NCAA tournament update

Posted on March 7, 2012 by msjs0315

Good evening.  A quick word from your NCAA group commissioner.

Twelve teams have thus far earned automatic bids by virtue of either winning their conference tournament or finishing first in conferences without tournaments.  Of those twelve, only three –St. Mary’s, Creighton and Murray State– have a decent shot at making it to the round of 16.   But a first-round upset or two may be lurking.

I’ll publish the Yahoo! tournament ATiM group link Sunday afternoon before the brackets are announced so you can check out the site as soon as we learn who’s playing who.  On Monday I’ll provide links to some of the bracketologists’ prognostications, in case you want to absorb their words of wisdom.

Bracket tinkering will cease around 10:30am EDT next Thursday at the start of the first  ’round of 64′ game.

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Faux Morning Report

Posted on March 7, 2012 by ScottC

Vital Statistics:

Last Change Percent
S&P Futures 1345.55 +2.19 +.16%
Eurostoxx Index 2453.34 +9.9 +.41%
Oil (WTI) 105.16 +.48 +.46%
LIBOR 0.4746 0.000 0.00%
US Dollar Index (DXY) 79.882 0.026 0.03%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield 1.957% -0.03%

Limited numbers out this morning. ADP employment, a precursor to the monthly employment data due out on Friday, came out on the screws (insider lingo for “as expected”) at +216K, with some minor upwards revision, +3k, to last months number. Non-farm productivity came in slightly higher than expected at .9%, and Unit Labor Costs significantly higher, at 2.8%, up from 1.2% from last week.

Greece remains a focus, as we wait for private bondholders to decide whether to accept the negotiated deal. The deadline to respond is tomorrow, but still no confirmation on when the results will be conveyed publicly. It will be interesting to see the implications for credit default swaps written on Greek debt if some of the bondholders are forced into the the agreement. Does this constitute a “credit event” triggering CDS payouts? ISDA (the International Swap Dealers Association) has said no, but also says that the situation is “evolving”. We shall see.

Equities are slightly up this morning across the globe, after yesterday’s drop down. Rates remain mostly stable after a significant rally yesterday, particularly in the longer end.

GM and Chrysler have announced plans to market LNG pickup trucks.  The current cost of NG per BTU is eight times cheaper than oil. – Mark 

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