Archive - Aug 2009

• Stiglitz said he expects a “very slow recovery” in the U.S. economy and that a replacement for Fed Chair Bernanke should be considered.
• Treasury Dept, responding to demand from China, other investors, to boost sale of TIPS.
• Asian stocks rise on confidence economy is recovering; Alumina, NTT gain.
• ECB, BOE may decide against further stimulus as evidence points to recovery.

Despite the story of recovery, New Zealand continues to show signs of weakness.

Senator Cornyn foolishly thinks McCarthyism has no place in 2009. And here we were, happy recipients of the first one million flagged complaints in less than 24 hours...

Colorado State is the big gun when it comes to forecasting hurricanes. They see a lite year. I see big risk. Can anyone compute the El Nino/La Nino Vol? There is a lot of hot water in the Gulf.

Spreads were mixed in the US with all but ExHVOL tighter (but spread moves were very marginal today with extremely narrow ranges in IG and HY once again). Indices typically underperformed single-names with skews mostly narrower as IG underperformed but narrowed the skew (notable since the skew is at contract tights and intrinsics are hovering at critical support levels from last fall), HVOL underperformed but narrowed the skew, ExHVOL intrinsics beat and narrowed the skew, XO's skew increased as the index outperformed, and HY outperformed but narrowed the skew (as we heard a HY12 arb list doing the rounds).

No jobs = no recovery

Come to think of it... he's right

Deutsche Bank - "By Q1, 2011 a projected 48% of total mortgage borrowers will have negative equity."

Nuff said

If you missed your chance to stock up on double ply UST (T is for toiler) paper, fear not: you will have another chance to buy some again... and again... and again. The first opportunity will be on August 11th and 12th, when a total of $75 billion pieces of paper, backed by another rapidly deflating piece of paper will be made available for your indirect (or is that direct?) auction pleasure.

Just one question for Mary - why the hell did it take you and your even more conflicted and confused predecessor so long to get off your back and do something about Flash?

I am convinced, however, that you will be all over Dark Pools. And if not, we will hold your hands on that one. You can count on it.

For those rare occasions when a megasqueeze in financials just won't raise the market:

"Break dollar in case of manipulation failure"

In other news, everyone at the SEC is currently on a 7 hour long coffee break, spiking the top line of SBUX and GMCR.

Now, more than ever, with the market becoming even more extended, the Fembots are cracking the whip even harder on the 19-year old gamers to quickly rotate money to the stocks and/or groups moving the fastest.

Title says it all.

TrimTabs: "We know now that by ignoring real-time data, the BEA was providing an inaccurate view of the economy’s health."

Developing story: James Lockhart III, the man who is (was) overseeing Fannie and Freddie, has resigned. From the green shoots bleachers - FRE and FNM's pristine condition now allows them to supervise themselves.

AIG (short interest of 16%) and CIT (13%) are today's latest squeeze puppets. Because non-bankruptcy prospects before both companies are just so hot. Will whoever is pulling all the borrow please fess up already.