STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 18 March 2016

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 18 March 2016[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 17 March 2016

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 17 March 2016
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Dow Jones 17,481.49 +155.73 (0.90%)
S&P 500 2,040.59 +13.37 (0.66%)
Nasdaq 4,774.98 +11.01 (0.23%)


[font color=black]10 Year 1.89% 0.00 (0.00%)
[font color=green] 30 Year 2.68% -0.01 (-0.37%) [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.
12/17/15 Martin Shkreli, former CEO Turing Pharmaceuticals and notorious price gouger, arrested on securities fraud charges. Posted $5M bail, resigned as CEO.
2/25/16 Jason Keryc sentenced to 9 years in prison, 3 years supervised release and to pay back $180MM to investors he bilked in a Ponzi scheme while an acct. mgr at Agape World.



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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. The Fed is crushing the dollar, and that's great for stocks

The brutal U.S. stock-market selloff that dominated the first six weeks of the year has been erased—and investors might have the dollar to thank for that.


Slowing global growth, worries about a sharp devaluation in the Chinese yuan, stubbornly low oil prices, and the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates in December are all factors that investors have blamed for the turmoil in global markets this year.

But the market’s reaction to the outcome of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting perhaps revealed the true culprit: the strong dollar.

“A lot of the market convulsions looked like they were coming from independent things. But they all had a common denominator and that’s the dollar,” said Binky Chadha, chief global strategist at Deutsche Bank, in a phone interview.

The Fed on Wednesday surprised investors by striking a more cautious tone—projecting just two rate increases in 2016 compared with its December forecast for four increases. The dollar fell sharply versus major rivals, with the ICE U.S. dollar index , a measure of the currency against six major rivals, falling to its lowest level of 2016 on Thursday.

The less aggressive tone has many currency strategists—including Vasileios Gkionakis, the global head of currency strategy at UniCredit—optimistic that the dollar will continue to weaken this year.

This bodes well for U.S. equities. Indeed, the Dow industrials and S&P 500 both turned positive for the year on Thursday. And investors are optimistic that the recent bout of volatility is over—at least, for now.
<snip>
Since the second quarter of 2015, companies based in the U.S. have regularly blamed the strong dollar for weaker than expected earnings. This could well change when companies report second quarter earnings, with the ICE dollar index down nearly 5% from its level a year ago.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/inside-the-ticker/the-fed-is-crushing-the-dollar-and-thats-great-for-stocks/ar-BBqAgUf?li=BBnbfcN&ocid=iehp

It's all about corporate profits and nothing for the working class.

[Hotler]

2. The Falling Dollar - What Does It Mean?

The U.S. dollar is falling versus other major world currencies. The dollar has fallen nearly 25 percent in the past 18 months against a composite of other major currencies such as the euro, the Japanese yen and the Canadian dollar. What does this mean for our economy and our investments?

The dollar has been made deliberately lower by our Federal Reserve through the use of lower interest rates. Lower interest rates, along with budget deficit spending , results in more money in the system, and hence a lowering in the value of the currency because there is "more of it".

A weaker dollar helps the economy by boosting U.S. exports, because American-made goods become cheaper in terms of foreign currencies. A lower dollar will also mean higher prices domestically for many imported products. Higher-priced imports will help American producers, , though some U.S. firms may raise their prices and match the market to take more profit. The end result: more U.S. jobs but higher prices at the checkout counter, and an increase in the inflation rate. Gold (which actually never changes in value, but reflects the value of the currency it is quoted in) increases in dollar terms when the dollar falls in value.

One currency that the dollar hasn't fallen against is the the Chinese yuan. China, which is a major exporter to the United States, keeps its exchange rate fixed at 8.3 yuan to the dollar. For this reason, the competitive balance between U.S. workers and Chinese workers will not change, in spite of what happens between the dollar and other currencies. In fact, the falling dollar has helped Chinese exports to Europe and other countries.

http://www.investmentwarrior.com/Archived%20Articles/100203.htm

More at the link.

[Hotler]

3. The Mystery of America’s Missing Capital Investment.

The public is in a foul mood this campaign season, in part because living standards have stagnated. The median household income in January was slightly lower, adjusted for inflation, than it was in January 2000, according to Sentier Research. Pay is lagging partly because companies have been underinvesting in the tools that workers need to be more productive. Those tools, which range from machines to software to land and buildings, are collectively known as capital.

