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 | 1408.4 | 2.9 | 0.21% |
| Eurostoxx Index | 2598.9 | 8.1 | 0.31% |
| Oil (WTI) | 88.63 | 0.1 | 0.15% |
| LIBOR | 0.311 | 0.000 | 0.00% |
| US Dollar Index (DXY) | 79.79 | 0.142 | 0.18% |
| 10 Year Govt Bond Yield | 1.60% | -0.01% | |
| RPX Composite Real Estate Index | 191.2 | 0.3 |
Markets are higher this morning after China eased investment restrictions on banks and announced measures to promote urban development. Chinese GDP has slowed from close to 9% to 7.5% over the last 9 months. While 7.5% GDP growth sounds impressive, it is back in late ’08-early ’09 levels. Productivity rose 2.9% in Q3, while unit labor costs fell 1.9%. Bonds and MBS are flattish.
ADP reported a 118k increase in US nonfarm private sector employment for the month of November. This report was obviously driven by Hurricane Sandy. The biggest gains were in construction and utilities, while manufacturing fell. A blip upward in construction and temp workers for storm clean-up and a drop in manufacturing as plants with no power laid off employees. October was revised downward. Mark Zandi estimates that the hurricane depressed employment by 86k.
Edit: Immediately after I hit “post,” Citi announced they are cutting 11,000 jobs. Wall Street continues to party like it is 2009.
Chart: ADP change in non-farm payrolls:
Obama has drawn a line in the sand: No increase in top rates for incomes over 250k, no deal. He expressed openness to cutting top rates next year in the context of broad tax reform.
Servicers beware: Not only do you have to fear the CFPB, the state regulators are getting involved. New York State is refusing to approve Ocwen’s purchase of Homeward and the servicing unit of ResCap unless the company agrees to bring in a monitor from NY State which would oversee operations for two years and recommend changes in business practices. In all of my years of analyzing mergers and the regulatory process, I have never seen anything like this. Ocwen goes on to point out that they have “not received from any regulator at the federal or state level or any level any findings or evidence we have wrongfully foreclosed on any borrower.” This is unprecedented.
The Fed is expected to announce a new round of Treasury buying after Operation Twist ends at the end of the year. US GDP is expected to slow as uncertainty over the fiscal cliff has weighed on capital expenditures and hiring. ML / BOA is forecasting 1% GDP growth in Q4 and Q1.
Filed under: Morning Report |
All Things in Moderation 
Citigroup is cutting 11,000 jobs. Yikes.
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Going back to the previous morning report and the comments, here’s something from Kevin Drum quoting John Carney (banned liked this guy a lot) on HFT. Looks like there’s a pretty unanimous consensus to tax them or actually do away with the process.
I doubt Brent and Yello would agree with his conclusion though because I think he’s suggesting more of an across the board tax.
Put all this together, and allowing HFTs to continue their merry little algobot wars is just monumentally stupid. A tiny financial transaction tax would put an end to it, and would probably improve the operation of the rest of the financial industry too, all while raising a bit of much-needed money. Fiscal cliffsters, take note.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/12/yet-more-evidence-high-frequency-trading-bad-us
And now I’ve reached my limit of financial conversation and news for the day…..lol. I can only stand so much.
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OT from Kevin Drum re the failure to pass the treaty yesterday………………nothing new really.
Movement conservatives tend to tolerate trade treaties, but that’s about it. They went ballistic over the Panama Canal treaty. They screamed blue murder over the Law of the Sea treaty. They opposed establishment of the International Criminal Court. They’ve fought pretty much every arms control treaty ever. They don’t like treaties, they’ve never liked treaties, and if there’s nothing obviously wrong with one they’ll invent a bunch of bizarre conspiracy theories in order to get themselves worked into a frenzy about it. Dan says opposition to UNCRPD is “dumber than a bag of hammers,” and it is. But that’s par for the course. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Sorry for the “dumber than a bag of hammers” dig, but it is a little funny if not in the spirit of ATiM.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/12/conservatives-hate-treaties-and-they-always-have
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Even more off topic………………our youngest finished her Master’s with flying colors and is off on a whirlwind trip across the USA before her job begins in January. She sent me this photo from the Tea Garden in SF as a joke. This is the first time we haven’t had kids in college (they’re all done) since 1989…………………OMG
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Sorry, can’t import the pic since I gave up my privileges.
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Since 1989?!? Yikes.
Re: the treaty, Dumber than a bag of hammers is being kind.
Re: finance fatigue, indeed. Don’t know how the industry types deal with searching for an edge on an hourly basis, most of which is irrelevant to the big picture.
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I can’t find the link, but a disabled vet had an op-ed in the Post about the treaty. he wrote about the difficulties in navigating south africa in a wheelchair. and a very frail Bob Dole showed up to voice support.
i’d vote no on it. or a least present. but i’d withdraw from the UN anyway.
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i’d vote no on it. or a least present.
Why?
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it’s a non-binding international standard. it lets supporters say they did something when they didn’t nothing of the sort.
here’s a list of the signatories.
http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-15&chapter=4&lang=en
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I suppose not voting for a non-binding treaty says something. But if in fact you agree with the substance of the Treaty it doesn’t say what you think. Right?
Still, you make sense in a purist sort of way. Fretting about home schooling in America being supervised by blue helmets – the Santorum approach – reminds me how awfully dumb he is. McC used to mock him mercilessly on the floor of the Senate when he said shit like that.
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“lmsinca, on December 5, 2012 at 8:27 am said:
Sorry, can’t import the pic since I gave up my privileges.”
Do you need someone to help fix this for you?
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Didn’t Obama say he was going to institute a ban on lobbying by White House staff?
“Obamacare architect leaves White House for pharmaceutical industry job
Few people embody the corporatist revolving door greasing Washington as purely as Elizabeth Fowler
Glenn Greenwald
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 5 December 2012 05.51 EST”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/05/obamacare-fowler-lobbyist-industry1
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Thanks jnc, but it’s fine. I gave up my privileges for a reason and don’t want to go back to that. The picture was just a little joke.
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Too funny; Alan Simpson, Gangnam style. He’s pretty good, too! 🙂
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I know Fowler
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i’ll add — there’s a 1 year bar between a gov. job and lobbying (once you’re at a certain level of gov. i didn’t meet that) but you can get around it pretty easily. so fowler likely will get around it by not registering and officially not having any contact.
i know of one person who took it seriously. when he resigned his post as a bush appointee (mid-level) he took the year off and traveled. and he didn’t even send out an resume until his year expired.
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