Wells Fargo

• Obama Holds Fire on Syria, Waits on Russia Plan (WSJ)
• China Shadow Banking Returns as Growth Rebound Adds Risk (Reuters)
• Not one but two: Greece May Need Two More Aid Packages Says ECB’s Coene (WSJ)
• BoJ insider warns of need for wage rises (FT) ... as we have been warning since November, and as has not been happening
• California city backs plan to seize negative equity mortgages (Reuters)
• Home Depot Is Accused of Shaking Down Suspected Shoplifters (BBG)
• Most-Connected Man at Deutsche Bank Favors Lightest Touch (BBG)
• Norway Pledges to Limit Oil Spending (BBG)
• China Shadow Banking Returns as Growth Rebound Adds Risk (BBG)
• Gundlach Says Fed Is Mistaken in How It's Ending Easing (BBG)

• Obama Shrinking Second-Term Hastened by Syria Opposition (BBG)
• Obama says Russian proposal on Syria a potential 'breakthrough' (Reuters)
• Poll Finds Support Fading for Syria Attack (WSJ)
• France to Introduce Resolution Aimed at Dismantling Syria's Chemical Arsenal (WSJ)
• Apple to Unveil IPhones Seeking End to Year of Struggles (BBG)
• Verizon Plans Largest Debt Sale Ever: Proceeds From Deal, Expected to Raise $20 Billion, Would Fund Venture Buyout (WSJ)
• Shipping Rates Seen at 2010 High on Record Ore to China (BBG)
• Ads coming to Twitter: Twitter makes its largest acquisition, a mobile ad company (FT)
• Houses on fire as fighting erupts in southern Philippines (Reuters)
• Banks Seen at Risk Five Years After Lehman Collapse (BBG)

About an hour ago, Bank of America served the latest indication that the US housing "recovery" (also known as the fourth consecutive dead cat bounce of the cheap credit policy-driven housing market in the past five years) may be on its last breath. Namely, the bank announced that it will eliminate about 2,100 jobs and shutter 16 mortgage offices as rising interest rates weaken loan demand, said two people with direct knowledge of the plans and reported by Bloomberg. In some ways this may be non-news: previously we reported, using a Goldman analysis, that up to 60% of all home purchases in recent months have been, which of course shows just how hollow the "recovery" has been for the common American for whom the average home has once again become unaffordable. However, judging by an update presentation given earlier today by the CFO of none other than JP "fortress balance sheet" Morgan, things are rapidly going from bad to worse for the banking industry as a result of the souring mortgage market for which, absent prop trading, loan origination is the primary bread and butter.

• Hedge Funds Cut Back on Fees (WSJ) as we predicted would happen in May
• Syria's Assad denies chemical weapons use; U.S. presses case for strike (Reuters)
• Unemployment Falling for Wrong Reason Creates Fed Predicament (BBG)
• U.S. tapped into networks of Google, Petrobras, others (Reuters)
• Chinese Zombies Emerging After Years of Solar Subsidies (BBG)
• Monte Paschi doubles planned capital hike to 2.5 billion euros (Reuters)
• Loan Size to Be Cut for Fannie, Freddie (WSJ)
• Japan Growth Revision Opens Door to Sales Tax Rise (FT)
• Inside the End of the U.S. Bid to Punish Lehman Executives (NYT)
• Financial Crisis: Lessons of the Rescue, A Drama in Five Acts (WSJ)
• Time Warner Joins IBM in Health Shift for Retirees (WSJ)
• Mideast Derails Key Issues in Congress (WSJ)

• Yes: Support Builds in Congress for U.S. Strike Against Syria (WSJ)
• No: Boehner backs Obama on Syria, but House leaning toward ‘no’ (The Hill)
• U.S. Congress fight over Syria pits establishment versus upstarts (Reuters)
• Wednesday humor: Japan’s Abe Says Fukushima Will Be Resolved Before 2020 Olympics (BBG)
• Bank of Japan to Consider Further Easing if Sales Tax Hike Goes Ahead (Reuters)
• S&P accuses U.S. Justice Department of filing $5 billion lawsuit against it in "retaliation" for the company's downgrade of America's debt in 2011 (WSJ)
• German Candidates Spar Over Records (WSJ)
• Emerging Nations Save $2.9 Trillion Reserves in Rout (BBG)
• Split Congress Mulls Denial of Military Force Request (BBG)
• Sharp Fall in Overseas Investment By Chinese Firms (WSJ)
• Jorge Lemann: He Is...the World's Most Interesting Billionaire (BusinessWeek)
• Why Amazon Is on a Warehouse Building Spree (BW)

