STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday November 2

[ozymandius]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday November 2, 2007

COUNTING THE DAYS
DAYS REMAINING IN THE * REGIME 446 LONG DAYS
DAYS SINCE DEMOCRACY DIED (12/12/00) 2483 DAYS
WHERE'S OSAMA BIN-LADEN? 2203 DAYS
DAYS SINCE ENRON COLLAPSE = 2164
Number of Enron Execs in handcuffs = 19
ENRON EXECS CONVICTED = 10
Enron execs conveniently deceased = 3
Other Arrests of Execs = 54

---

U.S. FUTURES & MARKETS INDICATORS
NASDAQ FUTURES-----------------------------S&P FUTURES

---

AT THE CLOSING BELL WHEN BUSH TOOK OFFICE on January 22, 2001
Dow - 10,578.24
Nasdaq - 2,757.91
S&P 500 - 1,342.90
Oil - $27.69/bbl
Gold - $266.70/oz.

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON November 1, 2007

Dow... 13,567.87 -362.14 (-2.60%)
Nasdaq... 2,794.83 -64.29 (-2.25%)
S&P 500... 1,508.44 -40.94 (-2.64%)
Gold future... 793.70 -1.60 (-0.20%)
30-Year Bond 4.65% -0.11 (-2.21%)
10-Yr Bond... 4.36% -0.11 (-2.55%)






GOLD, EURO, YEN, Loonie and Silver

---

PIEHOLE ALERT

Heads Up!
Preliminary info on appearances by Bush & Co. throughout the country. Details & links are added as they become available so check back. And if you know more, are organizing something, or would like to, contact [e-mail]

For information on protests and other actions Citizens For Legitimate Government

---

Read more: du

[ozymandius]

1. Market WrapUp BY MARTIN GOLDBERG, CMT

Aggressive Portfolio Insurance

There is a strong case for positioning into some sort of market plunge protection as a hedge against downside risk. That insurance would be in addition to the risk protection that is provided us free of charge by the Fed. There are a number of conventional strategies involving options which may be used. But tonight, I’m going to propose a more aggressive approach. That is “insurance” by being short or owning puts in the stocks of lagging sectors. Of course, you should consider that in the markets, “more aggressive” generally implies more risk and this strategy is no exception.

With the Nasdaq making multi-year highs and many foreign indices at or near all time highs, and the major indices getting ready to do the same, it would probably be wise to be fearful while the crowd is being greedy. At the moment, there is not a technical reason to sell out of winning long positions. But one can make a good case for taking some bearish positions against the bullish sentiment that is apparent.

-cut-

Today’s Market

With the quarter of a point a done deal, the market sold off strongly today. Of particular note were the department stores featured above (drafted last night). Except for Macy’s, all were down between 4 and 6% today, some on heavy volume. Today was another distribution day for the Dow and NYSE which is significant according to Investors Business Daily’s method of characterizing the market as bullish (confirmed rally), or bearish (downtrend).

With most market indices trading at or near all time highs, a one day selloff is enough to make the fed “pump” $41 billion into the US financial system. I’m no expert; only a technical analyst, but this would not appear to be a healthy situation. With the US housing market in shambles, the elevated stock market is all the fed has to support a continuation of the wealth effect in the US. Without that, the economy and the market go into recession. With the infusions, may be the market and economy will still go into a recession.

http://www.financialsense.com/Market/wrapup.htm

[Skink]

94. I have a question?

Is this daily thread being brought to us by the illuminati? How come the days results seem to be known in advance?

[Ghost Dog]

111. This is food for thought.

... More, surely, to follow ...

[Spazito]

114. I believe the Market Wrap-Up is an analysis of the previous day's activities

For example it was Thursday when "The U.S. Federal Reserve added a total of $41 billion in temporary reserves to the banking system on Thursday, the biggest single day of such injections since September 2001.", it was not on Friday.

The Market Wrap Up post you have linked to states "With most market indices trading at or near all time highs, a one day selloff is enough to make the fed “pump” $41 billion into the US financial system. I’m no expert; only a technical analyst, but this would not appear to be a healthy situation."

Because the Wrap Up is done after the market is closed, it makes eminent sense for it to begin the next day's Stock Market Watch thread with it.

[ozymandius]

2. Today's Reports

8:30 AM Nonfarm Payrolls Oct
Briefing Forecast 80K
Market Expects 80K
Prior 110K

8:30 AM Unemployment Rate Oct
Briefing Forecast 4.7%
Market Expects 4.7%
Prior 4.7%

8:30 AM Hourly Earnings Oct
Briefing Forecast 0.3%
Market Expects 0.3%
Prior 0.4%

8:30 AM Average Workweek Oct
Briefing Forecast 33.8
Market Expects 33.8
Prior 33.8

10:00 AM Factory Orders Sep
Briefing Forecast -0.5%
Market Expects -0.4%
Prior -3.3%

http://biz.yahoo.com/c/e.html

[UpInArms]

27. 8:30 reports - outrageously high jobs report for Oct - Sept rev'd downward

08. Strong job growth seen in health care, temp help
8:30 AM ET, Nov 02, 2007 - 15 minutes ago

09. U.S. Aug., Sept job growth revised down by 10,000
8:30 AM ET, Nov 02, 2007 - 15 minutes ago

10. U.S. Oct. job growth strongest since May
8:30 AM ET, Nov 02, 2007 - 15 minutes ago

11. U.S. Oct. household employment down 250,000
8:30 AM ET, Nov 02, 2007 - 15 minutes ago

12. U.S. Oct. private-sector job growth 130,000
8:30 AM ET, Nov 02, 2007 - 15 minutes ago

13. U.S. Oct. average workweek steady at 33.8 hours
8:30 AM ET, Nov 02, 2007 - 15 minutes ago

14. U.S. Oct. average hourly earnings rise 0.2%
8:30 AM ET, Nov 02, 2007 - 15 minutes ago

15. U.S. Oct. unemployment rate steady at 4.7%
8:30 AM ET, Nov 02, 2007 - 15 minutes ago

16. U.S. Oct. nonfarm payrolls rise 166,000 vs. 93,000 expected
8:30 AM ET, Nov 02, 2007 - 15 minutes ago

[Ghost Dog]

29. October job growth surprisingly strong

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071102/bs_nm/usa_economy_jobs_dc;_ylt=AlrBHEu0ZD0tf3SUFWUJKua573QA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Employers added a surprisingly strong 166,000 new non-farm jobs in October, twice as many as Wall Street economists had forecast for the strongest hiring since May, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

The national unemployment rate was unchanged from September at 4.7 percent.

The department revised September hiring to show that 96,000 jobs were added instead of 110,000 it reported a month ago and said in August there were 93,000 jobs instead of 89,000 that it previously reported.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast that only 80,000 jobs would be created last month. But the monthly report showed that some 190,000 jobs were created in service industries while 24,000 were lost in the goods-producing sector for a much stronger overall result than anticipated.

Among service industries, business services added 65,000 jobs in October and leisure and hospitality industries hired 56,000 more. Manufacturers cut 21,000 jobs while construction industries reduced payrolls by 5,000 in October, only about one-third of the 14,000 they shed in September.

/.

[Buttercup McToots]

33. What a bunch of shyte!

Pardon my french...

There is no truth anywhere...

Now that they think they will
get no more rate cuts...they fudge
the numbers up...
Lying thieving Bastards...:grr:

We are sooooo screwed...:thumbsdown:

[Buttercup McToots]

36. Even some guys on CNBC don't believe it...

:puke:

[Ghost Dog]

83. Santa Barbara News / AP: A little fudging that goes on...

http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=BUSINESS&ID=565115188437976346

... Among traders, ''there is a belief there is a little bit of fudging that goes on'' in the jobs report, given the huge size of the U.S. job market, said Alan Lammey, energy analyst with EIG Inc. ''You have to take some of that with a grain of salt.''

/...

[hatrack]

39. "Surprisingly Strong" jobs growth comes in just above population growth!

Yay! Go, Mighty Jobs Engine, go!

Stay right at equilibrium, you Eighth Wonder Of The World, You!!!! :loveya:

[Roland99]

41. Team America! F*** yeah!! BTW, check this detail behind the numbers >>>>

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/october-job-growth-strongest-since/story.aspx?guid=%7BB61446FA%2D7F8A%2D4901%2DB503%2D7ED679C3FB45%7D

Manufacturing jobs fell by 21,000 in October and 203,000 over the year.

Jobs were also lost at banks and mortgage brokers, where employment fell by 5,000 in October, bringing the cumulative loss to 56,000 since February.

Job growth was strong in many of the services, where employment rose by 190,000, the most since May.
Food services added 37,000, health care added 34,000 jobs, and employment services added 34,000, reversing steady declines earlier this year.

Temp-help jobs are considered a leading indicator of demand for workers, so the increase in October is encouraging.

Encouraging? Tens of thousands of people who were laid off in the last few months (probably) now getting lower-paying jobs with NO benefits? If that's encouraging then, YIKES, I'd had to see what they would consider discouraging!!

[UpInArms]

43. encouraging for bigger CEO bonuses - Roland!

just think :think:

no more worrying about all those nasty accounting gimmicks needed to show greater profits!

no insurance - no overtime - no FICA matching!

they're "temps"!

