief helped to somewhat soothe geopolitical-driven supply concerns by announcing that a deal with Iran may be soon reached. Making matters worse for the Energy sector, Wachovia downgraded the integrated natural gas industry to Market-Weight from Overweight.

Seven other sectors also booked losses. The more defensive Consumer Staples and Healthcare sectors were amongst them, but demonstrated some relative strength. Upgraded Millipore (MIL 71.80 +3.18) shares were a particular bright spot that supported the latter. Despite the Treasury market action, the Financial sector again showed some resilience. Its decline lent some muscle to the broader market's fall, but, as it pared its loss, the indices moved off of their lows. Due to wide-spread selling, Technology (-0.7%) was an influential laggard. Semiconductors were a particular sore spot, but Texas Instruments (TXN 32.39 +0.10) outperformed ahead of its after hours mid-quarter update. On a related note, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIMM 82.76 +10.84) settled its patent dispute with NTP.

The Telecommunications sector (+1.8%) was the lone advancer. A flurry of merger and acquisition news captured investors' attention, and a blockbuster $67 billion merger between AT&T (T 27.02 -0.97) and BellSouth (BLS 34.47 +3.01) occupied the spotlight. The deal will create the world's largest telecom company with a market cap of as much as $170 billion. AT&T anticipates synergies of $18 billion, and the purchase gives it full ownership of Cingular Wireless - the number one mobile-phone company in the U.S. As the deal fueled speculation over more telecom consolidation and integration, many telecom stocks attracted buyers. Verizon (VZ 33.71 +0.13) got some added attention and announced that it is working to acquire Vodafone's (VOD 21.90 +0.90) 45% stake in Verizon Wireless. One stock there that did not advance was AT&T, due in part to typical integration concerns that the acquiring company faces, and also because of the fact that it paid an 18% premium for BellSouth shares.

Other deals announced included Education Management Corp.'s (EDMC 41.64 +4.66) $3.4 billion buyout, J.P. Morgan's (JPM 41.43 -0.16) approximate $1.5 billion purchase of Kohl's (KSS 50.53 +1.73) credit card business, and General Motors' (GM 19.80 +0.59) sale of most of its Suzuki stake. The GM transaction is expected to generate about $2 billion in cash, and news of it helped limit declines in both the Dow and Consumer Discretionary sector (-0.5%).

Separately, Factory Orders fell a less than expected 4.5% in January. That data was the only item on the economic calendar, and had little effect on trade today.DJ30 -63.00 NASDAQ -16.57 SP500 -8.97 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1929/1125/2.15 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 2303/995/1.64 bln