• Mediterranean 'Ballistic Targets' Were Part of Israeli Test – Defense Ministry (RIA)
• Microsoft to Buy Nokia’s Devices Unit for $7.2 Billion (BBG)
• Long-Term Jobless Left Out of Recovery (WSJ)
• Swiss banks apologize for assisting tax cheats (Reuters)
• As Obama pushes to punish Syria, lawmakers fear deep U.S. involvement (Reuters)
• India Looking to Expand Rupee-Payment System (WSJ)
• Citigroup Dialing Back Its 'Alternative' Holdings (WSJ)
• Libya Seeks New Solutions to Oil Crisis (WSJ)
• Lenovo Chief Yang Shares Bonus With Workers a Second Year (BBG)

• Opposition figure: major decisions on Syria expected within hours (Al Arabiya)
• Syria challenges U.S. to "produce the evidence" that Assad regime launched chemical attack (CBS)
• British PM says world must act on Syria, weighs response (Reuters)
• U.S. Treasury to Hit Debt Limit in Mid-October (WSJ)
• U.S. could look beyond U.N. Security Council in any Syria strike (Reuters)
• Nasdaq, NYSE at odds on outage cause as SEC seeks facts (Reuters)
• Ackman’s J.C. Penney Sale Ends Failed Saga to Agitate for Change (BBG)
• Zandi, LaVorgna, Blinder, Rattner all is one con puff piece (BBG)
• Best Buy Founder Schulze Plans Stock Sale to Diversify Assets (BBG) - "diversify assets" = dump overpriced junk
• Zero Worship: Credit-Card Firms Compete With No-Interest Transfers (WSJ)
• Len Blavatnik wins $50m in JPMorgan lawsuit (FT)
• Danone Finds Yogurt’s All Greek as Oikos Chases Chobani (BBG)

If one were to lay $1 bills side by side, the current US National Debt would reach from the earth to the moon 32,358 TIMES AND BACK and to the sun 93 million miles away 83 times AND BACK.

• Bankers Brace for Fed Wind-Down (WSJ)
• A Veteran Saudi Power Player Works To Build Support to Topple Assad (WSJ)
• Gunmen shoot at weapons experts' vehicle in Damascus: U.N (Reuters) - as long as it's not drones
• ECB Council Members Split in Jackson Hole Over Rate Cuts (BBG)
• Fed Officials Rebuff Coordination Calls as QE Taper Looms (BBG)
• As Egyptians Ignore Curfew, Talk of a U.S.-Brotherhood Conspiracy (NYT)
• Pipeline-Capacity Squeeze Reroutes Crude Oil (WSJ)
• Lawmakers Probe Willful Abuses of Power by NSA Analysts (BBG)
• Indictments Expected in Alleged Trading Code Theft (WSJ)
• India’s ONGC takes Africa gasfield stake (FT)
• Capital Flight Drains Reserves as Rupee, Rupiah Fall (BBG)
• Banks scale back rates business (FT)

• Lew warns Congress to strike debt ceiling deal (FT)
• Central-Bank Moves Blur the View (WSJ)
• Brazil, Indonesia launch measures to shore up their currencies (FT)
• More mainstream media reminded about Fukushima - Radioactive ground water under Fukushima nears sea (AP)
• Fukushima inspectors 'careless', Japan agency says, as nuclear crisis grows (Reuters)
• New York Banker Arrested on Rape Charges in East Hampton (NYT)
• This time they mean business, for real: CFTC Moves to Rein In High-Speed Traders (WSJ)
• Britain operates secret monitoring station in Middle East (Reuters)
• Moody’s considers downgrading top US banks (FT)
• China's Bo calls wife mad after she testifies against him (Reuters)
• JPMorgan Sub-New Normal Growth Seen Vexing Next Fed Chief (BBG)
• SEC calls for cooling-off period for more staff (Reuters)