Yeah TeamAmerica!

Rah! Rah! Rah!

Siss! Boom! Bah!

[Roland99]

61. Yay! Go team, go! Thing is, pretty soon....

the team will have to start punting on 1st down!

[Ghost Dog]

67. Siss! Boom! Bah! Say, you forgot the cheerleader image.

Ok. Here's (a turtleneck) one: :wink:

[Ghost Dog]

82. Heritage Foundation: Post-Halloween Jobs Report Is a Treat

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Economy/wm1689.cfm
by James Sherk and Rea S. Hederman, Jr.
WebMemo #1689

Some economic commentators fear that the U.S. economy has skidded off the tracks.<1> They point to the falling dollar, the weak housing market, and the rising price of oil and predict a recession in the near future. Some also contend that what economic growth has occurred has not benefited most Americans. While the U.S. economy faces real challenges, the October employment summary and the preliminary estimates of third quarter GDP growth show an economy that is expanding. The economy continues to grow and provide jobs and higher wages for American workers. Congress should restrain spending and reject proposals to increase taxes on working Americans.

/... :spew: edit: :puke: edit: see also "PROPAGANDA NATION- You Are Living In A Dream World" - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2184262

[Skink]

112. Outrageously high jobs report for Nov. Oct. revised down.

Prediction....:)

[UpInArms]

47. U.S. Sept. factory orders boosted by higher oil prices (YeeHaw! - wtf???)

01. U.S. Sept. factory orders boosted by higher oil prices
10:00 AM ET, Nov 02, 2007 - 1 minute ago

02. U.S. Sept. factory inventory-shipments ratio steady at 1.24
10:00 AM ET, Nov 02, 2007 - 1 minute ago

03. U.S. Sept. factory shipments flat
10:00 AM ET, Nov 02, 2007 - 1 minute ago

04. U.S. Sept. core capital equipment orders revised up to 0.6%
10:00 AM ET, Nov 02, 2007 - 1 minute ago

05. U.S. Sept. factory orders rise 0.2% vs. 0.7% drop expected
10:00 AM ET, Nov 02, 2007 - 1 minute ago

[Ghost Dog]

81. ¿Huh? Factory Orders Rise Unexpectedly

http://www.smartmoney.com/bn/ON/index.cfm?story=ON-20071102-000672-1015

...

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Factory orders managed a small gain during September, a welcome surprise amid indications the manufacturing sector and economy in general are slowing.

Orders for manufactured goods increased 0.2%, following a revised 3.5% drop in August, the Commerce Department said Friday. Originally, factory orders were seen 3.3% lower in August.

Economists forecast a 0.5% decline in factory goods orders for September.

Demand in September for durable goods, things designed to last at least three years, decreased an unrevised 1.7%. Durables orders fell an unrevised 5.3% in August. September non-durable goods orders increased by 2.1%, after dropping 1.4% in the prior month.

Meanwhile, a yardstick for capital spending by businesses - non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft - rose 0.6% in September, after increasing 0.1% in August.

A key gauge of the factory sector released this week showed retreat. The Institute for Supply Management, a private research group, said Thursday its index of manufacturing activity moved to 50.9 in October, from 52.0 in September and 52.9 in August. While readings above 50 point to expansion in activity, the decrease in the index for October was seen by some analysts as an indication the summer's economic acceleration has ended.

The economy rose at a surprising 3.9% annual rate July through September, overcoming the housing slump and tightening credit conditions to set the strongest pace since a 4.8% surge in first-quarter 2006. But analysts see headwinds for the final months of 2007, including higher energy prices and falling home prices. A government report Thursday showed consumers spent money at a slower rate in September, with personal consumption rising 0.3% versus 0.5% in August.

Friday's factory data showed transportation orders decreased 6.2%, after falling 12.4% in August. Non-defense aircraft and parts orders rose 18.1% in September. Defense aircraft and parts orders plunged 37.2%. Ships and boats fell 34.5%. Orders for motor vehicle bodies and parts decreased 1.1%.

Excluding transportation orders, overall factory orders would have been 1.4% higher in September.

Capital goods orders decreased 0.5% in September.

Defense capital-goods orders plummeted 33.9%. Without defense orders, overall factory orders would have gone 1.3% higher. Defense capital goods industries include, among others, communications equipment, aircraft and missiles.

Demand for all non-defense capital goods - business equipment meant to last 10 years or more - increased 4.6% in September.

Consumer-goods orders rose 1.9% in September, reflecting a 2.3% decrease in consumer durable goods orders and a 3.1% rise in consumer non-durables.

Orders increased in September by 4.1% for machinery, 1.3% for primary metals and 1.2% for computers and electronic products. Orders decreased in September by 3.6% for fabricated metals and 0.8% for electrical equipment.

The report showed factory shipments were flat. Unfilled orders, a sign of future demand, were 1.1% higher.

Inventories of manufacturers climbed in September by 0.6%.

/.

[bain_sidhe]

92. Er... sorry, that was us.

We bought a new washer and dryer in September... had to, the old ones died.

[Ghost Dog]

96. Heh. Just don't let it occur to you to hang the clothes out on a line or over your garden hedge!

Although, on second thoughts...

[ozymandius]

3. Oil rises to near $94 in Asian trading

SINGAPORE - Oil prices rose Friday in Asian trading after the previous session's decline prompted fresh buying amid expectations that crude futures will continue to test new records because of tight supplies.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose 9 cents to $93.58 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midafternoon in Singapore.

The contract on Thursday fell $1.04 to settle at $93.49 a barrel after rising as high as $96.24, a new trading high.

Many investors believe tight supplies will drive crude prices to $100 a barrel, or higher, and look at price declines as buying opportunities, analysts said.

-cut-

Tetsu Emori, commodity markets fund manager at ASTMAX Futures Co. in Tokyo, said a surge in oil prices to the $100 level would likely be spurred by factors such as geopolitical threats to supply or declining stockpiles in the United States or Europe.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices

[ozymandius]

4. Ex-U.S. officials play out mock oil spike crisis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The future-world simulation was billed as make-believe but the details rang true to the present day: Instability in an overseas oil producer sent crude prices soaring above $100 a barrel and the U.S. economy teetered on the edge of ruin.

-cut-

The simulation called "Oil Shockwave," set in a fictional world of 2009, was organized by two energy policy groups - Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE), and the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Former top officials from the White House, Pentagon and State Department, such as former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, played roles of government officials of the future.

Amid a mock Wall Street panic, headlines from a nonexistent television network called GNN like "Crisis in the Caspian" cascaded across giant television screens. Officials debated how the U.S. president would address the crisis in an impending Rose Garden news conference.-cut-

GNN broke in with a news break that a giant $25 billion hedge-fund was on "life support" due to the Wall Street fallout of soaring oil prices. The faux Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 526 points on the day at 13,981 and falling.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071101/us_nm/oil_shockwave_dc_1

[Ghost Dog]

17. Wave power IPOs set to rise as wind dies down

http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?type=comktNews&storyID=2007-11-02T104103Z_01_L26189657_RTRIDST_0_WAVEPOWER-FLOATS-DEALTALK-REPEAT.XML

LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Companies using the motion of the ocean to generate electricity are attracting growing interest from investors and power utilities looking for the next long-term play in renewable energy after the rise in wind power.

A flood of wave and tidal power initial public offerings (IPOs) are set to hit the London market, analysts and sources close to several renewable energy companies told Reuters.

This comes after several smaller wind power developers scrapped planned flotations on London's junior Alternative Investment Market (AIM), partly because they were seen as pricing themselves too richly.

"A lot of utilities are looking at investing in the marine sector (wave and tidal)," said Jonathan Bryers, a partner at the investing arm of government-backed Carbon Trust.

Although IPO deals for wave and tidal companies are harder to price, because wind power technology already has scale whereas wave firms only have estimates, they could offer cheaper deals for investors, though with greater risks.

...

Although wave and tidal power could be a big contributor to global energy demand, it will be a long time, at least seven years according to Pelamis' CEO, until they have enough scale to be cost competitive with onshore wind. It will be at least five years until they are cost competitive with offshore wind.

/...

[Ghost Dog]

25. Oil Rises as U.S. Dollar's Slide Spurs Demand for Commodities

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601012&sid=aAITHtAXvcHw&refer=commodities

Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose, heading for a fourth weekly gain, as a weaker U.S. dollar spurred demand for commodities.

The dollar fell today on speculation the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates further. That makes commodities priced in the U.S. currency cheaper for foreign buyers. It also reduces the purchasing power of oil revenues for OPEC producers and may make them less likely to raise production.

``The market is still in an uptrend,'' said Stanislav Nazarati, a trader at Letofin AS in Estonia. ``You have a number of factors helping to keep oil supported, from the weaker dollar to falling U.S. stockpiles, while OPEC doesn't seem inclined to turn on the taps.''

Crude oil for December delivery rose as much as $1.20, or 1.3 percent, to $94.69 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract traded at $94.54 at 11:39 a.m. London time. Prices rallied 16 percent in October, its biggest monthly gain in three years.

...