"The public is in a foul mood " Gee ya think?

Economists and policymakers agree this is happening. They disagree on why. So put one of these theories in your pipe and smoke it, Sherlock.

Companies have no need to bulk up because nobody’s buying. Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers argues that the amount of money people want to save is greater than the amount companies want to invest. That’s reflected in the 0.78% yield on 10-year Treasury notes, adjusted for inflation, as of March 16.Not Enough Innovation

(Larry, go crawl in a hole. Larry Summers wants to do away with the $100.00 bill to keep people from saving cash at home instead of the banks where they can take your savings in the event of another melt down.)

Today’s robots and 3D-printing are no match for the great inventions of the past, like air conditioning and jet engines, says Robert Gordon of Northwestern University. As venture capitalist Peter Thiel famously put it: “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.”

Taxes Are Too High

Many Republicans say the key to increasing capital spending is to lower the corporate income tax. They note that $2.1 trillion of U.S. corporate profits were held overseas at the end of 2014. Lower rates, they say, would encourage American companies to use some of that money at home.
Last year, Hillary Clinton said: “We need a new generation of committed, long-term investors to provide a counterweight to the hit-and-run activists.” She wants to raise capital-gains taxes on assets held for one to six years to encourage people to hold stocks longer.

Bottom Line

On March 16, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee said the U.S. economy is expanding moderately: “However, business fixed investment and net exports have been soft.”

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/the-mystery-of-america%e2%80%99s-missing-capital-investment/ar-BBqAOYL?li=BBnbfcN&ocid=iehp

[Hotler]

4. Let us review. A short good read.

When A Train Wreck Is No Accident.

Never in history have the economic and political structures been so manipulated by those who are responsible for their safekeeping; never has so much been at stake, in so many countries, and facing collapse, all at the same time.

The great majority of people in the First World recognise that the world is passing through an economic crisis. However, most are under the impression that there are some pretty smart fellows running the show and all they need to do is tweak the system a bit more and we’ll return to happy days.

Not so. The “smart fellows” who are in charge of fixing the problem are in fact the very same people who created it.

Understandably, this a hard concept for most people to even consider, let alone accept, as the very idea that those in charge of the system might consciously collapse it seems preposterous. So, we might wish to back up a bit here and present a very brief history of the system itself, in order to understand that the eventual collapse of the economic system was baked in the cake from the very beginning.
<snip>
The next step in getting ready for the collapse is an all-out effort to confiscate the wealth of the public. This can be seen in the effort to push investors away from solid forms of wealth protection such as gold and silver and into stocks, bonds and bank deposits. More recently, we’ve seen the emergence of an effort to end the use of safe deposit boxes and a push to end the use of paper currency in making transactions.

The end objective is to force as much money as possible into deposits in banks, then take it. The US, EU and a few other countries have passed confiscation legislation, allowing the banks carte blanche to confiscate and/or refuse to release deposits.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-08/when-train-wreck-no-accident

They're coming for your money and they are going to get it. Whether it is your savings in the bank or your social Security.

[Hotler]

5. Why silver stays around $15.00. The price is suppressed.

Silver Fundamentals: The Numbers Don’t Lie. By Jeff Nielson

Statistics can be used to say anything.”

Many readers are familiar with this cliché, but few understand its real significance . Numbers don’t lie, meaning the raw data which we collect on a nearly infinite number of subjects. Statistics, on the other hand, are rarely just raw data. Instead, they are numbers that have been massaged (i.e. manipulated) with various adjustments.

Deception and deceit enters into the picture when our governments (and charlatan economists ) create their statistics, and do so by making adjustments which are completely indefensible from an analytical standpoint. These adjustments don’t improve upon the raw data in terms of adding clarity, but rather they pervert the data into numbers which cease to have any resemblance to the real world.

Thus, with their adjusted statistics, these frauds-with-numbers can make the U.S. Great Depression look like a recovery. An even more obvious example is found in all the imaginary “jobs” the U.S. government claims to have created during its imagined recovery .
Another good read over at Zero hedge. More and charts at the link.

https://www.sprottmoney.com/blog/silver-fundamentals-the-numbers-dont-lie-jeff-nielson.html

[Hotler]

6. Gota go. Take care. n/t

[Hugin]

7. Check out that floating candle on the Oil Chart.

I've never seen anything like it. It's got to be a sign and I suspect not good for the regular folks.