STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 14 Deceember 2015

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 14 December 2015[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 11 December 2015

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 11 December 2015
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Dow Jones 17,265.21 -309.54 (-1.76%)
S&P 500 2,012.37 -39.86 (-1.94%)
Nasdaq 4,933.46 -111.71 (-2.21%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.12% -0.07 (-3.20%)
30 Year 2.87% -0.06 (-2.05%) [font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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(click on link for latest updates)
Market Updates
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
Wall Street on Parade
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
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Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.
02/06/14 Matthew Martoma convicted of insider trading while at hedge fund SAC (Stephen A. Cohen) Capital Advisors. Expected sentence 7-10 years.
03/24/14 Annette Bongiorno, Bernard Madoff's secretary; Daniel Bonventre, director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, both computer programmers convicted of conspiracy to defraud clients, securities fraud, and falsifying the books and records.
05/19/14 Credit Suisse, which has an investment bank branch in NYC, agrees to plead guilty and pay appx. $2.6 billion penalties for helping wealthy Americans hide wealth and avoid taxes.
09/08/14 Matthew Martoma, convicted SAC trader, sentenced to 9 years in prison plus forfeiture of $9.3 million, including home and bank accounts
08/03/15 Former City (London) trader Tom Hayes found guilty of rigging global Libor interest rates. Each fo eight counts carries up to 10 yr. sentence.
08/21/15 Charles Antonucci Sr, former pres. Park Ave. Bank sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for bribery, fraud, embezzlement, and attempt to steal $11MM in TARP bailout funds, as well as $37.5MM fraud on OK insurance company. To pay $54MM in restitution and give up additional $11MM.
09/21/15 Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn apologizes for VW cheating on air quality standards with emission testing avoidance device. Stock drops 20%, fines may total $18B.
09/22/15 Stewart Parnell, CEO Peanut Corp. of America, sentenced to 28 years in prison for selling salmonella-tainted peanut butter that killed nine.





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[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]

[Hotler]

1. In Denver, Worries That the Fed Will Chill a Sizzling Recovery

AURORA, Colo. — William Harris tapped his retirement savings to open A-Town Pizza, a Neapolitan pizzeria, in this Denver suburb three years ago. He borrowed $200,000 to open a second location this year and now employs 60 people. On a good Friday, his shops sell 1,200 pies.

In such stories, the Federal Reserve finds evidence that its seven-year campaign to reboot the American economy is succeeding. So on Wednesday, the Fed, which has held short-term interest rates near zero since December 2008, will most likely announce that it will start nudging rates upward, slowly ending what has amounted to a once-in-a-lifetime sale on money.

Mr. Harris, for one, is not ready. “It’s scary when you hear that the government is planning to slow things down,” the wiry 39-year-old said as he folded menus. “We live on people’s extra money. That’s the money they spend on pizza. And it still feels very fragile.”

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/in-denver-worries-that-the-fed-will-chill-a-sizzling-recovery/ar-BBnuTh5?li=BBnb7Kv

Colorado's growth is out of control. This place is turning into another Los Angles. I used to be able to ride the motorcycle back and forth to work till about 2-yrs. ago. The bumper to bumper traffic is horrible. I-70 through the mountains is backed up all the time.
There are so many transplants from California that Trader Joes has moved to town.

[mrdmk]

2. The Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates this week. This is what happens next. (WP)

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise its benchmark interest rate this week for the first time in nearly a decade, marking the end of the central bank’s emergency response to the financial crisis but raising new questions about its next steps.

The Fed dove into uncharted territory in 2008 when it took its target interest rate all the way to zero as the country slid into recession. It experimented with unconventional ways to stimulate the economy, pumping roughly $3.5 trillion into the recovery to boost the flagging economy.

Now, financial markets are all but certain that the Fed is ready to start pulling back. Odds of an increase in in the Fed’s target rate when the its top brass meet in Washington this week have topped 80 percent. Fed Chair Janet Yellen said earlier this month that she sees the risks to the Fed’s economic outlook as “very close to balanced” -- which many analysts see as code for a rate hike. The Fed is expected to announce it decision on Wednesday afternoon.