Oil has gained from Turkish strikes against Kurdish militants based in northern Iraq, and intensified U.S. pressure on Iran over its nuclear program. Iran and Iraq respectively hold the world's second and third-largest crude reserves.

`Political Risk'

``You do have a lot of political risk,'' said Hakan Kocayusufpasaoglu, director of commodity derivatives at Credit Suisse Group in London. ``Increasingly those risks are amplified, and the speculative community is worried about the oil price.''

Yesterday marked the start of a 500,000 barrel-a-day production increase by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, supplier of about 40 percent of the world's oil. Ministers from Iran, Nigeria, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have said the group doesn't need to add more output.

OPEC's Nov. 1 increase is ``probably going to come a bit too late'' to meet winter demand, according to Harry Tchilinguirian, an analyst at BNP Paribas SA in London. Field maintenance in the Persian Gulf will probably narrow the actual increase to only 100,000 barrels a day, he said.

/...

[UpInArms]

88. Oil above $95

http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUSSP21758220071102?sp=true

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil climbed more than $2 on Friday above $95 a barrel as concerns about tight supplies in the run up to winter prevented a major sell-off.

Investors still see oil as an attractive proposition, but its march towards $100 is making them cautious about the potential for further gains.

U.S. crude rose $2.08 to $95.57 a barrel by 1644 GMT.

Brent crude was up $2.13 at $91.85, after setting a new record high of $91.87.

"You could see people wanting exposure to strong oil and commodity markets if there is a potential for a correction in equities because of concerns about a U.S. slowdown," said Harry Tchilinguirian, senior oil market analyst at BNP Paribas.

But he said concern that oil, which struck a record $96.24 on Thursday, was near its peak would make investors wary.

"People may be cautious right now in going long into (oil) futures," he said. "We are in a zone of $92-$95 and there has to be a break-out either way. The question is have we topped out or are we going to cross $100."

...more...

[Buttercup McToots]

5. Good Mornin~

:donut:

[ozymandius]

13. Good morning Buttercup McToots and all.

:donut: :donut: :donut:

Time for me to dash. See you at the end of the day.

Ozy :hi:

[Ghost Dog]

19. God morning all.

My days are unpredictable recently; it looks like I'll be away from my desk again most of today. Another good reason not to be too exposed to risky markets at present.

Watch out for recoils and bounce. :hi:

[AnneD]

44. Morning Marketeers.....

:donut: and lurkers. After having way to much work lately, I'll be around today. Even though I have some large shoes to fill, I'll pick up some of the slack. Have a great day Ozy, Ghost and other posters that have to be out and about. Make some coins if you can.

Yesterday was a rough day in the market, even with the check kiting and over heated printing press. Don't know if the Blue Light special will be flashing today, but it will be a bumpy ride. Yesterday, my daughter went to our fav Greek restaurant. Boy, was it slow. Normally you can't even get a seat. Once the line was so long-I called in my order from the back of the line. It was ready when I would have made it to the front of the line- and we had gotten a table already. I can't tell you how strange it felt that she drove over to met me. She just got her drivers license, so I worry a lot about her safety. She is responsible but inexperienced. They do the graduated license here so we have been with her behind the wheel for so many hours, and it is better than giving the kid carte blanch with no experience...but still, I hold my breath. I have had 3 accidents and they have been minor, but I know what can happen. I guess it's sending them out into the world that make me nervous. Oh, and she's already complaining about gas prices and doesn't hesitate to get a ride when she can.

Happy hunting and watch out for the bears.

[ozymandius]

6. Asian, European stock markets slide

TOKYO - Markets in Asia and Europe slumped Friday, tracking losses on Wall Street overnight as investors worried about a possible end to U.S. interest rate cuts and a slowing American economy.

Hong Kong's benchmark index plunged over 3 percent and markets in Japan, China, South Korea and Singapore fell more than 2 percent.

Repeating a pattern seen several times this year, a sharp sell-off in U.S. stocks prompted investors to dump shares in Asian markets, many of which have surged to records in recent weeks. The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled more than 360 points Thursday as investors reacted nervously to surging oil prices and a U.S. Federal Reserve warning on inflation.

The warning from the Fed, which cut interest rates earlier this week, triggered concern that it might hold off on further rate cuts or even consider raising them if inflation accelerates, renewing worries about a slowdown in the U.S. economy — a vital market for Asian exporters.

-cut-

Investors were anxiously awaiting U.S. jobless data due out later Friday for more clues about the state of the U.S. economy. Jitters over the fallout from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis — which roiled markets in August — will linger for awhile, traders said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071102/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets

[Ghost Dog]

12. Bank shares lead Asia lower

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ft/20071102/bs_ft/fto110220070519211473;_ylt=AqhyvRv6TV54HPK4Ll322o32ULEF

Asian markets fell across the board on Friday, following drops in Wall Street on Thursday on renewed concerns about subprime losses.

In Japan the Nikkei fell 2.1 per cent to 16,517.48, its lowest level in a week. Hong Kong shed 3.3 per cent and Taiwan's Taiex index fell 3.4 percent to 9,273.09. South Korea and Australia both lost about 2 percent.

The losses came after the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 2.6 cent on Thursday as Western banks, such as Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Barclays (NYSE:BCS), suffered sharp drops in their share prices. This prompted the US Federal Reserve to make its biggest one-day cash infusion into the banking system since September 2001.

Asian banks did not escape the fallout. In Japan, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group suffered its biggest decline in nearly three weeks, falling 6 per cent to 1,052 yen. Mizuho was down 5.8 per cent to Y607,000 while SMFG fell 6 per cent to Y868,000.

In Hong Kong, Bank of East Asia declined 3.6 per cent to HK$49.45. HSBC fell 2.4 per cent to HK$148.30. DBS, Singapore's biggest bank, and Australia's Macquarie Bank also fell. In South Korea, Woori Finance (NYSE:WF), the country's third-largest lender by market value, fell 5.6 per cent after disappointing third-quarter results on Thursday.

Despite the market's fall in Hong Kong, some analysts argued that the underlying macroeconomic conditions would continue to support the territory's record bull run. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has been injecting liquidity to prevent further strengthening of the Hong Kong dollar against its US counterpart, leading to lower interest rates despite an already strong economy.

/...

[Ghost Dog]

14. China Needs Stronger Economic Controls, Government Agency Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601089&sid=auqu1rAkKpo8&refer=china

Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- China's top planning agency said the government needs to strengthen economic controls in the final two months of the year, citing inflation and excessive investment in polluting industries.

Accelerating raw-material costs are adding to price pressures, Zhu Hongren, a spokesman for the National Development and Reform Commission, said in a statement today. The NDRC was briefing reporters in Beijing on industrial growth in the first nine months.

The nation raised fuel prices yesterday, giving another boost to an inflation rate that's already more than double the central bank's annual target of 3 percent. Borrowing costs are at a nine-year high as the government tries to prevent the flood of money from a record trade surplus from stoking stock and property bubbles and consumer-price gains.

``We expect one more interest-rate increase and another hike in banks' reserve requirements before the end of the year,'' said Sun Mingchun, an economist with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong. ``We don't expect any drastic measures because the economy is already starting to cool.''

/...

[Ghost Dog]

15. FTSE suffers as sell-off in financials continues

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ft/20071102/bs_ft/fto110220070634361477

The global sell-off on equities markets continued in London on Friday, as investors pulled more money out of financial stocks amid fresh worry about the of losses relating to the US subprime lending crisis.

After its biggest one-day fall since August on Thursday, the FTSE 100 lost a further 0.8 per cent to 6,534.1 in early trading on Friday, a decline of 52 points adding to Thursday's surrender of 135½ points.

The index tracked overnight declines on Wall Street and in Asia prompted by fears that leading US institutions were nursing big losses relating to the turbulence on credit markets rooted in the subprime lending crisis in the US.

...

Barclays (NYSE:BCS) fell the furthest, losing 6.1 per cent to 536.9p.

The rest of the banking sector also suffered. Royal Bank of Scotland was 3.3 per cent softer at 482.3p. Northern Rock, the biggest UK casualty of the crisis on credit markets, fell a further 1.7 per cent to 169p. Alliance & Leicester, with the business model bearing the most resemblance to Northern Rock's reliance on the wholesale credit markets to raise funds for lending, lost 2.7 per cent to 733p.

Away from the high street, fund manager Invesco was 2 per cent weaker at 697½p, Standard Chartered was 2.3 per cent lower at £17.59 and Man Group lost 1.6 per cent to 560p.

Goldman Sachs added to the gloom by lowering its stock price targets on a range of banks. Among the changes, it cut its target on Alliance & Leicester to 744p from 815p and Bradford & Bingley's to 352p from 493p.

/...

[Ghost Dog]

16. UPDATE 2-UK's Barclays falls sharply on funding worries

http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?type=comktNews&storyID=2007-11-02T110344Z_01_L0298599_RTRIDST_0_BARCLAYS-SHARES-UPDATE-2.XML
Fri Nov 2, 2007 7:03am ET

LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Shares in Barclays (BARC.L: Quote, Profile , Research) fell as much as 8 percent to hit two-and-a-half year lows on Friday amid market talk of funding worries and speculation it is telling analysts to trim profit forecasts.

