Business Summary Links By Day
Gallup
Finds February US Unemployment Jumps Most Since 2010, Third Consecutive Monthly
Increase
Durden
3-8-12 , Initial
Claims Miss Expectations, Rise For Third Consecutive Week For First Time Since
August 2010
Durden
3-8-12 , D.R.
Horton: Bear Expects Stock's Rally To Snap The Wall Street Journal , U.S. Unemployment Up
in February
Mar 8th, 2012 , ECB Sees Shrinking Euro
Zone Mar 8th, 2012 0 (The Wall Street Journal) — The European Central Bank
Thursday admitted that the euro-zone’s economy is likely to contract this year,
and that inflation will outstrip the bank’s medium target…, Mr.
Market: Get It Through Your Head, The PSI DOESN’T Matter March 9, 2012 By http://gainspainscapital.com ‘I don’t
know how many times I have to say this, but I’m saying it again.Greece
and the Euro are finished. The math is impossible. There is no way on earth
that this Second Bailout accomplishes anything worthy of note. The idea that
this country will somehow return to economic growth within two years, based on
an additional €130billion in bailouts is outright insane.Remember,
Greece already received €110 billion in bailout funds in 2010… and still posted
GDP growth of -4.5% in 2010 and -6.8% in 2011. Greece’s economy is only €227
billion, so the country failed
to post any economic growth and in fact saw its economic collapse accelerate after receiving a bailout
equal to 57% of its GDP!!!And somehow another 130€
billion is going to get this country back to economic growth in two years’
time? Greece hasn’t experienced any
growth in five years.Again, this entire deal is
just stupid. And all it’s done is alert Spain and Italy to the fact that
handing over fiscal sovereignty and implementing austerity measures in exchange
for bailouts is a waste of time.As I wrote to clients
several weeks ago:Meanwhile, on the other side of EU
equation, Spain and Italy must be
watching what’s happening in Greece and asking themselves whether they want to
go through this whole process of negotiating for bailouts via austerity measures.Both
countries have already had a small sampling of the austerity measure medicine.
Spain recently implemented a meager 19€ billion in austerity measures while
Italy passed 30€ billion in austerity measures in 2011… hardly a drop out of
their respective 1.06€ trillion and 1.5€ trillion economies.Yet,
even these tiny moves resulted in protests and riots …’, US
Budget Deficit Hits All Time High In February Durden 3-8-12 , Not
So Fast On That Whole Economic Recovery Thing http://albertpeia.com/notsofastonthateconomicrecoverything.htm
‘Not so fast. Those that are publicly declaring that an economic
recovery has arrived are ignoring a whole host of numbers that indicate that
the U.S.
economy is in absolutely horrendous shape. The truth is that the health
of an economy should not be measured by how well the stock market is
doing. Rather, the truth health of an economy should be evaluated by
looking at numbers for things like jobs, housing, poverty and debt. Some
of the latest economic statistics indicate that unemployment is getting a
little bit worse, that the housing market continues to deteriorate, that
poverty in America
continues to soar and that our debt problem is worse than ever. If we
were truly experiencing the kind of economic recovery that the United States
has experienced after every other post-World War II recession we would see a
sharp improvement across the board in most of our economic statistics.
But that simply is not happening. Sadly, this is about as much of an
"economic recovery" as we are going to get because soon the economy
will be getting much worse…’ , Dave’s Daily: http://www.etfdigest.com CENTRAL BANKS PUSH
MARKETS HIGHER 3-8-12 [ Dave asututely points out:
“Jobless Claims Thursday were weaker than expected (362K vs
351K expected and prior revised higher to 354K). Did you know that prior weekly
Jobless Claims data has been revised higher 100% of the time over the past
two years? How does that happen this consistently?” – Which I refer to as the
‘data ponzi scheme’ wherein new fake data is used to
buoy markets as prior reported fake data is reconciled closer to reality. ] ‘The previous theme over the past 3 years
may be repeating as 2012 moves forward: “Bad news is good, good news is
better”. Of lying and willfully misleading investors is a path we shouldn’t go
down. The truth is the most thoughtful people involved with markets are being
steamrolled by central bank liquidity. Whether it’s the ECB, Bank of England,
Bank of Japan, People’s Bank of China or the U.S. Fed QE and ZIRP trump all other
analysis. If employment or eurozone conditions are
weak you must put your mind with “Orwellian” thinking since bad news means more
liquidity. Good news means good news and asset prices will inflate even more…’ , Why
Is Global Shipping Slowing Down So Dramatically? http://albertpeia.com/globalshippingslowingdramatically.htm , Greece
Issues Statement On PSI, Says €172 Billion Of Bonds Tendered In Swap, Will
Enact CACs, ISDA To Meet At 1pm To Find If CDS
Trigger
Durden
3-9-12 , Risk-Off
Initial Reaction To PSI Deal Durden 3-9-12 Broadly
speaking markets are derisking post the PSI deal
announcements. Treasuries are 1-2bps lower in yields, EURUSD is down 35pips or
so under 1.3230 (and JPY is rallying as carry is unwound), ES has dropped
-5pts, Gold and Silver are sliding modestly, and WTI is off its peak but
remains over $107. , Has Japan Run
Out Of Cans To Kick?
