Bits & Pieces (Wednesday Night Health Edition)

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Michigoose

Well, there goes my reason for drinking red wine!  Guess I’ll just have to stick with white. . . and the occasional martini when I’m out of state (due to Utah’s often odd liquor laws a real martini can’t be made here:

Metered Dispensing
Utah law requires restaurants, clubs, on-premise banquet licensees, reception centers, and airport lounges to use a metered dispensing system that is calibrated to dispense no more than 1.5 ounces of primary liquor in a mixed drink. Secondary alcoholic flavorings may then be added to a mixed drink as the recipe requires, not to exceed a total of 2.5 ounces of spirituous liquor.


Internal medicine vs surgery. . . also female vs male.  “Eating is for wimps and dermatologists!”  LMAO!


And just to show how versatile these characters are, here’s the explanation we’ve all been waiting for:




While Garth Brooks/Chris Gaines doesn’t allow YouTube (or iTunes, for that matter) to distribute his videos, Don Henley is a worthy substitute:


And another oldie but goodie:

Bob graduated from the high school that I would have attended had I stayed in Ann Arbor (darn my parents for moving!!), and one year he came back to be the Senior Prom “band”.  One of my very best friends of all time knew how much I loved Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band and invited me to the prom. . . Best. Concert. Ever!

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Morning Report

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Brent Nyitray

Vital Statistics:

Last Change Percent
S&P Futures 1282.1 -4 -0.31%
Eurostoxx Index 2333.4 -14.120 -0.60%
Oil (WTI) 101.41 -0.830 -0.81%
LIBOR 0.5765 -0.003 -0.52%
US Dollar Index (DXY) 81.325 0.426 0.53%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield 1.94% -0.03%

Markets are a touch weaker this morning after yesterday’s rally. Euro sovereign yields are tighter on a lack of news. The Fed’s Beige Book comes out around 2:00 this afternoon and tomorrow we get jobless claims and retail sales data.
Bloomberg is speculating that the Fed is ready to start large-scale mortgage purchases again. I suspect the reason for this is the new increased fee that Fannie Mae is going to charge, which will probably tack on 10 basis points or so to the interest rate on new mortgages starting next month. The hope is that they can reduce the base yield of MBS in order to take the sting out of the increased fee.
Rumors of a big refi package coming from the GSEs will get more life as Fannie Mae’s CEO Michael Williams is stepping down. The rumor has been that the government will start offering no-questions-asked refis to anyone who is current on their mortgage. I have said before that the originator is the weak link in this plan, but there is an election coming up. Even if it doesn’t work, it allows obama to say he is doing something about house prices.
Lennar reported earnings in line with expectations this morning, but the focus is going to be on the outlook. They reported a 35% increase in backlog and a 20% increase in new orders – more indications that construction is coming back, albeit from a very depressed level. Historically, housing starts would be 1.5MM to 2MM units at this point in the economic cycle, not the current 650k annual pace. Their view is that the housing market is stabilizing.

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