Reviving concerns that hit Britain's third-largest lender this summer, when technical issues twice forced Barclays to tap the Bank of England's emergency reserves, some traders also cited funding concerns and a fresh move to borrow from the bank.

The Bank of England declined to comment on Barclays, but said it had not made any emergency loans via its penalty-rate standing lending facility on Thursday.

Barclays, which issued its latest trading update just three weeks ago, declined to comment on Friday.

At 1038 GMT, the stock was down 5.8 percent at 538.5 pence, off earlier lows of 524.5 pence, extending Thursday's losses.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L: Quote, Profile , Research), the other major UK bank with a substantial investment banking business, was down 5 percent, having earlier touched lows of 473.25p, its lowest level since August 2004. Alliance & Leicester (ALLL.L: Quote, Profile , Research), a mortgage bank whose exposure to wholesale funding has seen it battered in the wake of the credit crunch and the near-collapse of Northern Rock (NRK.L: Quote, Profile , Research), was down 4.85 percent.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index <.FTEU3> lost 1 percent, led by losses in financial shares. It extended sharp falls from the previous session on worries linked to the credit crunch and fear that Citi (C.N: Quote, Profile , Research) could cut its dividend.

/...

[Ghost Dog]

22. Banks lead European stocks lower (more banks trashing each other)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ft/20071102/bs_ft/fto110220070749361489

European stocks extended their losses on Friday with troubled financial stocks leading the market lower on renewed fears about subprime fallout and escalating credit market woes.

Fortis nosedived 6.6 per cent to EU19.92, after UBS (NYSE:UBS) cut its rating on Belgium's largest financial services group from "buy" to "sell". The stock made biggest decline since April 2003 after UBS analysts said Fortis was less transparent about its subprime exposure than any of its peers.

"In the current difficult environment lack of transparency and balance sheet risks warrant caution from investors,'' UBS's Simon Chiavarini said.

Meanwhile Belgium's Dexia slid 3.1 per cent to EU19.97 on continuing worries about subprime exposure at its US subsidiary FSA after UBS downgraded the stock from "neutral" to "sell".

"FSA management appear to be much more on top of the situation than most others. However, we are concerned that things could get worse and that even FSA might not escape unhurt," UBS said in a note.

Other banks slumped with Swiss wealth manager UBS extending Thursday losses a further 3.4 per cent to SFr57.20, France's Société Générale down 4.4 per cent to EU107.76 and Deutsche Postbank 3.6 per cent lower at EU46.84.

In late morning trade, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 slipped 1.1 per cent to 1,553.56, while the CAC 40 in Paris fell 1 per cent to 5671.84, Frankfurt's Xetra Dax shed 0.9 per cent to 7806.60 and London's FTSE 100 dropped 1.3 per cent to 6,503.3.

/...

[Ghost Dog]

31. European stocks trim losses after strong jobs data

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINL02443720071102?rpc=44

PARIS, Nov 2 (Reuters) - European stocks trimmed earlier losses on Friday after surprisingly strong U.S. non-farm jobs in October that eased worries over the health of the world's largest economy. At 1235 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 (.FTEU3: Quote, Profile, Research) index of top European shares was down 0.4 percent at 1,563.59 points, after falling more than 1 percent earlier in the session on renewed concerns over the credit crisis.

...

Some analysts said it was difficult to take a clear view on future interest rates based on these numbers.

"Does it mean that a corner has been turned and the U.S. is not as weak as we thought? No idea. Will this mean that there will be no rate cut in December? Don't know either," said Philip Isherwood, strategist at Dresdner Kleinwort.

/.. Ah, "don't now". Such rare honesty...

[Ghost Dog]

80. European stocks tumble again on credit fears

http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20071102:MTFH20389_2007-11-02_16-44-12_L02361513&type=comktNews&rpc=44
Fri Nov 2, 2007 12:44pm ET

PARIS, Nov 2 (Reuters) - European stocks sank for a second day in a row on Friday, knocked lower by sharp declines in banking shares on fears that financial institutions have not yet revealed the full impact of the crisis in the credit market on their results.

UK bank Barclays (BARC.L: Quote, Profile , Research) plunged 6.4 percent on market talk of funding worries and speculation that Britain's third-biggest bank was telling analysts to trim profit forecasts.

Both the Bank of England and Barclays declined to comment.

Other banks also took a beating, with UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile , Research) down 4.2 percent and HSBC (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile , Research) down 2 percent. The FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of top European shares unofficially closed 0.6 percent lower at 1,560.52 points, after losing 1.6 percent on Thursday.

"Financial stocks remained under great pressure. The banks still have major balance sheet problems and I think we will continue to have big negative news on that front," said Jean-Francois Virolle, chief strategist at Global Equities, in Paris.

/.

[ozymandius]

7. Spending growth slowed in September

WASHINGTON - The growth in consumer spending slowed to a crawl in September as shoppers, worried about a deepening housing downturn, stayed away from the malls.

A different gauge of manufacturing activity slipped close to recession levels last month.

The latest economic data is likely signaling that a sharp slowdown is under way over the next two quarters as the housing slump, this summer's severe credit crunch and now rising energy prices take a toll on economic growth, analysts said.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that consumer spending rose by 0.3 percent in September, the smallest rise in three months and lower than the 0.4 percent increase analysts expected. The 0.4 percent gain in incomes was in line with expectations.

In another report, the Institute for Supply Management, an Arizona-based trade group, said its manufacturing index dipped to 50.9 in October. That was the weakest level since March and the fourth consecutive month that manufacturing has slowed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071102/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy

[kineneb]

105. malls? think grocery store.

given the price increases in Real Commodities (tm), who the heck has money left to go to a mall? And it isn't just the subprime mess; the price of gasoline is effecting everything we eat. We are nearing $5/gal for milk in this area. Ouch.

My prediction:sales of goods before Christmas will be meager; retailers will take it in the shorts.

[JNelson6563]

8. Wierd futures goin' on now

Tuned into CNBC and they show the DOW futures down 300+ and the S&P futures down 2+. Weird, no? :shrug:

Julie

[Ghost Dog]

18. Wall St futures tick up; eyes on banks, payrolls

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071102/bs_nm/markets_stocks_dc

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to Wall Street opening a touch higher on Friday after the previous session's steep falls, with eyes on any news from the financial sector industry and on October jobs data.

"I think the market will be really nervous," said Heinz-Gerd Sonnenschein, equity strategist at Postbank in Germany.

U.S. stocks could move either way, depending on the non-farm payrolls report at 1230 GMT and what, if any, news there will be about financial companies' exposure to risky credit instruments.

"It's like the snake and the mouse; who will move first?" Sonnenschein said.

At 6 a.m. EDT, the Dow Jones future was up 0.1 percent, the S&P 500 future was 0.03 percent higher and the Nasdaq future rose 0.1 percent

The indicative Dow Jones index (.DJII), which tracks how the Dow stocks are traded in Frankfurt, was 0.3 percent higher.

...

FINANCIAL TRIGGER

"The trigger will be the financials again ... what will come from the financial side," he said.

Commerzbank agreed, saying in a note: "At the heart of the concern are ongoing fears over the health of the financial sector amid a succession of write-downs."

On Thursday, financial stocks dragged Wall Street sharply lower after brokerages downgraded Citigroup (C.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N), sparking fears of more fallout from the credit crisis.



/... :shrug:

[UpInArms]

32. it's almost all good now

S&P 500 +4.20 1520.00 11/2 8:46am
Fair Value 1515.42 11/2 4:42am
Difference* +4.58

NASDAQ +13.25 2228.75 11/2 8:45am
Fair Value 2214.70 11/2 4:42am
Difference* +14.05

Dow Jones -10.00 13598.00 11/2 7:47am
DJIA Contracts

[Ghost Dog]

9. CDS traders warn of 'blood on streets'

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ft/20071102/bs_ft/fto110120072249061435;_ylt=AnUT5Fh6.d8r1TukOMcpYzz2ULEF

The mood in credit derivatives markets turned ugly on Thursday, with the cost of insuring corporate debt hitting multi-week highs on both sides of the Atlantic.

Speculation was rife that leading major investment banks were facing additional losses linked to complex mortgage-backed securities, while worries mounted over the health of major financial guarantors.

"It's scary out there - there's blood on the streets," a trader at a US brokerage said. "It's a real mess."

/...

[Ghost Dog]

10. Contagion fears grow on subprime writedowns

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ft/20071101/bs_ft/fto110120071949041418;_ylt=AovnCsqr5xdU4Ga.gmYk__T2ULEF

Bank stocks tumbled around the world on Thursday as investors focused on the continued fallout from the US subprime mortgage crisis.

The prospect of further heavy writedowns on holdings of subprime-linked securities hit stocks such as UBS (NYSE:UBS), Barclays and Morgan Stanley (AMEX:MWD).

But banks with relatively little capital markets exposure also suffered on fears of worsening consumer credit conditions, particularly in the US.

Betsy Graseck, an analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York, predicted there were would be "contagion" from subprime mortgage lending to prime mortgages and to car and credit card loans.

