10 Mid-Week AM Reads
My reads this AM:
• Worst Profits Since 2006 Fail to Dent Rally in Europe Stocks (McClatchy)
• Rating Firms Face Pressure on Hill (WSJ)
• The pitfalls of the Facebook IPO (LA Times) see also Personal Data’s Value? Facebook Is Set to Find Out (NYT)
• Apple Invades $3.8 Trillion Wintel Office Market With iPad as Wedge (Bloomberg)
• Europe is stuck on life support (FT.com)
• Blaming the messenger: Greece’s chief statistician under fire (McClatchy) see also Greek Bondholders Are Said Set to Get GDP-Revival Sweetener in Debt Swap (Bloomberg)
• How Swedes And Norwegians Broke The Power Of The ‘1 Percent’ (Business Insider)
• The man who shaped Obama’s drive to hold banks accountable (Washington Post)
• Europe’s debt crisis: Where things stand (MoneyCNN)
• FAQ: the crackdown on insider trading in Congress (Washington Post)
What are you reading?
>
Home prices still falling
Source: Washington Post
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February 1st, 2012 at 10:24 am
I’m reading how various Fed presidents were long the market throughout the bailouts of the past 3 years.
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/fed-makes-new-disclosures-on-new-yorks-dudley-other-fed-presidents-20120131-01708
“Dudley held GE shares worth around $120,000 and AIG stock worth some $2,000 on Sept. 19, 2008. That’s when the New York Fed chief was given a waiver to continue working on the AIG bailout and on issues involving GE, another company that received help from the government.”
“Dudley was granted a waiver for his $1.45 million investment in Treasury inflation-protected securities. Dudley is a member of the Fed’s policy-setting committee, giving him the power to set interest rates and influence the price of TIPS. To receive the waiver, Dudley agreed to hold the TIPS investment to maturity.”
“Many officials were heavily exposed to the stock market. The Atlanta Fed’s Dennis Lockhart, for example, held shares of Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Coca- Cola (KO), Ebay (EBAY), Exxon-Mobil (XOM), General Electric (GE), IBM (IBM), Kinder Morgan Inc. “
February 1st, 2012 at 10:40 am
I read your quotes on Yahoo. As I mentioned, I bailed out Friday at a profit and also at the highest point of my earnings for that investment. So fat, it’s still at the high point.
I don’t disagree that stocks are the best place to earn money at this time, just that the market will not be going straight up from here until the end of the year. The economy is still growing, just not at the speed demonstrated and implied a few months ago. To me it looks toppy and likely to tread sideways for a while with no growth spurt in the cards at this time. To me, markets going sideways are not markets to invest in unless they look like they are ready to take off. This one doesn’t at this time. Cash is real money. Stocks are only a means to an end. I’ll jump back in when it looks like another great growth spurt is pending. Then I’ll jump back out again with some extra folding green.
The ECB liquidity known as the LTRO hasn’t the same horsepower as a QE event. It was meant to keep the banks from suffering a liquidity crisis that would have lead to a depression. Basically it set a floor on asset prices that would have not existed otherwise. It kept the S&P from falling to 900 or below. Also, I think there is less prop trading and consequently fewer HFT games to consider. Thus, markets will coincide more with historical behavior and not HFT hyped games.
Even when Greece defaults, there will be no major crashes on the horizon, just a little panic that will cost the S&P maybe 5% to 10% and provide a new entry point unless Portugal also goes on the brink. My goal is to make money, not beat a benchmark nor to own stocks for the purpose of owning stocks.
February 1st, 2012 at 10:58 am
“The man who shaped Obama’s drive to hold banks accountable”
By acepting the task force assignment Schneiderman has now become the another “Elizabeth Warren”. Completely nullified.
February 1st, 2012 at 11:02 am
Facebook’s 26x revenues will eclipse even dot-com era valuations (Hulbert)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebooks-ipo-will-be-way-overvalued-2012-02-01
Why Twitter might be better than Facebook
http://pointsandfigures.com/2012/01/31/twitter-and-facebook-why-twitter-might-be-worth-more-in-the-long-run/
Apple’s results visualized (check out Apple vs. Amazon profits)
http://frncs.co/apple/
February 1st, 2012 at 11:20 am
There’s been a ceiling on the S&P500 at around 1,350 since the beginning of 2011 – what’s the chances we can knock through that?
