Daily Highlights: 6.30.10

• API reported a decline of 3.4M barrels in US' oil stockpiles.
• Asian markets stay in the red but pare early losses.
• Australia reportedly close to mining-tax compromise.
• Consumer Confidence grows in Euro zone, ebbs in UK.
• IMF chief: No double-dip for global economy; defends G20 focus on deficit reduction.
• Japanese stocks fall to seven-month low as US consumer confidence drops.
• U.K. housing prices edge up 0.1% in June.
• Aaron's to close office-furniture ops, cuts 2010 profit view.
• BP, Transocean told to alert US to acts that deplete assets.
• CACI issues in-line guidance; sees FY11 revs of $3.25-3.40B (cons $3.34B).
• Cisco plans to offer a tablet PC that caters to business users in Q1 of 2011.
• Emerson Electric Co. sweetened its offer to buy Chloride Group Plc to $1.5B.
• Enbridge to invest $500M in 250-megawatt Colorado wind energy project.
• General Mills reports in-line, posts Q4 EPS of $0.41. Revs fell 2.1% to $3.57b. Guides FY11 EPS below consensus.
• Google awaits fate in China as internet license deadline looms.
• Ping An Insurance in talks to merge banking unit with Shenzhen Development.
• Sanofi-Aventis to acquire TargeGen Inc., a privately held U.S. biopharmaceutical co.
• Sealy Corp. swings to Q2 profit as revs rise 6.1% to $316.5M.
• Standard Chartered to invest $500M in China's AgBank IPO.
• Sumitomo Mitsui to acquire a 4.5% stake in India's Kotak Mahindra Bank for $295M.
• Tesla Motors shares soar 41% in market debut.
• Unify Corp and Daegis to merge; UNFY will pay ~$38M.

Economic Calendar: Data on ADP Employment Change, Chicago PMI & Crude Inventories to be released.

Earnings Calendar: AM, APOL, AYI, CBK, GRO, LNN, MON, SJR, SWHC.

RECENT RATING ACTIONS
SAFEWAY INC (SWY)
MANPOWER INC (MAN)
HESS CORP (HES)
BNP PARIBAS (BNP FP)
SMITHFIELD FOODS INC (SFD)
GENERAL MILLS INC (GIS)
BROWN-FORMAN CORP (BF/A)
MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC (MU)
REVLON INC (REV)
XTO ENERGY INC (XTO)
NOBLE CORP (NE)
EXPEDIA INC (EXPE)

Data provided by Egan-Jones Ratings and Analytics

Comments

[jkruffin]

And so it begins, the day of the dollar being the reserve currency is coming to and end

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100629-711779.html

[CitizenPete]

Not being a subscriber ... the article was cut off at the nose (for me) ... what is the crux of their recommendation?  If they don't believe a basket of currencies is appropriate what do these GODs of monetary philosophy recommend?

[jkruffin]

Here you go:

4:06 P.M. ET UN Report: Dollar Should Be Replaced As Main Reserve Currency

By Frances McInnis Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The dollar should be replaced as the main global reserve currency in order to achieve greater stability in the world financial system, a United Nations report urged Tuesday.

"The dollar has proved not to be a stable store of value, which is a requisite for a stable reserve currency," said the World Economic and Social Survey 2010.

The report said a new system should be developed, which "must not be based on a single currency or even multiple national currencies." Instead, the report advocates the increased use of International Monetary Fund accounting units called Special Drawing Rights as a reserve asset.

SDRs are based on a basket of four currencies: the dollar, the euro, the yen and the U.K. pound. The weight of each currency in the basket stems from the value of exports and the amount of reserves denominated in the respective currencies held by other members of the IMF.

The U.N.'s suggestion is the latest in a series of proposals that have gained prominence since the financial crisis. Last year, Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz led a U.N.-appointed panel that also urged the replacement of the dollar as the world's reserve currency."

[Sisyphus]

1. Copy the article's title.

2. Go to Google.com.

3. Paste the copied data into the search field and press enter.

4. Click the link listed in the search result and you will be able to read the entire article. The Google bots are allowed to index the entire article; hence you are allowed to access it in its entirety via a Google search result.

[LoneStarHog]

"Consumer Confidence Grows In Euro Zone..."

I guess that selling your Euros for Swissies instills confidence...OR...maybe it is all the Euros that are being sold for GOLD/SILVER...OR...maybe this survey is conducted by the University of MiShitgan.....

[Hephasteus]

I see the dogs of war have been dipping into the oil again.

I'm sooo pissed off today. I want to rip peoples heads off. Which can only mean there are people thinking stupid shit today. My guess is they all work for institutions with 3 letters.

[CitizenPete]

Can anyone tell me what would happen to the price of Oil and Gold if an attack on IRAN would happen today?  How would markets "play" this?    Could a dramatic spike in the crude price be an indicator of an imminent attack?

Would this totally destabilize the US economy in an instant, provoking the US command and control over the American serfs (citizens) to go into high gear? (or maybe Americans are now dumb and dumb enough just not to notice?)

The anatomy of an attack on Iran. [URL="http://bit.ly/cUJn5g"]http://bit.ly/cUJn5g[/URL]

Thoughts?

[kaiten]

"Can anyone tell me what would happen to the price of Oil and Gold if an attack on IRAN would happen today?"

No problem, dude. Would stay where it´s now .... with one zero in addition. But who cares about zeros after all. The world is full of zeroes. A zero here, a zero there ;)

[papaswamp]

ADP jobs report.....way under consensus. an anemic +13,000

http://www.adpemploymentreport.com/

[Wynn]

Ambrose E-P must have taken offense when asked to shut up because he doesn't have a Phd in economics.  -  Must Read

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100006729/ti...

[Temporalist]

Time to shut down the US Federal Reserve?
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

"As for the Fed, I venture to say that a common jury of 12 American men and women placed on the Federal Open Market Committee would have done a better job of setting monetary policy over the last 20 years than Doctors Bernanke and Greenspan.

Actually, Greenspan never got a Phd. His honourary doctorate was awarded later for political reasons. (He had been a Nixon speech-writer). But never mind."

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100006729/ti...

[jkruffin]

10 yr note at 2.95%

30 yr note at 3.92%

the yield curve is going inverted,  thats ugly!!!  Anyone left in stocks is dead meat.

[jesusonline]

This is actually interesting:

Fed's Evans wary of additional Fed asset purchases

Charles Evans, the president of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, said Wednesday he was wary of calls for the Fed to buy more assets to stimulate the economy. "There are limits to what policy can do," Evans said. "I am wary of how effective those policies would be"

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/feds-evans-wary-of-additional-fed-asset-purchases-2010-06-30

Weren't there someone else from the governors saying the other day they wouldn't want to do additional QE?

What is it then "we don't wanna do it but if it get's tough we'll have to do it?" sort of prelude?

[docj]

IMF chief: No double-dip for global economy

Whew!  What a relief!  I was really starting to get concerned what with all this reality of failed ECB auctions and just general suck-fest news creeping in through the CNBS fog.  I suppose that ADP number from this morning is jut to be ignored, right?

I can has iPad now pleeze?

[herry]

Certainly a lot of details like that to take into consideration. Thanks windows vps | cheap vps | cheap hosting | forex vps