This "consumer credit recession" in the US would outweigh recovery in capital markets since the squeeze in the summer, she said.

/...

[Ghost Dog]

11. Creative accounting: Hedge Funds deals postpone Merrill losses -WSJ

http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?type=comktNews&storyID=2007-11-02T065323Z_01_N02215995_RTRIDST_0_MERRILL-HEDGEFUNDS.XML

NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - In a bid to cut its exposure to mortgage-backed securities, Merrill Lynch & Co (MER.N: Quote, Profile , Research) engaged in deals with hedge funds possibly designed to delay its heavy losses, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday in its online edition, citing sources close to the matter.

The deals are likely to be examined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which is investigating how the firm has been valuing mortgage securities and how it discloses its positions to investors, a source familiar with the matter told the Journal.

A source told the newspaper that in one such deal, a hedge fund bought $1 billion in commercial paper issued by a Merrill-related entity containing mortgages.

According to the Journal, the source said the hedge fund had the right to sell back the commercial paper to Merrill after a year for a guaranteed minimum.

Merrill might have been required to take a write-down if the entity was unable to sell the commercial paper to other investors and suffered losses, the source told the Journal, adding the deal delayed that risk for a year.

/...

[Ghost Dog]

95. Merrill's credibility and stock take hit

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071102/bs_nm/merrilllynch_dc

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch & Co Inc's credibility and stock took a big hit on Friday after reports said the biggest brokerage sought to delay billions of dollars of losses on troubled assets by moving them to hedge funds.

Renewed worries about U.S. banks' exposure to subprime mortgage-related assets punished financial stocks across the board. Merrill, which does not have a chief executive after the departure of Stan O'Neal earlier this week, led the declines.

Merrill (MER.N) shares fell as much as 12 percent -- their biggest single-day drop in 18 years -- before the company said that it was not aware of any inappropriate transactions. The stock then recaptured some of its losses, but it was still down 8.2 percent at $57.10 in afternoon trading.

"We have increasingly lost confidence in the financials of Merrill, especially after the sudden increase in (collateralized

debt obligation) write-downs," Deutsche Bank analyst Mike Mayo said. He cut his rating on Merrill shares to "buy" and said the company might need to find a partner to restore credibility and financial strength.

In the fourth quarter alone, large U.S. banks and brokerages could suffer additional write-downs of more than $10 billion as deteriorating credit trends continue to undercut the value of subprime mortgages and related securities, Mayo said.

Merrill has been in turmoil after an $8.4 billion write-down in the third quarter caused a $2.3 billion loss, the biggest in the company's history. Analysts expect additional write-downs on collateralized debt obligations, with estimates of $5 billion to $10 billion.

Write-downs at Citigroup (C.N), the No. 1 U.S. bank, could be $4 billion in the fourth quarter, Mayo said. Citigroup shares fell 3.8 percent to $37.05.

In afternoon trading, Bear Stearns Cos Inc (BSC.N) shares were down 3.2 percent to $104.47. Shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) fell 5 percent to $228.10 and Morgan Stanley's (MS.N) stock was down 6.4 percent at $58.52.

Meanwhile, analysts are puzzled how Merrill reduced its net exposure to $15 billion from $32 billion in the third quarter with only $6 billion in write-downs.

Mayo said that leaves the question of how Merrill reduced the other $11 billion.

/...

[JNelson6563]

20. There's splatter marks on the walls too

They *wish* it were just on the street.

[Ghost Dog]

21. FOREX-Dollar selling regains momentum before payrolls

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=usDollarRpt&storyID=2007-11-02T085547Z_01_L02449881_RTRIDST_0_MARKETS-FOREX-UPDATE-3.XML

LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The dollar edged down towards record lows against a basket of currencies on Friday as investors looked to a key U.S. jobs report for clues on whether growth is soft enough to warrant another rate cut next month.

...

"We are seeing economic weakness in the U.S. and weakness in financial institutions... (So) investors are moving their assets overseas and capturing growth in emerging markets. There is reason still for investors to head out of the U.S. and sell the dollar," said Geoffrey Yu, currency strategist at UBS.

...

The euro was up 0.3 percent against the dollar at $1.4470 <EUR=> moving towards record highs above $1.45 struck in the immediate aftermath of this week's Fed rate cut.

The dollar index, which charts the greenback's progress against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.1 percent to 76.515 <.DXY>. It set a record low of 76.465 on Wednesday.

SUBPRIME FALLOUT

The consensus forecast from analysts polled by Reuters is that the U.S. economy added 80,000 new jobs last month. Forecasts for the data, due at 1230 GMT, range from 10,000 to 110,000.

The jobs data has been pivotal in Fed expectations in recent months -- news of the first drop in employment levels in four years in August was seen as a key factor behind the September Fed rate cut, while fears of a U.S. recession were calmed a month later when the August number was revised to a small gain and September data also showed job creation.

"This report (for October) probably will provide more evidence of a downshift in employment, especially with the subprime fallout accentuating weakness in some services sectors," Citi said in a research note.

/...

[Ghost Dog]

23. Canada Dollar Rallies To New Record High On Jobs Data

http://www.fxstreet.com/news/forex-news/article.aspx?StoryId=3eeaec4d-10c5-4d75-93cf-a9303bbb835b

TORONTO -(Dow Jones)- The Canadian dollar rallied to a new record high early Friday morning after the release of unexpectedly robust jobs data for October.

The U.S. dollar dropped sharply to a low of C$0.9386, according to electronic trading system EBS, after news that the Canadian economy created 63,000 jobs in October, significantly exceeding the roughly 11,000 forecast by economists.

/...

[Ghost Dog]

74. Loonie passes $1.07 U.S.

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/272997

Analysts divided on loonie's path
Some currency experts are predicting the Canadian dollar could trade as high as $1.10 (U.S.) in the near term, while other observers warn the loonie is overdue for a correction and forecast it will fall below parity by the second half of next year.
Nov 02, 2007 11:10 AM
THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Canadian dollar traded at 106.84 cents U.S. this morning after touching a record 107.17 cents U.S. on strong employment data and a rise in oil prices. The American dollar resumed its weakness against most major currencies.

/..

[Ghost Dog]

30. Dollar falls to record low vs euro in wake of jobs

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKN0254910120071102?rpc=44
Fri Nov 2, 2007 8:48am EDT

NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The dollar fell to a record low against the euro on Friday, reversing earlier gains, after a strong U.S. jobs report encouraged investors to wade back into risky carry trades.

After initially falling to $1.4450, the euro <EUR=> surged to an all-time high at $1.4525. Against the yen, the euro was was at 166.68, up nearly 1 percent <EURJPY=>.

/..

[TheFarseer]

24. Remember last winter when some analysts said

oil was going all the way down to $20 or $30 bucks a barrel? I wonder if they honestly thought that or if they were trying to get the cheapest possible buy-in for themselves and their clients?

[texpatriot2004]

26. K & R nm

[UpInArms]

28. dollar watch

http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=NYBOT_DX&v=i

Last trade 76.390 Change -0.350 (-0.46%)

October Non-Farm Payrolls Will Determine If the US Dollar Has Bottomed

http://www.dailyfx.com/story/topheadline/October_Non_Farm_Payrolls_Will_Determine_1193940337876.html

This Friday, we are expecting Non-farm payrolls for the month of October and now more than ever, the degree of payroll growth last month will determine whether the US dollar has hit a bottom. On Wednesday the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25bp in a move that some people believe will be their last. GDP growth in the third quarter was very impressive, the strongest in over a year and even though the weakening housing market is continuing to push consumer confidence lower, the recent stability in the labor market suggests that the US economy may avoid a material slowdown.

Despite layoff announcements across the financial and real estate sectors, we have not seen a major drop in monthly payrolls. With many banks having already made the bulk of their write offs, the worst of the credit crunch could be behind us. Therefore another month of payroll growth in excess of 100k should give dollar bulls the confidence to return especially given the Fed’s reluctance to lower interest rates further. At this time, the market is looking for a rise of 82k jobs and today’s price action in the dollar indicates that it is already attempting to bottom. Should job growth be anywhere near 125k, we expect a sharp dollar rally. If it remains below 90k however, speculation of a December rate cut will return. The market is still currently pricing in a slightly greater than 50 percent chance of 4.25 percent rates and it will not take much to drive those expectations even higher. Therefore the fate of the dollar hangs by a wire and that wire could very well be the October non-farm payrolls report (Also See How to Trade October NFP).

What Should Traders Watch For

Last month, four out of the eight indicators that we follow correctly forecasted the stronger payrolls number. Of those four indicators, three are now calling for a sharp improvement in job growth for the month of October. The remaining one, which was the employment component of service ISM, will not be released until the Monday. Therefore we won’t have this usually reliable leading indicator to confirm or deny that payrolls will be greater than 100k. Instead, this month, we have six reasons supporting stronger job growth and two reasons disputing it. Of the 86 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, the most optimistic forecast is by Janney Montgomery Scott LLC who expects 117k jobs while the most pessimistic is Stone and McCarthy Research, who expects only 10k job growth. For the most part, the estimates are fairly low compared to the amount of private sector payroll growth reported by ADP. Therefore any number greater than 110k should be dollar bullish since most economists are not anticipating a blockbuster number. However there are downside risks as well since jobless claims have ticked higher and companies are continuing to announce layoffs with rumors of Fidelity being the latest. As usual, also watch for revisions to the September number because it can easily exacerbate or negate the changes to the current month’s headline figure.

