Daily Highlights: 10.6.09

• Apartment vacancies in the U.S. rose to 7.8% - a 23-year high.
• Asian stocks rise on US Services Industries data, higher commodities prices.
• Australia raised its cash rate target by 25 bps - first Group 20 to unwind stimulus.
• Dollar weakens as newspaper says Gulf States may drop greenback for oil trades.
• European, asian stocks advance; BHP Billiton, Dexia, Adidas shares climb
• Gartner sees narrower '09 chip revenue fall but cuts '10 forecast.
• Gold inches up towards $1020 on weak dollar
• Japan banks may avoid bad loans under debt moratorium as Kamei eases rules.
• Holiday retail sales may drop for second year, NRF forecasts
• Mantega says Brazil is buying $10B IMF bond, becoming net creditor.
• Oil above $70 as global stocks gain
• U.S. advertisers spent $10.9B on Internet ads in the first half of 2009, a 5.3% decline.
• US Service industries expand for first time in a year as recovery widens.
• AIG said to be close to selling Taiwan insurance unit to Primus Financial
• Brocade Communications in focus on reports of the company is seeking a suitor.
• Ciena in talks to buy substantially all of optical networking, Ethernet assets from Nortel.
• Cisco, Salesforce.com team up to sell service for call centers; will connect via Internet.
• CVS expects to lose one-third of subsidized Medicare drug members next year.
• Enbridge to construct $250M crude oil pipeline in ultra deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
• Energy Future Hldg plans $6B bond exchange at discount to cut debt.
• Goldman Sachs in talks to amend the terms of a $3B loan to embattled CIT Group.
• GrainCorp Ltd. to buy United Malt for $655M; increases profit forecast.
• Mazda Motor to sell new shares to raise capital and narrowed its full-year loss f'cast.
• MGM Mirage cuts condo prices in Las Vegas by 30%.
• Mosaic Co. expects potash demand to return to “normal” by 2H of its fiscal 2010.
• Nomura Holdings will raise about $4.8B from a share offering that was oversubscribed.
• Samsung's Q3 net more than doubles to $3.7B, beating est., helped by higher prices.
• Societe Generale in talks to buy Dexia SA's 20% stake in Credit Du Nord.
• Societe Generale seeks $7.06B in rights offer to replenish capital.
• Symetra Fincl Corp., partly owned by Berkshire Hathaway, to raise $575M via an IPO.
• Texas Instruments sees no value in breaking into Intel Corp.’s turf.

Recent Egan-Jones Rating Actions
DARDEN RESTAURANTS INC (DRI)
REGIONS FINANCIAL CORP (RF)
PNC FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP INC (PNC)
ENERGY FUTURE HOLDINGS CORP (TXU)
BROCADE COMMUNICATIONS (BRCD)
SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY (STX)
GENERAL DYNAMICS CORP (GD)
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC (BRK_A)
SEMPRA ENERGY (SRE)
LODGENET INTERACTIVE CORP (LNET)
TALISMAN ENERGY INC (TLM CN)
PIONEER NATURAL RESOURCES CO (PXD)
MURPHY OIL CORP (MUR)

Data provided by Egan-Jones Ratings and Analytics

Comments

[Sardonicus]

Apartment vacancies have risen probably because everyone from unemployed 40 somethings down to recent college grads have moved back in with mom and dad who can use the $100 a month in income to subsidize their decimated retirement accounts as well as the slave labor for snow shoveling and lawn mowing.

[Anonymous]

If vacancies increased then demand slowed which means price rises or rather decreases will increase...

but that is owners equivalent rent that has been doing very nicely according to government fiddlestistics.
So in reality inflation is deflating faster than they say, which isn't an unusual fact of life

[Project Mayhem]

Oil states say no talks on replacing dollar

ISTANBUL/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Big oil producing nations denied a British newspaper report on Tuesday that Gulf Arab states were in secret talks with Russia, China, Japan and France to replace the U.S. dollar with a basket of currencies in trading oil.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE59507620091006

...

Never believe anything until you see a strong government denial.  There's your denial , fwiw

[Gordon_Gekko]

Pilger's law: "If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true"

[MsCreant]

"Gold inches up towards $1020 on weak dollar"

Update: Gold brushes the face of $1030 and dwells in the high $1020 range, for now.

[Gordon_Gekko]

Gold blowing the "dollar-deflation" theory to SMITHEREENS.

[Gordon_Gekko]

Just hit 1033.70...