“With the meeting now just a few days away, we see very little to derail lift off at this point,” Barclays economist Michael Gapen wrote in a client note.

more at the link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/14/the-federal-reserve-will-likely-raise-interest-rates-this-week-this-is-what-happens-next/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_wonk


Good luck to everyone!

[mrdmk]

3. $1.1T spending bill could be unveiled Monday night (The Hill)

Republican and Democratic lawmakers negotiating a $1.1 trillion catchall spending bill made progress over the weekend but aren’t expecting to unveil legislation until late Monday night or sometime Tuesday.

There was “progress made over the weekend but significant issues remain,” one Democratic aide said Monday morning.

AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), echoed that same message: “Negotiations continued throughout the weekend and progress was made but there is no deal yet and the discussions continue.”

The talks remain notably fluid — and remarkably secretive — as the clock ticks down toward the extended deadline for federal funding, which expires at the end of Wednesday. Congress needed to pass a five-day continuing resolution last Friday to avert a government shutdown and buy more time for negotiations.

more at the link: http://thehill.com/policy/finance/263122-11t-spending-bill-could-be-unveiled-monday-night

Three days to read the massive bill. I have recommend the following

[mrdmk]

4. The DuPont and Dow Chemical Merger: Bad Deal for People and the Planet (CommonDreams)

Groups are calling on the Department of Justice to reject the deal to protect food supply


Watchdog groups are sounding the alarm after two of the oldest and largest corporations in the United States—DuPont and Dow Chemical—announced Friday plans to merge into a $130 billion giant, thereby establishing the world's biggest seed and pesticide conglomerate.

The new behemoth, named DowDuPont, would then be split into "three independent, publicly traded companies through tax-free spin-offs," according to a joint corporate statement marking one of the the largest deals of 2015.

These companies would focus on agriculture, material science, and "technology and innovation-driven Specialty Products company," the statement continues. Together, they would form the second-largest chemical company world-wide.

The merger, if it goes through, is expected to slash numerous jobs.

link: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/12/11/dupont-and-dow-chemical-merger-bad-deal-people-and-planet


What are the odds of the Justice Department blocking this merger?


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?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[mrdmk]

5. The Continuing Fight Over Fannie and Freddie, and the Real Problem of US Mortgages(naked capitalism)

In her first article, A Revolving Door Helps Big Banks’ Quiet Campaign to Muscle Out Fannie and Freddie, Morgenson showed, in gory detail, how Wall Street had labored mightily to take over the activities of the mortgage behemoths for their fun and profit. Mind you, it’s not as if they already take a big proportion of the savings from the mortgage guarantee for themselves now; you can see that in refis, where much of the benefit of the interest rate reduction is chewed up in fees and other charges. Her second article, Fannie and Freddie’s Government Rescue Has Come With Claws, discusses in depth how the Administration flagrantly violated the terms of its own bailout deal to hoover up the earnings from Fannie and Freddie for Treasury, rather than give shareholders the proportion they were due, and took other punitive measures that were contrary to the 2008 legislation that set forth how a conservatorship of Fannie and Freddie would work.

These pieces provide insight into the state of play with government sponsored enterprise “reform” and also as a case study of how banks influence government policy, and how eager the Obama Administration has been to take up their cause (not that a Republican or Clinton Administration would behave any differently).

Cynics may regard these two stories as a bit moot, since the banks appear to have lost the fight to take over the operations of the government sponsored enterprises, and the case over the alleged mistreatment of Fannie and Freddie shareholders is being adjudicated. But don’t mistake the fact that the story (save for Morgeson’s recap) is out of the headlines for the notion that the banks aren’t continuing to move forward. As Morgenson points out, they are working to see how much they can get the regulators to cede to them through administrative processes, meaning without getting legislation passed. And as a Congressional staffer stressed, the big financial firms are moving their game pieces into place so they can take up the fight again after the 2016 elections.

But Morgenson’s focus on the machinations of the banks and their allies in government resulted in her not incorporating the policy issues. And without an understanding the policy problems, it’s easy to draw the wrong conclusions about how we got where we are and what might be the best approaches going forward.

more at the link with a background summary: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/12/the-continuing-fight-over-fannie-and-freddie-and-the-real-problem-of-us-mortgages.html

[mrdmk]

6. Labor Advisory Committee Report on TPP Synthesizes Everything Wrong About the Trade Deal

(naked capitalism)

The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office has been maligned for its network of Trade Advisory Committees, allegedly “independent” counsel for trade agreements. The Washington Post did the best work on the Advisory Committees back in February of last year, showing that 85 percent of the cleared advisors (meaning cleared to read the text of trade agreements as they are being negotiated) either worked directly for private industries or their trade groups.

