Archive - Sep 15, 2009 - Story

“Come on, Direct Edge. Come on Nasdaq. Come into this data center,’’ said Stanley Young, the chief executive officer of NYSE Technologies and co-global chief information officer of NYSE Euronext.

"[The Fed] is bigger than the Congress, [it] has more power than the Congress. The Fed Chairman probably is more powerful than our president, and yet we refuse to look at it. The time has come for us to look at the Fed" - Ron Paul

Fortress investment group has been on a tear recently: the stock which had probed the sub-dollar space some months ago, recently got a much needed upgrade from the fine analysts over at Barclays, which optimism was undoubtedly bolstered by the firm's retention of one Daniel ("His Name Is Not") Mudd as CEO, who did miracles during his prior tenure at Fannie Mae for shareholder returns. After all, as the whole "once bitten..." saying goes, one can be positive he has learned from losing billions in shareholder value in the past, and will never repeat it again. (Outliers such as Bob Nardelli are just that - outliers.) Yet a casual glance at the Fortress Board of Directors reveals one Howard "Howie" Rubin. Is there more than meets the eye here?

Capital One's August charge-off and delinquency rate data was filed today, and while some voodoo accounting likely helped the annualized charge-off rate decline from 9.83% to 9.32%, the 30 day+ delinquency increased from 4.83% to 5.09%. So while the marginal credit card holder is "expected" (see definition below) to start paying credit card balances due, the recidivist abusers keep ignoring those 3rd notification letters.

• The new carry trade: Funding in dollars (FX Solutions)
• Retail sales ex auto subsidies up 1.1% (Bloomberg)
• Core PPI up 0.2%, gasoline up 23% (Bloomberg)
• Evans-Pritchard: Credit shrinks at Great Depression rate prompting fears of double-dip recession (Telegraph, h/t Geoffrey)
• Weil: Too-big banks can take comfort in Obama's math (Bloomberg)
• Retail sales here - not so much “We need to see a revenue story emerge”: Best Buy profit misses estimates as sales fall at older stores (Bloomberg)

• Asia currencies gain on signs recovery may spur rate increases.
• British inflation falls back to 1.6 percent amid favorable oil price comparisons.
• Car, gas sales seen boosting August retail sales, but consumers cautious.
• China shares rise for 3rd day on economic recovery hopes, led by metals.
• EU deepens investigation into Dutch govt.'s plan to buy ING bad assets.
• Dollar trades near weakest level this year on record low borrowing costs.
• Foreign direct investment in China climbed for the first time in 11 months in August.