Archive - Dec 7, 2010

• Draconian Budget Set to Pass After Lowry Gives His Backing (Irish Times)
• Euro Collapse 'Possible' Amid Deepening Divisions Over Bail-out (Telegraph)
• China Outstrips Fed With Liquidity Risking 2011 Inflation Spike (Bloomberg)
• Deal Struck on Tax Package (WSJ)
• Dublin Woos MPs Ahead of Budget Vote (FT)
• China Buys Most Korean Bonds in 6 Months as Won Falls (Bloomberg)
• EU Rules Out Immediate Aid Boost, Banks on ECB to Fight Crisis (Bloomberg)
• The theatrical farce continues: Obama Summons CEOs to White House for Talks Amid Change (Bloomberg)

• Technologies AG, maker of grinding tools, for about $448M.
• Advantest Corp. makes a buyout proposal to Verigy Ltd. worth nearly $730M.
• Autoliv has $1B for Japan acquisitions as car production rebounds.
• AutoZone's Nov. net income rises from $143M to $172M.
• Bio-Rad announces pricing of public offering of $425M senior notes; to repay old debt.
• BP said to weigh sale of some North Sea assets to fund Gulf spill clean-up.
• Dollar General's Q3 net jumped 69% to $128.1M helped by 10% rise in sales to $3.22B.

As of 9:30 am GMT, Julian Assange is no longer a free man. Bloomberg reports that the Wikileaks founder was arrested by London police over rape allegations made in Sweden. "Assange, 39, was arrested “by appointment” today at 9:30 a.m. after an international request by Swedish police for the Australian’s detention, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said today in a phone interview. He is to appear at City of Westminster Magistrate’s Court at 2 p.m. today, a court official said... The arrest follows a European arrest warrant on one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of rape allegedly committed in August 2010, the police’s extradition unit said in an e-mailed statement.The arrest warrant was sought by prosecutor Marianne Ny, who said she had been unable to question Assange. Ny started her investigation on Sep. 1 after Stockholm-based Chief Public Prosecutor Eva Finne dropped the rape charge and reduced the molestation charges. A lawyer for the two alleged victims in the case had appealed Finne’s decision." Of course the only thing that is on people's minds is whether (and when) the Australian will release the decryption code to the 1.4 GB torrent file that among other things, may contain data that will "bury" Bank of America. In other news, score one for having unprotected sex with free speech.

As a reminder today is the day when Europeans are supposed to withdraw money from their bank, not necessarily in a beneficial manner. And maybe the action is already having an impact with the Bank of Ireland apparently the first casualty. BBC reports: "Customers of one of Ireland's largest banks have been unable to access their cash accounts through ATMs or online. The Bank of Ireland said it became aware at 1000 GMT on
Tuesday that ATMs were not working and customers were unable to make
online transactions. A spokesperson said the fault lay with the bank's internal system and engineers were working to restore normal services." And by bank's internal system presumably one meant lack of money...Perhaps Eric Cantona will have the last laugh after all.

RANsquawk European Morning Briefing - Stocks, Bonds, FX – 07/12/10

The American Dream is dead, and we are responsible. Yes, I know what you are thinking. How can I possible say this when corrupt politicians and even more corrupt bankers are responsible for killing the American Dream? Of course I acknowledge this fact, but without our willing, gleefully ignorant participation in their “Death Race to the Bottom 2014” game, the death of the American Dream would not be possible.

If any Fed asks you who is WilliamBanzai7, just say WTF...

FINRA oversees the broker dealers, and 70% are calling for increased transparency. FINRA blew them off. Those 70% represent America more than the large banks located on Wall Street. What truly amazes me is how little attention is being paid to this outfit.

Retail traders are notoriously wrong at picking market direction/tops and bottoms. Most retail traders very naturally seem to adopt a counter-trend stance and this offers very accurate signals for individuals looking to trade against this group. This daily report is designed to help traders focus their efforts on higher probability pairs.

Retail traders are notoriously wrong at picking market direction/tops and bottoms. Most retail traders very naturally seem to adopt a counter-trend stance and this offers very accurate signals for individuals looking to trade against this group. This daily report is designed to help traders focus their efforts on higher probability pairs.