But there’s another, more obscure group called the Labor Advisory Committee. Its 19 members are all the heads of major labor unions (Clayola Brown, president of the A. Phillip Randolph Institute, I guess technically isn’t, but that organization is a constituency group of the AFL-CIO). And like all Advisory Committees, they are required by law to write a report to Congress expressing their opinions about any finalized trade agreement. That means we now have this 121-page document, giving labor’s full argument against the TPP, from the people who have been following it from the inside for several years.

This was an argument that labor’s cleared advisors have been prevented from making. Because of the secretive nature of trade talks, those opposed to the deal fight with one hand tied behind their backs, unable to speak about what they knew about the agreement. And they are at the mercy of USTR’s deliberate, dissent-crushing rules.

According to the report, USTR and the Department of Labor “refused to share the specific text of proposed changes to the labor chapter” for over three years, until the text was substantially complete in August 2015. The Committee was never consulted on side agreements with Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei, which deal entirely with those countries’ labor laws. The Committee believes this actually violated the law, but who would enforce it?

link: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/12/labor-advisory-committee-report-on-tpp-synthesizing-everything-wrong-about-the-trade-deal.html

[mrdmk]

7. Labor-Advisory-Committee-for-Trade-Negotiations-and-Trade-Policy pdf

December 2, 2015

The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:
Pursuant to Section 135(b) of the Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015, and Section 135(e) of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, I am pleased to transmit the report reflecting the opinions of the Labor Advisory Committee (LAC) on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The LAC strongly opposes the TPP, negotiated between the United States (U.S.), Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. We believe that the Agreement fails to advance the economic interests of the U.S. and does not fulfill all of the negotiating objectives identified by Congress in the Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015. The threat to future economic gains here in the U.S. and the standard of living of our people will be put in jeopardy by the Agreement. These threats will grow over time based on the potential for open-ended expansion of the TPP to countries ranging from Indonesia to China.

The LAC believes the agreement should not be submitted to Congress or, if it is, it should be quickly rejected. The interests of U.S. manufacturers, businesses, workers and consumers would be severely undermined by the entry into force of the TPP.


Sincerely,

R. Thomas Buffenbarger, Chair
Labor Advisory Committee (LAC)



<snip from the Executive Summary of the report>

On behalf of the millions of working people we represent, we believe that the TPP is unbalanced in its provisions, skewing benefits to economic elites while leaving workers to bear the brunt of the TPP’s downside. The TPP is likely to harm the U.S. economy, cost jobs, and lower wages.

The primary measure of the success of our trade policies should be increasing jobs, rising wages, and broadly shared prosperity, not higher corporate profits and increased offshoring of America’s jobs and productive capacity.Trade rules that enhance the already formidable economic and political power of global corporations including investor-to-state dispute settlement, excessive monopoly rights for pharmaceutical products, and deregulatory financial services and sanitary and phyto-sanitary rules—will continue to undermine worker bargaining power, here and abroad, as well as weaken democratic processes and regulatory capacity across all 12 TPP countries.

The LAC entered the TPP process hopeful and optimistic that the TPP would finally be the agreement that broke the elite stranglehold on trade policy and put working families at the front and center.Unfortunately, we believe the TPP fails to strike the proper balance: of course
it is difficult to convince Vietnam to implement freedom of association before the TPP enters into force once Vietnam has already agreed to provisions that will force it to pay higher prices for medicines and subject even its most basic laws to challenge by foreign investors in private
tribunals. Given the misguided values enshrined in the TPP, it is no surprise that the economic rules it will impose will actually make it harder to create a virtuous cycle of rising wages and demand in all 12 TPP countries.

