Archive - Jun 8, 2011

Leo Kolivakis's picture

Public Pension Problem Shrinking?





Surge in stock markets helped US public pension plans recover but will it last?

 

Tyler Durden's picture

China's SAFE Warns Excessive Dollar Holdings Risky, Promptly Retracts Statement





For the nth time, China let loose that "excessive" holdings of US dollars are risky because "Washington could pursue a policy to weaken the dollar, a senior currency regulator said in comments published on a website that briefly pushed the dollar lower." Oddly this time, the statement which came from Guan Tao of China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) which is the entity responsible for managing the country's $3+ trillion in USD FX holdings, was promptly retracted, following an announcement by Tao to Reuters "that the comments had been made in private academic discussions and represented his personal view only." In other words this is an identical episode to the one when the BOC's Mark Carney told "a private circle" that the US is going to hell in a handbasket. While the announcement briefly pushed the dollar lower, is the take home message that everyone is secretly hating America, while in public keeping a rosy appearance? The answer, of course, is a resounding yes.

 

George Washington's picture

Seattle Residents Exposed to 10 Radioactive "Hot Particles" Per Day





Don't worry ... if anyone gets cancer 10 years from now, it will have been from hot dogs and cellphones, not Fukushima.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Presenting The Natgas "Fractal" Algo





Just when we thought we had seen it all, along comes another 19 year old math Ph.D. with the latest demonic-cum-fractal algo to show us just what cavemen we truly are...

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Jim Rogers: "Bernanke Is A Disaster" Who Will "Bring QE Back"





Jim Rogers spoke to a very dramatic and even more hoarse Bartiromo, touching on old and well-known themes, namely that the administration is essentially using up its last stimulus bullet with the current recession: "When the problems arise next time what are they going to do? They can’t quadruple the debt again. They cannot print that much more money. It’s gonna be worse the next time around." Alas, as Obama appears to be preparing, "they" will simply do more of the same: the same payroll tax that was supposed to cure all evils in December. The fact that nobody anticipated something so stupid is probably indicative of the administration's genius. Or lunacy. Followed by more dollar printing of course. On what needs to be done to avoid the debt ceiling breach which will shut down the government, Faber believes that nothing short of Draconian measures will be relevant: "We’ve got troops in 150 countries around the world. They’re not doing us any good, they’re making enemies. They’re costing us a fortune." On the other hand he acknowledges: "we can never pay off these debts." As usual, Rogers saved the best for Bernanke: "Since the first day Mr Benanke went to Washington I knew he was going to be a disaster. He has never been right about anything in the 7 or 8 years he has been there. I hope he doesn't come back with QE3 but that's all he knows. The only thing he knows to do is to print money. He doesn't understand finance, he doesn't understand currencies, he doesn't understand economics. He understands printing money. It's the wrong thing to do but that's what he'll do... They're gonna bring QE back because he will be terrified and Washington will be terrified," he said. "There's an election coming in November 2012. Washington's gonna print more money." Lastly, in terms of investments, Rogers is long the dollar but only "for a rally", and also owns Chinese stocks and commodities, would be buying more gold and silver if the price were to go down, and is short tech stocks and JP Morgan. Like we said nothing new. With one addition: the republicans will now get tax cuts, so democrats get QE3. As we have been saying - 2011 is nothing other than 2010 all over again.

 

EconMatters's picture

A Not-So-Marginal Risk in Silver





Our research analyst was interviewed by Carolyn Cui from Wall Street Journal regarding why we believe CME should have raised margins on silver earlier and had missed the best opportunity to do so.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Here It Comes: Obama Considering Another Fiscal Stimulus





It just never changes:

  • OBAMA AIDES SAID TO DISCUSS EMPLOYER PAYROLL TAX BREAK
  • PAYROLL TAX BREAK FOR EMPLOYERS AMONG IDEAS TO BOOST HIRING
  • ADMINISTRATION CONSIDERING MEASURES AS RECOVERY SLOWS

Bolded bullets aside, good luck passing another fiscal stimulus Dear President when you can't even issue debt without stealing money from government retirees.

