Archive - Apr 21, 2010 - Story

Things did not improve in Greece yesterday but they seemed to calm down a little bit. That kept the U.S. dollar below Monday and Friday’s highs. That, in turn, allowed the Troika (gold, oil and stocks) to move higher in lockstep. The techs continue to stand out. Many are long cash and had no real exposure to the financial meltdown. The upbeat Intel report suggested that a round of technology upgrading may be evolving. The buying tended to be broad. Advances beat declines better than 4 to 1. Advancing volume outpaced declining volume by a similar ratio. New highs swamped new lows 295 to 4. Net/Net it was a walk in the park for the bulls. As just stated, the lockstep coordination of stocks, gold and oil strongly hinted the influence of a calming in currency markets. The dip in volume was the only miss by the bulls. - Art Cashin

• AIG said to insure Goldman's board against investor suits (Bloomberg)
• UK unemployment hits 16 year high - they need to subcontract the BLS (FT)
• Earnings update: Boeing says health costs cut outlook (Bloomberg), AT&T hit by charge (Reuters), Wells misses revenue estimate (Bloomberg), Morgan Stanley posts profit on CDS and bond trading (Bloomberg)
• V-shaped explosion: an eventual inflationary collapse into a "double dip " Greater Recession (Asia Times)
• Richard Rahn: could the US become Argentina (Washington Times)
• Paulson reassures on Goldman role (Reuters, WSJ)
• Goldman says SEC case hinges on actions of one employee (Bloomberg)
• Greece says to agree joint text with IMF, EU by May 15, claims "restructuring talks are nonsense" (Reuters)

• Airlines lost over $1.7 billion from ash cloud disruptions over Europe, industry says.
• Americans see US autos topping Asian competitors.
• Asian stock markets gain on US corporate earnings, jump in oil price.
• Chinese bank watchdog orders quarterly tests on property loans.
• IMF proposes bank tax to fund bail-outs.
• Oil jumps above $84 in Asia as stocks rally on earnings.

RANsquawk European Morning Briefing - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc. – 21/04/10

As was reported first on Zero Hedge yesterday, Greece may now be considering a restructuring. Full press accounts of what is going on in the absence of the usual Greek rumor mill are murky. Reuters is claiming that the IMF portion of Greek aid would amount to €12 billion. In the meantime the market has spoken: the spread is now a fresh new record 522 bps. At this point every single rating agency is expected to downgrade the country.

RANsquawk European Morning Briefing - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc. – 21/04/10

A few weeks ago, I asked Fred Hickey what he would do as chairman of the Federal Reserve. In the remainder of our interview, I asked Fred whether we can avoid recessions in a business cycle, what will happen to the US Dollar, how our creditors are behaving, and what advice he can offer given the new economic environment.