While the TPP may create some limited opportunities for increased exports, there is an even larger risk that it will increase our trade deficit, which has been a substantial drag on job growth for more than twenty years. Especially at risk are jobs and wages in the auto, aerospace, aluminum and steel, apparel and textile, call center, and electronic and electrical machinery industries. The failure to address currency misalignment, weak rules of origin and inadequate state-owned enterprise provisions, extraordinary rights provided to foreign investors and pharmaceutical companies, the undermining of Buy American, and the inclusion of a labor framework that has proved itself ineffective are key among the TPP’s mistakes that contribute to our conclusion that the certain risks outweigh the TPP’s speculative and limited benefits.

As part of our work to create this report, the LAC reviewed our NAFTA report from more than 20 years ago and the history of trade agreements implemented since that time. What is stunning is that despite the mounting evidence that neoliberal trade and globalization rules do not create shared prosperity and inclusive growth, and despite the fact that some of NAFTA’s biggest supporters, including former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, now agree with us that corporate-driven trade doesn’t work for workers, we are essentially having the same debate as we had regarding NAFTA.

The LAC urges the President in the strongest possible terms to reverse course now. Do not send this TPP to Congress.Instead, the TPP should go back to the negotiating table. We want to work with you and our counterparts in the other TPP countries to create a truly progressive TPP that uplifts working people, creates wage-led growth, diminishes income inequality, promotes infrastructure investment, protects intellectual property without undermining access to affordable medicines, and respects our democracy.


link to the 121 page government document: https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/Labor-Advisory-Committee-for-Trade-Negotiations-and-Trade-Policy.pdf


Happy bedtime reading

[Punx]

16. Thanks for this

I think,



Was listening to a campaign speech by Obama this morning where he was promising to undo NAFTA and help labor. What a load of "hooey".

I wonder how my pro-TPP Democratic Rep is going to spin this.

[DemReadingDU]

8. mrdmk - thanks for the updates!

[Hotler]

9. I agree, thanks for the updates. n/t

[Hugin]

10. Yay! SMW's run remains un-blemished.

There has been a SMW posted continuously on the days the Markets are open (in the US) for years and possibly decades.

And now that run continues even through a major upgrade to teh DU!

Thanks Tansy_Gold.

(and hats off to you mrdmk for the content! )

[Tansy_Gold]

12. Thank YOU

for the opportunity.

I think you might want to consider changing your sig line, however. Instead of merely running for congress, too many idiots appear to be running for president. . . . .

[Hugin]

13. Heh. Yeah, it is a little outdated.

Or maybe it is time for something that completely describes the incredible morass of total and utter insanity into which we are wontonly and seemingly carelessly plunging. But, I haven't been able to come up with a cute and ironic bumper sticker saying which captures the essence of the horror of yet. Maybe something like that?

I can't tell you how happy I was to see a SMW for Monday. As I age, I am finding it's the little triumphs in life that matter to me the most in this increasingly crazy world.

[DemReadingDU]

14. +++

[Tansy_Gold]

15. On the other hand

DRDU's sig line is as appropriate as ever.

[A HERETIC I AM]

17. Unfortunately, as time goes on, this thread has become more irrelevant...

and more and more of the coffee klatch it has apparently always aspired to be.

Too bad. It always had great potential, but the predilection too many regulars here have of making any "outsider" feel unwelcome has tarnished the brand.

Say "YAY" all you want, but this thread, unlike most of the other regular threads on DU has had a diminishing audience and continues on that path.

In short, no one, save a small handfull like you, will notice when it goes away.

Still waiting for one of you...just one.....to describe the difference between coupon and yield on a bond without Googling it first, but alas.......Market mavens, all, eh?

[Hugin]

18. The traditional purpose of the SMW is for members and participants of DU to post items of interest

in the Economic realm.

It's not a forum to challenge those who regularly participate (Who have never to my knowledge even claimed to be "mavens" nor to advertise having any advanced skill in the area of finance) to answer niche investing questions to which one obviously already knows the answer.

I've striven to make it as inclusive as possible. In many cases mediating between disagreeing parties to allow differing views to be aired either within the SMW thread or in the larger Economy Group.

Challenging. :/

So, since you have chosen to repeatedly bring negativity and disruption into the group and this thread in particular, I'm assuming you'd be happier posting elsewhere in DU without the temptation to drop by the SMW and the Economy Group to again suffer the utterings of amateurs who are only trying to make sense of the Economy in which we all live out our lives.

[mrdmk]

11. Thank-you for the thank-you and to all of those who read the previous post

Information is important to everyone