...more...

Dollar Weak As Market Disregards the Risk of NFP

http://www.dailyfx.com/story/bio2/Dollar_Weak_As_Market_Disregards_1193999131394.html

Nether the greater than 300 point downdraft in the Dow nor the prospect of stronger than expected US NFP numbers due at 12:30GMT had any negative effect on the EURUSD toady, as the pair recouped most of its losses in early European trade. Despite the fact that the currency is grossly overbought against the greenback, momentum remains with the euro longs as the pair once again targets the 1.4500 figure.

The majority of the players remain skeptical regarding the resiliency of the US economic data. However, there is good evidence to suggest that today’ s NFP report may print north of 100K jobs which would likely ensure the fact that the Fed will remain stationary for the rest of the year. Nevertheless, the market remains in “show me” mode as currency traders foresee further loosening in US monetary policy and continue to buy the EURUSD on every pullback

It will be interesting to see the market reaction should the US employment data prove better than expected. Good employment numbers along with healthy gains in wages would augur well for the upcoming Christmas season and could improve consumer sentiment going forward. We continue to believe that the EURUSD is near the end of its current rally and while it may make another run at the 1.45 figure, any additional gains going forward are likely to be small and slow. The exception to that scenario is of course a much worse than expected NFP result. If the labor market data reflects the recessionary thesis of dollar bears, the EURUSD momentum could regain force as traders will quickly price in more rate cuts from the Fed.

US is not the only North American economy reporting employment figures today. Canada’s numbers will be out as well. With Loonie at multi decade highs, today opens up the prospect of a possible turn in USDCAD if Canadian data disappoints while US figures register an upside surprise. However, any bounce in USDCAD will be short lived unless oil prices begin to recede back into $80/bbl level.

...more...

[Ghost Dog]

77. Everybody hates the dollar: James Saft

http://www.reuters.com/article/economicNews/idUSN0242260520071102?rpc=401&&pageNumber=1

NEW YORK (Reuters) - There is a lot of uncertainty in financial markets, but there is one bet that almost everyone seems to be making: sell the dollar.

The U.S. dollar fell again on Friday against a basket of six major currencies (.DXY: Quote, Profile, Research), hitting levels not seen in that index's 30-year plus history. It has fallen more than 7.0 percent since the summer's financial ruckus started.

It is an unusually strong consensus, which is often an indicator to go the other way, but, well, there is a lot not to like.

...

"In all the years I've been trading I've never seen such a one-sided position against the dollar," said Dennis Gartman, publisher of the Gartman letter, speaking at a Euromoney foreign exchange conference in New York on Thursday.

"It is absolutely shocking how overtly bearish the world is."

...

PAIN INDEX AT LIFETIME HIGH

Merrill Lynch calculates what it calls the PAIN Index, which correlates fund performance with currency moves, thereby giving insight into how investors are positioned on various currencies.

What Merrill's index shows, according to Steven Englander, head of G10 FX strategy, is that there is a remarkably strong bet against the dollar, the biggest in the year and a half the bank has been doing the calculations.

"The market is shorter dollars than at any time, against just about everything but yen" he said.

"People have gotten very short dollars, very quickly."

Nouriel Roubini, an economist and chairman of RGE Monitor, said he sees the dollar as sharply lower on a trade weighted basis in a year's time, expecting a fall of at least ten percent, accompanied by a Fed Funds rate of 3 percent, "if not below," as against 4.5 percent now.

...

Gartman too agreed that the U.S. economy may be heading for the rocks, if not already upon them. He thinks that the oversupply of housing will push the country into contraction and force the Federal Reserve to cut dramatically, perhaps to 2.5 percent or 3.0 in a year.

And even though he thinks the medium term direction of the dollar will be down, he thinks the sheer weight of people all betting the same way opens up the possibility of a vicious short covering rally, as the herd all get caught trying to get out of positions at the same time if sentiment against the dollar changes, even slightly.

"The public is always taken out behind the shed and given a good solid thumping."

/...

[UpInArms]

86. Dollar decline in line with IMF forecast-IMF chief

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0256591420071102

WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - New International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Friday maintained the official IMF line that the dollar (.DXY: Quote, Profile, Research) is overvalued and the euro's <EUR=> value is in line with fundamentals.

"When you look at the mid-term external balances, with the high (U.S.) deficit, which is falling, the view we have ... is that the dollar is still overvalued and so it is no surprise to see a declining dollar. It is in line with what the fund is saying," Strauss-Kahn told reporters.

At his first news conference since taking the reins of the IMF on Thursday, Strauss-Kahn also said the fund did not expect the slowdown of the U.S. economy to lead to a recession.

<snip>

He said forecasts were for a higher oil price (CLc1: Quote, Profile, Research) and so it was not surprising to see energy prices rising, but he cautioned this could affect economies.

"The problem is what will be in the coming months a combination of the different downside effects of oil prices and consequences of the financial turmoil," he said, adding "As far as we see ... there is no signal it will go further than a slowdown in the rate of growth."

...more at link...

[UpInArms]

34. Layoff Announcements Come Hours After Optimistic Jobs Report Issued

http://www.ere.net/inside-recruiting/news/layoff-announcements-come-hours-after-optimistic-181386.asp

Even as outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas was issuing an optimistic jobs cuts report for October, companies across the United States were announcing new layoffs of at least 15,000 workers.

Thursday Chrysler announced it would cut shifts at five plants and idle 11,000 employees in the coming months while dropping four car models. Insurance and HR consulting firm AON, meanwhile reported plans to cut 2,700 jobs. Even the NYMEX, formerly the New York Mercantile Exchange, said it would let 120 employees go.

John Challenger, CEO of CG&C, shrugged off the coincidence explaining that the first of the month, especially as the end of the year approaches, is often a time when companies announce layoffs. Before he backs off from the cautious optimism in the report showing layoff announcements dropping 12 percent in October, Challenger tells us he would “wait to see what happens in the rest of November.”

The report issued monthly by the company since 1993 says “planned job cuts announced by employers fell for the second consecutive month in October to 63,114, down 12 percent from 71,739 job cuts in September.” Overall, the number of announced job losses since January are running 8.1 percent lower than for the same 10-month period in 2006.

While that is certainly good news, Challenger worries the troubles in the housing and finance sectors could infect the rest of the economy. Rising gas prices and the drop in the value of the dollar, he says, are among the “serious (other) issues out there that could turn the economy into a tailspin.”

...more...

[UpInArms]

35. IRS to probe hedge fund, private equity taxes

http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN0150776420071102?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews?sp=true

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. tax authorities at the Internal Revenue Service are focusing on the private equity and hedge fund industry in an attempt to discover if fund managers are paying their taxes properly.

The move is the latest government effort to look at taxation in the industry, as Congress has also been considering bills that would raise taxes on the senior executives of private equity firms.

Private equity firm Blackstone Group LP's (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) $4.13 billion initial public offering earlier this year focused attention on how partnerships pay their taxes.

In a statement on Thursday, the IRS said it would look at hedge funds and private equity as part of a bigger effort to gather information about large business taxpayers.

Specifically, the IRS said it "seeks to identify any areas of possible non-compliance in the income tax reporting of hedge fund and private equity fund investors and managers, as well as possible non-compliance in the reporting of withholding obligations."

...more...

[Buttercup McToots]

37. Gold making another run for 800

Go Go Go
:bounce:

[Theres-a]

71. Ta-daaaaa!

800.10!

[Buttercup McToots]

73. Whoo Hooo!!!! $800...push push push...

I'm soooo excited!!
:applause:

[Buttercup McToots]

76. $ 803...and climbing...

:bounce:

[Ghost Dog]

79. Spot Gold Breaks $800/Oz, Trades At New 28-Year High

http://www.fxstreet.com/news/forex-news/article.aspx?StoryId=c2042a5d-b7a0-403e-9dec-c40608f844d7
Fri, Nov 2 2007, 16:49 GMT
http://www.djnewswires.com/eu

Spot Gold Breaks $800/Oz, Trades At New 28-Year High

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Spot gold broke above the key technical $800 a troy ounce Friday, a figure not hit since 1980, as continued U.S. dollar weakness and inflation fears propel the precious metal higher - and market participants said gold has higher to go.

At 1640 GMT spot gold was trading at $803.40/oz.

Traders said while the U.S. dollar has held mostly steady this afternoon, inflation fears are increasingly being priced into the market and crude oil prices remain high, adding the market is trying to have a strong close to end the week technically strong.

Many analysts are predicting gold could hit its all time high of $850/oz by early 2008.

/.

[JNelson6563]

90. Woo-hoo!!

I saw this coming before it hit $400. :toast:

Julie

[UpInArms]

38. Adelson loses $6 billion on Sands shares (yesterday's market drop)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071102/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_las_vegas_sands

LAS VEGAS - Billionaire Sheldon Adelson is worth about $6 billion less than he was a day ago after shares in Las Vegas Sands Corp. plunged following the announcement of a surprise third-quarter loss.

