Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktVital Statistics:
| Last | Change | Percent | |
| S&P Futures | 1237.7 | 8.4 | 0.68% |
| Eurostoxx Index | 2273.8 | 4.330 | 0.19% |
| Oil (WTI) | 98.44 | 0.670 | 0.69% |
| US Dollar Index (DXY) | 79.53 | -0.035 | -0.04% |
| 10 Year Govt Bond Yield | 2.05% | 0.04% |
Markets are rallying this morning on a better-than expected bond auction in Spain. Retail Sales came in lower than expected, though. Retail Sales came in + .2% vs expectations of +.6%. Retail sales less autos and gas came in +.2%. Later this afternoon, we will get the FOMC decision. Nobody expects any changes, but the market will focus on the language. It will be interesting to see how Europe is addressed. While US banks don’t have huge exposure to Irish and Greek banks, they do have massive exposure to the UK, German, and French banks.
Best Buy is down premarket after stinking up the joint with a lousy 3Q earnings report. The miss was largely attributed to “promotional costs,” which is retailer-speak for “we had to cut prices more than expected to move the merchandise.” This has been a consistent theme – the consumer is back spending money, but they are very price-sensitive.
The MF Global hearings will continue this afternoon with testimony in front of a Senate Panel. Jon Corzine will be there, as well as MF Global’s CFO and COO. The CFO and COO have stated in prepared testimony that they don’t know where the customer funds went either.
Filed under: Uncategorized |
All Things in Moderation 
Another post Jersey connection, post Corzine:the owner of the NBA team that is going to be leaving NJ is running against Putin for Prez of Russia."Mr. Prokhorov, 46, has the resources to pose a real challenge to the Kremlin if he chooses." [NYT]
LikeLike
Markets are rallying for no other reason than they went down yesterday. LOL
LikeLike
Mark,There's the name you want to take in your office "dead pool".
LikeLike
John,If Prokhorov is killed, you can bet all those Russians from Brighton Beach plus all the Brooklyn hoops fans will be gunning for Putin/Medvedev.
LikeLike
John, if I get your drift, you think Russia will have one less oligarch by the time the election rolls around.
LikeLike
Russians never seem to live very long. One man's murder is another man's unfortunate illness
LikeLike
the euro is falling out of bed..
LikeLike
"Oil Prices Spike on Iran Reports, Demand Forecast"http://www.cnbc.com/id/45646157
LikeLike
Merkel must have huge feet, because she stomped the life out of us again:"The euro fell to its lowest level in 11 months against the dollar on Tuesday after sources said Germany's Angela Merkel has rejected any suggestion of raising the funding limit of Europe's future bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM)."
LikeLike
Here's another little bit on MF Global and the CME. It's an Yves Smith "silly Naked Capitalism" piece so reader beware.Now there is a possible out for the CME: that MF Global staff mislead auditors and/or filed inaccurate regulatory reports. Given that the firm unraveled quickly, it would not be fatal to the CME if it were hoodwinked for a while by doctored information. But that in turn would imply a real conspiracy by MF Global staff. So a scenario that is favorable to the CME argues for throwing the book at MF Global.But back to the bigger picture. Here we have the CME taking a hit in trading volumes, and it acts as if it can just ride it out. I don’t see why customers would or should get over their shell shock quickly. We see the same behavior in the securitization market. Investors know damned well they were had. The FDIC put forward a proposal of reforms in a Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in early 2010 which looked to be a pretty good set of measures designed to get investors back in the pool. But the sell side refused to consider it, and so we remain with pretty much the entire mortgage market on government life support. And the worse is that the media continues to parrot the bank/originator line that it is “market conditions” that are keeping investors away from private label deals, when it is in fact the industry’s own intransigence.Here the CME does not have (to my knowledge) the prospect of a government guarantee to boost business. And on top of that, futures traders and fund managers are far more aggressive and outspoken than their mortgage brethren, who have been remarkably slow to stand up to abuses. So it would seem to have far less reason than the mortgage industrial complex to be confident that it can stare its customers down.
LikeLike
think it is stop loss selling after taking out the 10/4 intraday low.
LikeLike
lms:I will ponder, but have to return real actual books to the library now. LOL
LikeLike
corzine coming off worse today..
LikeLike
lms:Tried to make heads or tails our of his piece, but it just doesn't work for me. sorry.
LikeLike
Interesting piece:"Matthew Slaughter: We need One Institution as a Systemic Regulator — Not Ten"http://www.cnbc.com/id/45640105
LikeLike
@lms,that article makes no sense to me either….
LikeLike
FYI in the ongoing conversation about a financial transactions tax:http://www.cnbc.com/id/45655791
LikeLike
lms:I don't want to pile on, but I didn't get it either. Although I can confirm his anecdote about the frustrations of working within the Japanese corporate culture.
LikeLike
Well jeeze, you guys are a tough crowd today.
LikeLike
He certainly has the financial credentials, he just didn't get this one across coherently.
LikeLike
Grassley is taking Corzine to task for getting a waiver from having to re-take his Series 7. My God.
LikeLike
He sounds like someone who is watching CME Dec 240 puts depreciate like sushi…
LikeLike
Just an FYI everyone, Yves Smith is female. And she has pretty good econ creds and for some reason I understood what she was saying. Maybe its a "girl" thing…………lol.
LikeLike
Ah the George Sand problem. LOL
LikeLike
Up a thousand down a thousand, what's 30 market minutes in the concept of celestial time anyway?
LikeLike
Brent :Speaking of which, did you ever give up some puts for dead, only to turn around one day and find that they've gone in the money? LOL
LikeLike
John: only if I had been bidding 1/16 to get them back…. 😦
LikeLike
I had some puts on Europe before the dollar liquidity intervention, which obviously cratered, but low and behold today . . .
LikeLike
Fed just KILLED the markets today
LikeLike