It was a quiet overnight session, in which the Nikkei was catching up to USDJPY weakness from the past two days, while China dipped once more despite the NDRC's chief economist stating China may cut RRR or conduct more reverse repos in H2 to maintain stable credit as loan growth slows down (or in other words things go back to normal). In Europe ECB's Nowotny decided to undo some of Draghi's recent work when he said that "good economic news" removes the need for a rate cut which in turn pushed the EURUSD higher (and European exports lower), even as former Cyprus central bank Orphanides said the Euro crisis may flare up after the German elections. In the UK Q2 GDP came in slightly stronger than expected at 0.7% vs 0.6% Exp. letting the GBP outperform since a need for the BOE to ease, at least in the short run, is becoming less pertinent. In amusing news, Moody’s late yesterday put six largest U.S. banks on review as it considers the effect of evolving bank resolution policies under Dodd-Frank and international regulations. As such GS, JPM, MS and WFC may be cut.

• SURPRISE - Goldman Sachs won a preliminary victory to limit losses from a wave of erroneous trades that roiled U.S. options markets (WSJ)
• HP’s Whitman abandons 2014 revenue growth target (FT) - just keep doing those buybacks and ignore CapEx: revenue growth estimated in 2022
• Republicans in Echo Before Big Burn Defy Affordable Care (BBG)
• China's banks to take next step in rate reform push  (Reuters)
• Berlin’s Consistency on Greece’s Rescue (FT) and lack thereof
• Summers as Obama Voice of Authority Rides Car Rescue in Fed Race (BBG)
• Cuomo in Manure Fight as New York Promotes Yogurt (BBG)
• Yellen’s Ties From London to Shanghai Bypass White House (BBG)
• Sanctions Gap Allows China to Import Iranian Oil (WSJ)

While it appears to be increasingly likely (odds) that the Fed will Sept-Taper (desperate to use economic data to cover the fact that they are cornered due to deficits, sentiment, and technicals), in the lead-up to the next FOMC meeting on September 17-18, as Stone McCarthy notes, there are some significant developments regarding the outlook for the Fed and monetary policy between then and and now that everyone should be paying attention to...

• Vocal billionaire activist IRR - 150x: Icahn bought $1 billion of AAPL stock, seeks $150 billion buyback (BBG)
• BlackBerry Said to Have Sought Buyers Since 2012 (BBG) - for a phone or the entire company?
• IPhone Fingerprint Reader Talk Boosting Biometric Stocks (BBG) - also, the NSA will need to grow its Utah data center
• UPS Jet Crashes in Birmingham, Ala. (WSJ)
• America's Farm-Labor Pool Is Graying (WSJ)
• Hong Kong Lowers Storm Signal as Typhoon Closes on China (BBG)
• Indian submarine explodes in Mumbai port (FT)
• BofA Banker Sued by Regulator Later Joined Fannie Mae (BBG)
• Software that hijacks visits to YouTube uncovered (FT)
• Chinese Billionaire Huang Readies Iceland Bid on Power Shift (BBG)
• China to launch fresh pharmaceutical bribery probe (Reuters)
• Defeat at J.C. Penney Hurts Ackman as Performance Trails (BBG)

• U.S. Regulator Subpoenas Banks Over Long Warehouse Queues (BBG)
• Apple Said to Prepare Holiday Refresh of IPhones to IPads (BBG)
• Fed's Yellen Says Stance on Banks Hardened (WSJ)
• Mexico opens up its energy sector (FT)
• Spin: Greek GDP marks gradual deceleration of recession (FT) ... spin aside, it dropped 4.6%, and in reality, probably over 10%
• Made-in-Canada Solution For BlackBerry Avoids Nortel Fate (BBG)
• America's Farm-Labor Pool Is Graying (WSJ)
• Video of 'lame' cattle stirs new concern over growth drugs (Reuters)
• Paulson Bid for Steinway Trumps Kohlberg Offer (WSJ)
• Egyptian government yet to decide on pro-Mursi vigils (Reuters)