Archive - Feb 17, 2011 - Blog entry

A recent proposal by a group of Quebec-based advocates to create a shareholder insurance fund for victims of financial fraud could put the province on a collision course with Canada's big banks...

New stuff, old stuff. It's all the same.

Investors have dozens of reasons for loving Gold. Some love it because it’s a great inflation hedge. Others love it because it can’t be devalued. Others love it because it’s a storehouse of wealth. Personally I like Gold for all of these reasons too. But my favorite reason for liking Gold is because it calls “BS” on this stupid stock market rally.

Here in the US we prefer BS numbers to no numbers at all. The US ALWAYS reports data (unless it’s regarding someone on Wall Street or our Fed Chairman breaking the law). And if the real numbers are too ugly we use seasonal adjustments, birth/death ratios, survivor biases, and other ridiculous adjustments to make the data just palatable for publications.

"It's like Cairo's moved to Madison these days"

Are these (1) spontaneous protests in the Arab world (2) creations of American intelligence services or (3) the start of a world-wide unfolding of unrest?

That's right, I am now resorting to random gibberish in the hopes of getting a better understanding of the markets.

No doubt this will be spun as an "editing error". We've heard this before: "fake, but accurate", right? Will FOX news anchor Bill Hemmer resign in disgrace?

We put out a research note earlier this week downgrading Wells Fargo & Co ("WFC"/Q3 2010 Bank Stress Rating: "B"). Of course the media focused on the departure of Howard Atkins, the former CFO who retired suddenly and without notice, but ignored the disclosure and governance issues.

UK Inflation data led to market expectations of a potential rate hike, however this opinion quickly lost steam as Governor King spoke yesterday. Economic weakness indicated by a rising jobless rate, as well as other factors vs Inflation risks is leading to a continued stalemate in interest rate expectations. These event led to a sharp turn around in GBP positioning with most GBP pairs in the neutral zone now.

The market rose again today (which is actually the new permanent opening line...