The company, which is spending billions to transform Macau's Cotai Strip into a gambling resort destination, reported a $48.5 million loss, or 14 cents per share, despite a revenue increase of 19.5 percent from a year ago to $661.0 million.

Shares of Las Vegas Sands plunged $18.90, or 15 percent, to $106.40 in after-hours trading, following a near 6 percent drop during the day. Adelson, ranked third on Forbes' list of richest Americans, has a more than two-thirds stake in the company and saw his estimated net worth drop by about one-fifth.

He chalked up the numbers to bad luck and high opening costs.

"It's just the nature of the business," Adelson said on a conference call. "And it makes a good trading opportunity for day traders and hedge funds."

Adjusted net income was $41.8 million, or 12 cents per share, compared with $117.6 million, or 33 cents per share, a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial, on average, expected earnings on that basis of 31 cents per share, and revenue of $783 million.

...more...

[Changenow]

40. Would someone please tell me

what to do with all this information? Not specific investment advice, just generally what a reasonable person does in the face of disastrous news about his nation's economy and currency. We have no debt, so that's not a worry, but what else can we do?

It seems like it's too late to buy gold or foreign currency. A mattress is fine but it shrinks with devaluation and inflation. It's also lumpy and susceptible to fire.

Now is like watching the clichéd car wreck in slow motion. The other car is headed toward me at 100 miles an hour, my car is stalled, and the doors are stuck closed.

[Buttercup McToots]

42. I've been buying/holding PM stocks...

Nibble at physical when I can...

Watch gold...it will go to the moon and take jr miners
with it...
JMOP....

[Changenow]

48. Thanks, that's food for thought. nt

[Viva_La_Revolution]

50. I'm new at following this too

got out of debt, but what do I do with my tiny ($2500) 401k? Continue to leave it alone, or clean it out and spend the dough while it's worth something? Cash out and convert to Euros?
:shrug:

[Buttercup McToots]

52. Hold on...let me get some info

:)

[Buttercup McToots]

56. Some are doing that...

and some are watching carefully...Don't want to start a fire or some kind of tin foil hat thingy ...but some believe this:

reply 1: I worked in the US for a few years and I've recently liquidated my IRA and converted it to € and gold. If the $ continue downwards, legislation to prevent people from bailing out of the $ will most likely be put in place. This could happen anytime, IMHO, and then you can forget about your IRA.

reply 2:If the dollar takes a big dive, the authorities may seize private retirement accounts to "protect" them, and invest them in 30 year treasuries.

Last depression, they took gold. Why wouldn't they take retirement accounts, as they can say due to the tax deferred status they have the right and duty to "protect" them.

Should I start liquidating my IRA?

I'm pretty sure you are able to move an IRA across to an annuity running from somewhere like Switzerland without incurring immediate tax implications.

The trustee of the annuity is then able to make adjustments to the investments.

Something like that.

Try http://www.whvp.ch/ http://www.nmg-ifs.com/ or http://www.nestmann.com/ for more info.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

59. Wow. Thanks!

I love you guys. :hug:

I never considered the Gov. would put a hold on exchanges. doesn't make me feel any better :(

[Buttercup McToots]

70. Research, Research

Explore your options...

No Prob...glad tae provide info if I can...
:hi:

[Ghost Dog]

78. Research, yes. Decision-taking. And good timing.

These are key. :hi:

[Trailrider1951]

98. Well, I'm not a financial advisor

nor do I play one on TV. That said, I do believe that silver is still a good value at $14 an ounce. That's where my money is going. YMMV.


ps I also started buying gold in 2004 at $385 per ounce. I'm buying silver now.

take it for what it's worth.

[DemReadingDU]

113. interesting

Silver is a LOT more affordable compared to gold. I definitely missed the gold train, and way too expensive to get in now, IMO.

So maybe I'll get me a few pieces of silver and see what happens. If silver increases, and gold decreases, I could then sell the silver and buy gold.

:)

[UpInArms]

45. Check-kiting operation in process: Fed adds $6.25 bln in temporary reserves via 3-day repo

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSNYG00083020071102

NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve said on Friday it added $6.25 billion of temporary reserves to the banking system through a 3-day repurchase agreement.

Federal funds were trading steady at 4.56 percent in the market after the operation amount was announced, above the 4.50 percent target rate the Fed sets.

The Fed said collateral accepted in the operation was $4.569 billion in agency debt, $481 million in mortgage-backed securities and $1.2 billion in Treasuries.

A total of $62.85 billion in bids were submitted for the operation.

[UpInArms]

46. 9:58 EST everything coming up snake-eyes

Dow 13,500.40 67.47 (0.50%)
Nasdaq 2,781.99 12.84 (0.46%)
S&P 500 1,498.90 9.54 (0.63%)
10-Yr Bond 4.369% 0.008

NYSE Volume 206,305,484.375
Nasdaq Volume 318,061,781.25

09:15 am : S&P futures vs fair value: +7.7. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +19.0.

09:00 am : S&P futures vs fair value: +8.2. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +19.0. Futures continue to point to a positive opening following the solid employment data. Crude oil is up 0.6% to $94.08 a barrel.

08:33 am : S&P futures vs fair value: +9.2. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +21.3. Futures jump immediately following the employment data. October nonfarm payrolls increased by 166k, which is up from the previous month's reading of 96k. Unemployment came in at 4.7%, hourly earnings increased by 0.2% and the average workweek was 33.8. Economists were expecting the nonfarm payrolls to increase by 80k, a 4.7% unemployment rate, a 0.3% increase in hourly earnings and an average workweek of 33.8.

08:01 am : S&P futures vs fair value: -0.1. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +3.0. Futures point to an opening very close to the unchanged mark. Investors are currently in a wait-and-see mode ahead of the market moving October employment report, which is slated to be released at 8:30 ET.

06:19 am : S&P futures vs fair value: +1.7. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +7.3.

06:18 am : FTSE...6524.40...-61.70...-0.9%. DAX...7811.20...-69.65...-0.9%.

[UpInArms]

49. 10:05 EST redder numbers and screwy Dewey decimals back in the volumes

Dow 13,484.14 83.73 (0.62%)
Nasdaq 2,781.43 13.40 (0.48%)
S&P 500 1,497.44 11.00 (0.73%)
10-Yr Bond 4.361% 0.00

NYSE Volume 232,696,734.375
Nasdaq Volume 365,213,718.75

[antigop]

51. Bank regulator approves new capital rule (cross-post from Economics forum)

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-20677450.htm

A federal banking agency on Thursday approved a rule that would give large U.S. banks more flexibility in managing their credit risk and calculating their capital reserves.

The rule, approved by the Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, implements international standards that are included in the so-called Basel II framework, named after the Swiss city where it was conceived.

The OCC is one of several agencies that needs to approve the rule for it to become effective. The Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of Thrift Supervision must also approve it.

The measure allows banks to calculate specific credit risks for different loans within the same class of credit, OCC officials said.

Kevin Bailey, a spokesman for the OCC, said that under current rules, banks generally must assign the same risk and reserve the same amount of capital for mortgages, for example, whether they are to extended to borrowers with weak credit or strong credit. The new regulation would allow banks to calculate different risk levels among the mortgages, corporate loans, and other types of credit they extend.

[UpInArms]

53. looks like the "regulators" are throwing CitiGroup a lifeline

http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUSN0164492420071101?sp=true

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research) shares fell nearly 7 percent on Thursday after Credit Suisse and CIBC World Markets downgraded the largest U.S. bank, with CIBC citing concern Citi might have to cut its dividend to boost capital.

Amid record composite trading volume, Citi shares fell $2.85 to $38.51, their lowest level since May 2003 and their biggest one-day drop since September 2002, when the company was swamped with regulatory concerns.

The share moves followed another downgrade, by Morgan Stanley on Wednesday, and come amid fears that the bank could face further losses from collateralized debt obligations and other subprime mortgage-related securities.

CIBC analyst Meredith Whitney, who cut her recommendation on the bank to "sector underperformer" from "sector performer," said in a note issued late Wednesday that the bank might have to sell assets, raise capital or cut its dividend to raise $30 billion of capital.

Credit Suisse analyst Susan Katzke, who downgraded the bank to "neutral" from "outperform," said Citi's capital was constrained and expects a more aggressive balance sheet rationalization in the coming months.

...more...

[antigop]

54. My thinking as well. Perhaps a lifeline to some others as well? n/t

[UpInArms]

89. Barclays falls sharply on funding worries

http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUSL026155720071102

LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in Barclays (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research) fell as much as 8 percent to hit two-and-a-half year lows on Friday amid market talk of funding worries and speculation it is telling analysts to trim profit forecasts.

Reviving concerns that hit Britain's third-largest lender this summer, when technical issues twice forced Barclays to tap the Bank of England's emergency reserves, some traders also cited funding concerns and a fresh move to borrow from the bank.

The Bank of England declined to comment on Barclays, but said it had not made any emergency loans via its penalty-rate standing lending facility on Thursday.

Barclays, which issued its latest trading update just three weeks ago, declined to comment on Friday.