Durden
3-8-12 Japan's Trade
and Current Account imbalances appear to be hitting some kind of terminal
velocity and while neither JGBs nor
CDS seem to reflect the ensuing chaotic recognition that perhaps the can that
has been so faithfully kicked down the "Nishi-no-michi" or the West Road may have plunged over
the lip of Mount Fuji (conjuring images of Mordor),
FX markets recent and abrupt weakness brought on by yet more printing (a topic
we discussed in great detail recently as the chosen
heretical method du decade) may well be coming face to face with reality. ,
The
Stranger Beside You - Spouses And ETFs Durden
3-8-12 ETF fund
flows have been a uniformly positive source of capital into U.S. risk markets
in 2012. Looking a little deeper at the decidedly 'risk-on' flows, Nic Colas
(of Convergex
Group) notes perhaps their most
provocative feature has been their high degree of net concentration.
When you look at the entire “ETF Ecosystem” of listed funds, just 6 funds
represent all the net gains in assets over the past month ($5.4 billion in net
inflows) – LQD, HYG and JNK in fixed
income, VWO in emerging markets, VXX in risk, and GLD in commodities.
, Reuters
Reports That Hedge Funds Have Found Greek Default Trigger Loophole Durden
3-8-12 While the general market mood is one of pre-default
euphoria reminiscent of that in the pre-Lehman weekend, clouds may be brewing.
As Reuters
reports, "Some hedge funds have found a legal loophole they believe
will force Greece to repay some of its
debt in full, three sources close to the matter said on
Thursday, in a move that would intensify the standoff between the country and
its debtors.", Obama
Denies Trying To Bribe Israel In Exchange For Iran Bombing Delay Durden
3-8-12 , Guest
Post: The Story Behind US Gas Price Pain Durden 3-8-12 , Texas
Instruments Cuts Guidance As Usual, Fifth Consecutive Cut Durden
3-8-12 , The US
Deleveraging Is Now Over Durden 3-8-12 … The credit bubble is now officially back., Fed's
Advice On Trading The Sun's Moodiness Durden 3-8-12 While we
have unapologetically highlighted some of the incredible taxpayer-funded
research undertaken by the Fed such as "Why water is wet?" and "Why
the sky is blue?", this little gem from the Atlanta Fed takes the
proverbial biscuit: "Playing the Field: Geomagnetic Storms and the Stock
Market… , Greek
"Fresh Start" Bonds Face Immediate 80% Loss, 98% Probability Of Redefault Durden 3-8-12 , Presenting
Europe's Schizophrenia Post LTRO Durden 3-8-12 , Guest
Post: Our "Let's Pretend" Economy: Let's Pretend Financialization
Hasn't Killed the Economy Durden 3-8-12 , Art
Cashin Deconstructs The Fed's Paradoxical QE Approach Durden
3-8-12 Yesterday we were quite amused to
note that following the Hilsenrath leak (pre-backpeddaling as a result of some FRBNY spanking) of a
sterilized QE that for supposedly tries to avoid "generating"
inflation (hence confirming that QE does in fact stimulate inflation instead of
being a tool to lower rates and make housing affordable) the market reaction
was... inflationary, with stocks rising, but far less than crude and gold. So much for the Fed's trial balloon to see if it can intervene in
the market without costing Obama a few million ballots. Today, Art Cashin observes precisely the same paradoxical response in
his daily note. , Obama
Promises Bunker Busters To Israel If Netanyahu Delays Iran Invasion Until After
US Elections
Durden
3-8-12 , Some Problem Banks May Never Exit Federal Bailout WSJ , The
Moon Claimed The Titanic; Will The Sun Sink The Stock Market? The Wall Street Journal [
Well, I don’t know about the Titanic, but the moon surely sunk the slimy newt.
As for the stock market, it’s still about the moon as in lune
as in lunatics, which they are. This is a great opportunity to sell, take
profits since there’s much worse to come. ] ,
Does
China's Forex Policy Beggar Its Neighbors? The Wall
Street Journal [
Are you sure the author didn’t mean ‘bugger its neighbors’? Sounds like it;
but, it’s really all about cost structures which are far less in China which is the primary reason for China’s
export success. Manipulation of currencies is an artifice that the west will
ultimately prove does not work at all (all that over-printing / creating of
fiat Weimar
paper currencies is a time-tested loser).]
, Consumer
Most Upbeat Since Fall 2008, RBC Survey Says The Wall Street Journal [And, we all know what happened then!] , Durden
Switzerland
Wants Its Gold Back From The New York Fed 3-8-12 [ Good luck with that. As
with fort knox
as well, I personally believe much of the real gold (some gold-plate bullion
around) has been looted. I bet the American criminals refuse based on some
tenuous pretext to cover for the theft.)] Zero Hedge | Needless to say the implications of
this vote actually succeeding are comparable to the Greeks holding a referendum
on whether or not to be in the Eurozone.