 

Econophile's picture

Too Big To Fail Banks Will Kill All Reforms





By the time the "too big to fail" banks and their lobbyists get through with the rules, banks will be relatively free to pursue lending practices that existed before the crash.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Bill Gross: "No QE 3"





The latest soundbite from Bill Gross comes from the Morningstar fund conference, where he again repeated his conviction that there will be no QE3. Reuters reports: "Pimco co-chief investment officer Bill Gross said the Federal Reserve would not be able to start a third round of quantitative easing after the second round expires at the end of this month. The members of the central bank's open market committee are "balanced but divided," Gross, manager of the world's largest bond fund, said on Wednesday in a speech at the Morningstar fund conference. "It will be difficult to initiate a QE3." Instead, the Fed will try to keep interest rates low with its official statements, Gross said. Gross's fund, the $243 billion Pimco Total Return Fund, has gained 3.24 percent so far this year, trailing 58 percent of similar funds, according to Morningstar data."

 

williambanzai7's picture

MiLK TiCKeTS FoR BaBieS





A conspiracy is nothing but a secret agreement of a number of men for the pursuance of policies which they dare not admit in public.--Mark Twain

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Texas Instruments Cuts Guidance





In a scheduled update to its business outlook for the second quarter of 2011, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today narrowed and lowered its expected ranges for revenue and earnings per share (EPS).

The company currently expects its financial results to be within the following ranges:

  • Revenue:  $3.36 – 3.50 billion, compared with the prior range of $3.41 – $3.69 billion
  • EPS:  $0.51 – 0.55, compared with the prior range of $0.52 – 0.60

So you are saying the initial guidance reduction from April 18 was not... transitory?

 

RANSquawk Video's picture

RANsquawk Market Wrap Up - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc. – 08/06/11





RANsquawk Market Wrap Up - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc. – 08/06/11

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Stocks Close Down For 6th Consecutive Day: Longest Red Streak Since February 2009, Just Before QE1





The last time we had 6 consecutive down days was February 13-23, 2009. Which is before March 2009. Which is when the S&P hit 666. Which is when the Fed started Q1. As for the last time we had 5 down days in a row was in August of 2010, just when the Hindenburg Omen was spotted and threatened to undo the entire Centrally Planned house of cards... Which is when the Fed started QE2. Pattern emerging?

 

ilene's picture

Wiping Out All of 2011's Gains!





This is not even getting into the depreciation scam, which is another MASSIVE tax break taken by Big Business that is even larger than the tax avoidance scam we are discussing in this study.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Time For Chinese Fraudcaps To Exit Stage Left





One of the most unbelievable developments in the past few days has been the rank, unprecedented, totally amateur and outright pathetic backlash against writers of "short China" theses by the management teams of these same companies that have garnered the all too deserved definition of "Fraudcaps." We have shown before that the hit rate of pieces accusing Chinese companies is well north of 80% as exhibited by the fact that virtually all companies currently halted indefinitely on the Nasdaq are of Chinese origin. But of course, the fact that their stocks plunge only after an investor who has actually done their homework exposes Chinese frauds for what they are, does not prevent these companies to stoop to the lowest rung on the ladder and actually sue these contrarians who in the long run merely prevent further capital erosion from future lazy momos who may have invested in these crap companies. It is time for these smokescreening, grautious, shareholder fund-depleting lawsuits to stop, and for shareholders to instead sue their management teams.
After all, if these allegations are so wrong, than it is the fiduciary
duty of the management team to buy back as much stock as humanly
possible, using both corporate and personal funds
: if there is no fraud, this represents a massive discount to fair value and the highest IRR investment these clueless fraudulent management teams can pursue.
Commit
fraud once, with the help of the NYSE and Nasdaq, that's fine - the
idiot momos who buy your shares will lose everything, but continue this
charade and CEOs deserve to go to jail immediately, hopefully while ignoring the completely toothless SEC which has failed and continues to fail
miserably when it comes to protecting shareholder interests, especially in this most recent Chinese fraud contagion. Also, we leave the question of when any incompetent sellside banker will be sued for peddling a BUY rating on Chinese fraud completely open...

 
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