February 1st, 2012 at 11:49 am
Obama has a drive to hold banks accountable? He has hidden that agenda very well.
Immediately after the SOTU, I sent an e-mail to Schneiderman protesting his participation in this administration’s whitewashing of the financial crisis.
February 1st, 2012 at 11:52 am
‘empowered the people to govern for the common good.’
What a novel idea. We should have went Swedish on all the Banksters. The ingrained Crony Capitalism model in the US prevented this however.
It has been said that it is not the action of the few but the inaction of the many….
February 1st, 2012 at 12:45 pm
IE usage share increased and Safari decreased in January. Somehow not mentioned by the fanbois who keep telling us that Apple is destined for world domination.
http://www.windowsitpro.com/content1/tabid/57/catpath/internet-explorer2/topic/usage-share-rises-january-142123
Maybe all those tens of millions of new iPad users aren’t surfing but instead using them as personal entertainment devices which is which is what I’ve seen. Someone visited and brought his iPad; all he did was watch TV on it. So, maybe we should count TV and XBox sales as computer sales in figuring market share?
February 1st, 2012 at 12:47 pm
Cameron’s going to cut benefits to the disabled. Meanwhile RBS bonuses intact after billions in bailouts.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/02/20122142346654553.html
February 1st, 2012 at 12:47 pm
Home prices?
Detroit is Very affordable
http://www.homes.com/Real_Estate/MI/City/DETROIT/
February 1st, 2012 at 1:07 pm
Infographic: Unemployment by college major, vs. popularity
http://www.mindflash.com/blog/2011/12/infographic-which-college-majors/?view=mindflashgraphic
Infographics sometimes seem like a way clutter a perfectly good analysis with noise … but apparently some people like’em lol .
February 1st, 2012 at 1:37 pm
Here’s an interesting take on a way to the long-term migratory trends created by global warming.
There are parallels to the Dust Bowl in the ’30s.
http://sceeto.com/blog/on-migratory-patterns-of-humans-global-warming/
February 1st, 2012 at 1:58 pm
“…In an interview on CNN, Romney said he was not concerned about the poorest Americans, but that his primary focus was on the middle class. “I’m not concerned about the very poor, we have a safety net there,” he said, adding, “If it needs repair, I’ll fix it…”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/01/us-usa-campaign-idUSTRE80Q2AQ20120201
Before every election, when the GOP media mavens hear a Democrat wanting to tax the rich, they have a coordinated “Watch your wallet!” meme. Meaning that it is YOU they want to tax.
Well Middle Class, Watch your benefits.
February 1st, 2012 at 2:15 pm
Most Workers Admit Using Phone in Bathroom
30 January 2012
If you hear the sound of running water the next time you call a co-worker on his or her mobile phone, don’t be surprised. Three-fourths of Americans with mobile phones say they use them in the bathroom, a new study shows.
Approximately the same number of men and women have used the phone in the bathroom, according to a survey of 1,000 Americans by 11mark, an integrated marketing agency, although men seem more tethered to IT in the toilet: 30 percent of men versus 20 percent of women agreed with the statement, “I don’t go to the bathroom without my mobile phone.”
…
http://www.livescience.com/18190-mobile-phones-bathrooms.html
February 1st, 2012 at 2:49 pm
AMR Corp to Dump Pension Plan on PBGC.
uh.. in case you didn’t know, that’s YOU.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/01/us-amr-idUSTRE8101QD20120201
… didn’t responsible -gov’t-GOP-controlled Congress and Bush fix this?
http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/3554219?f=related
Well, I think this is a good thing. To paraphrase GOP-torch-bearer, Romney, “People with guaranteed pensions care already taken care of.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-romney-poor-says-focus-is-on-middle-class-20120201,0,2465913.story
Look, pensions are people too.
It would be GOOD to show “people” that their pensions are not guaranteed That way “people” who take jobs at companies will be careful in the future about where they take the job, they can study the marketing plans for the next forty years, look at the cash flow, visualize the industry dynamics on out …to say 2051. And “they” can leave companies (aka people…) now, when “they” determine a pension plan looks a little iffy to “them.”
It’s all very ‘Soylent Green’ isn’t it?
Yum.
February 1st, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Reading an interview by Dan Richards of Barry Eichengreen on the Dollar and the IMF:
http://advisorperspectives.com/newsletters12/Barry_Eichengreen_on_the_End_of_the_Dollar.php