[Project Mayhem]

The real question is the COT setup, unless someone is expecting a halt in futures trading, the COT should explain what the big fish expect

http://www.321gold.com/cot_gold.html 

[Gordon_Gekko]

Commercials...er...bullion banks have covered on rising prices before...it won't really be that surprising if they do it this time too. In fact the COT structure is extremely favorable as far as a significant breakout point is concerned. They got a printing press backing 'em up for Christ's sake! They'll control Gold price for as long as they can, maybe slow it's rise, but in the end they're gonna dump their (paper) losses on the printing press.

[MsCreant]

Golden Gordon Gekko,

As if you didn't know. An update, for your pleasure...

Went above $1040, down to $1039.50.

[Dr Hackenbush]

'rumor' about 'secret dollar talks' seems suspiciously coordinated with the push for UHC.

[Project Mayhem]

yeah

I'm not sure I'm buying this story.  I'm hedged in cash and gold, but at the moment my sucpicion is dollar-negative.

[Gordon_Gekko]

I have hedged my cash holdings using Gold.

[Hephasteus]

I've got too much cash right now and not enough food, and clips I bought saturday don't work. I need to go to gun and grocery store. LOL

[Anonymous]

& Silver too. Ooooooooops here we go again....

[Anonymous]

I'm wondering if they know a massiveshort squeeze is coming for the dollar and are creating a big story out of something that's been in talks for a while in order to try and keep the dollar from rocketing higher. Cause if we get a dollar short squeeze like our stock market one, well, the market would tank and ben would lose any semblance of control that he thought he had.

[Anonymous]

Dollar squeeze...ha...ha...ha...ha. Sold to you, my stupid friend. Superabundance of near worthless clothpaper scraps and you posit somehow a short squeeze? To much out there and available for selling into a manipulation. Who's gonna back the squeeze? The Fed...with more printed notes?

Everyone is desperate to move out of dollars, with big boys especially hopeful not to overspook the market.

Short Squeeze. I wish you'd play that game with your every drop of value. The streets might teach you some smarts.

[aus_punter]

the equity market will work out soon enough that gold rallying is not really a good thing vis a vis risk assets... mind you, i have been saying that for a while

[spanish inquisition]

Looks like the full court press is on for war with Iran...They even have Timmay online...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1006/p99s01-duts.html

Everyone is jumping ..Israel must be threatening to lob a few of their own around. Overall, I can hardly wait for the next false flag operation to get started....We need to start a pool on what it is, securitize the bets and sell tranches. It's getting exciting out there

[Project Mayhem]

Didn't DARPA  try to do that a few years back when Pointdexter was running Total Information Awareness (before they moved TIA to Ft Meade)?

Lemme find the link... DARPA was setting up a futures exchange where you could bet money on terrorist attacks...

"Then, in late July, the Agency backed off a plan to set up a kind of futures market (Policy Analysis Market or PAM) that would allow investors to earn profits by betting on the likelihood of such events as regime changes in the Middle East. Critics, mainly politicians and op-ed writers, attacked the futures project on the grounds that it was unethical and in bad taste to accept wagers on the fate of foreign leaders and the likelihood of terrorist attacks. The project was canceled a day after it was announced. Its head, retired Admiral John Poindexter, has resigned."

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/nps/pam/si_pam.htm 

[spanish inquisition]

I remember that!  Impressive recall PM. Is it like a giant warehouse filled with file cabinets in your brain?

[Hephasteus]

I know and his avatar looks like a total economic idiot or colonol klink whichever one you know best and he's like 100 times smarter than both of them put together!!!!

[Project Mayhem]

Thanks.  My avatar is Hank Paulson, haha.   I'm getting kind of sick of looking at chrome dome maybe I should change it

[Hephasteus]

I know but until I saw your avatar i never realized how much hank paulson looks like colonel klink. LOL

[Anonymous]

Gimpy fingered, stuttering, man of unclean speak and much more filty hands. Dirty bird fouled the USA nest, usurped control of our money's purchasing power, carried out mafiaesque type hits on former competitors, extorted the democratically elected representatives to make policy contrary to the wishes of the people.

Mr. Paulson is one well-crafted hitman for the dark side.

[Printfaster]

The apartment vacancy thing is interesting.  Everyone was saying that with all the foreclosures, people would be needing to rent.

A couple of things have happened.  First, people in apartments are doubling up, tripling up.  Three or more generations in the same apartment.

The same thing has happened to homes.  And the foreclosures have been forestalled.

Retail is in for a bust, because the new households are not forming, and with it CRE and RE.

[ghostfaceinvestah]

Don't forget the outflow of illegal immigrants, like them or not, they are leaving, which frees up a lot of apartment space, and their numbers are not reflected in any official employment counts.