At 6:38 a.m. EDT, the stock was down 5.8 percent at 538.5 pence, off earlier lows of 524.5 pence, extending Thursday's losses.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L: Quote, Profile, Research), the other major UK bank with a substantial investment banking business, was down 5 percent, having earlier touched lows of 473.25p, its lowest level since August 2004. Alliance & Leicester (ALLL.L: Quote, Profile, Research), a mortgage bank whose exposure to wholesale funding has seen it battered in the wake of the credit crunch and the near-collapse of Northern Rock (NRK.L: Quote, Profile, Research), was down 4.85 percent.

...more...

[UpInArms]

107. Citi said to hold emergency board meeting

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSWEN233220071102

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc's board of directors is holding an emergency board meeting this weekend, Dow Jones reported on Friday.

The agenda for the meeting was not immediately clear, but the topic of write-downs may come up, the report said

...an insignificant bit more...

[Ghost Dog]

87. Fed approves Basel II rules on risk-based capital requirements for banks

http://www.fxstreet.com/news/forex-news/article.aspx?StoryId=68128328-9e4f-4525-aba2-f5e9ac7bf595

WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - The Federal Reserve Board today approved new rules giving large international banks more flexibility in assessing risk and maintaining enough capital reserves to meet those risks.

In an open meeting today, the Fed approved the so-called Basel II rules, and said the rules should help make these large banks more competitive overall.

"Basel II is a modern, risk-sensitive capital standard that will protect the safety and soundness of our large, complex, internationally active banking organizations," Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said. "The new framework is designed to evolve over time and adapt to innovations in banking and financial markets, a significant improvement from the current system."

The new rules will only be mandatory for banks with at least 250 mln usd in total assets or 10 bln usd in foreign exposure, and optional for others. Rules are currently still being formulated for smaller banks.

The rule is expected to apply immediately to Citigroup, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wachovia, Wells Fargo, and Washington Mutual.

...

"To ensure that banks maintain strong capital ratios, we will diligently monitor Basel II during every step of its implementation," Fed Governor Randall Kroszner said today.

"Our goal is for banks to have strong risk-based capital ratios that are substantially more representative of risk profiles, and more sensitive to changes in those risk profiles than they are today," Kroszner added. "If our analysis shows that any part of this goal is not being met, we will consider ways to improve the framework."

/.. Basel II has been a long time in the (international) works. As to why the US finally decides to approve just now... would, I suppose perhaps have something to do with, as we say in Spain, the actual implementation (Hecha la ley, hecha la trampa).

[antigop]

55. Coming to Wall Street -- a $10B hit

http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/02/news/companies/bank_writedowns/index.htm?postversion=2007110210

Banks are likely to mark down another $10 billion of mortgage assets in the fourth quarter, according to one analyst's estimates.

Deutsche Bank analyst Michael Mayo said in a note Thursday that banks and brokerages are likely to see their earnings pressured through the rest of 2007.
banks_profits1.03.jpg

Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. (Charts, Fortune 500) and Citibank Inc. (Charts, Fortune 500) are expected to be hit the hardest. Mayo estimated each bank would write down $4 billion in the fourth quarter.

He said Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. (Charts, Fortune 500), Morgan Stanley (Charts, Fortune 500), Bank of America Corp. (Charts, Fortune 500) and Wachovia Corp. (Charts, Fortune 500) are also likely to take markdowns.

Banks have taken massive third-quarter writedowns due to losses from risky mortgage securities. Merrill Lynch reported $7.9 billion of losses tied to these assets, and Citi took a $2.2 billion writedown due to mortgage-backed securities and credit trading.

[Ghost Dog]

69. That reminds me. There was also this:

Citic Securities Rises by Limit on Bear Stearns Deal
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601089&sid=a1h52S2Y2FpY&refer=china

Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Citic Securities Co., Asia's largest brokerage by market value, jumped by the 10 percent daily limit on its first day of trading in Shanghai since announcing a $1 billion cross-investment with Bear Stearns Cos.

The Beijing-based company, whose shares have been suspended since Oct. 22, climbed to a record 116.52 yuan at 2:47 p.m. local time, valuing it at $51.7 billion. During the trading halt, Citic Securities also reported a more than eightfold increase in third- quarter profit.

Citic has reaped more revenue from trading fees as Chinese individuals piled into stocks, sending the benchmark CSI 300 index up 170 percent this year. The Bear Stearns deal may bolster Citic's capabilities in areas such as bond issuance and trading in structured products, and help it secure more work advising cross-border mergers involving Chinese companies.

The tie-up ``will globalize Citic Securities and improve its competitiveness,'' said Liang Jing, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities Co. in Shanghai. ``China needs to cultivate an internationalized investment banking firm to help its companies with mergers and acquisitions abroad.''

Bear Stearns, the investment bank that's been hit the hardest by the global subprime crisis, said Oct. 22 that Citic Securities will spend $1 billion to obtain the equivalent of 6 percent of its shares, while it will invest the same amount in Citic to form a strategic partnership.

Citic Securities shares have soared more than eightfold in the past year, propelling the company past Nomura Holdings Inc. as Asia's largest securities firm by market value. On Nov. 25, it said third-quarter profit jumped to 4.15 billion yuan from a restated 494.7 billion yuan a year earlier.

About 43 percent of Citic Securities' revenue came from buying and selling stocks for clients, making it vulnerable should China's equity market eventually collapse, as forecast by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan this week.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yidi Zhao in Beijing at at [e-mail]

[Buttercup McToots]

57. Karl Rove coming up on CNBC...

what do you think he's gonna say?
:eyes:

[Roland99]

62. Well, CNBC was pushing the "Will tax cuts hurt Wall St?" meme this morning

sooo....I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict Turd Blossom farts out some smelly tax and spend gas.

[Hugin]

64. I won't be watching...

:eyes:

Why can't they do some incisive interviews... Like asking a fly why it likes, um... Nevermind.

[AnneD]

58. An interesting bon bon........

Five board members to resign in anger
Dallas company chairman accused of 'bullying' and 'thuggery'


Five board directors at Affiliated Computer Services have agreed to step down, even as they accused the company's chairman of "bullying and thuggery," according to letters released Thursday.

ACS Chairman Darwin Deason had asked the directors to quit over an aborted $6.2 billion deal to sell the Dallas-based company to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, accusing them of having lost the support of shareholders.
<snip>

$6.2 billion Cerberus offer
In a letter, Deason also named nominees to replace the directors, saying, "The board has come under increasing shareholder criticism for its failure to consummate a transaction based on the Cerberus offer or present a superior strategic alternative."

<snip>

In a strongly worded letter, the directors accused Deason, who made the offer for ACS with Cerberus Capital, of launching a "carefully choreographed power play."

"Your ultimatum: resign in one hour or I will go to the press and smear your reputations — was a remarkable piece of bullying and thuggery, and it almost worked," the letter said.

<snip>


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5267029.html


It goes on to say that Cerberus and Deason abandon the deal when they couldn't get funding. I think it might have been that the board didn't roll over and play dead as expected...but what do I know.

[Hugin]

63. The nougat center is the best part...

:9

"Cerberus and Deason abandon the deal when they couldn't get funding" <-- They keep blaming the so-called 'sub-prime'
borrower for the problems in the financial sector. I have a belief these shady mega-mergers by what can only be called
Corporate Raiders (hearkening back to the 1980s slice-n-dice operations) have contributed greatly to the problem. Look,
it's all the same players as the S&L collapse. ALL THE SAME PLAYERS...

Cerberus is nothing more than a slice&dice loot&pillage operation. They use questionable financing to move into
an industry where they have no experience... Loot the pension fund and any other assets and then catch the next
private jet out of town.

Keep an eye on Chrysler.

[AnneD]

65. Thanks for mentioning the chewy center....

Gives a good insight as to how Cerberus works these deals......Actually, I don't liken it so much to the old corporate raiders as I do to the folks that flip houses. They buy a business, take it private (that way the Gov. and WS rules don't apply), borrow against it to take their profit upfront, schedule the debt and the terms of the IPO so they still have controlling interest...and offer up IPO's to a gullible and greedy WS. It's a slick way to make a profit but a bad way to run a business....but then again the motive was never to actually 'RUN' the business.

[DemReadingDU]

115. Cerberus also owns 51% GMAC

News of GMAC in the SMW thread yesterday
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3049949

[AnneD]

60. KBR's quarter is a mixed bag

Iraq contracts help boost profit, but other units see flat results....




KBR's third-quarter profit surged from a year ago in part from its military contracts in Iraq, but its energy and chemicals arm reported flat results. Its share price fell sharply.

The Houston-based military contractor and construction and engineering outfit, a former Halliburton Co. subsidiary, said Thursday its earnings jumped to $63 million, or 37 cents per share, for the three months that ended Sept. 30. That compared with earnings of $7 million, or 5 cents per share, a year ago.

The latest results included an $18 million gain from the sale of interest in an Algerian joint venture.

The company said income from continuing operations rose to $60 million, or 35 cents per share, in the most-recent period versus a loss of $8 million, or 6 cents per share.



http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5266854.html

Somethings speak for themselves

:-(

[Hugin]

66. Industries paid for top regulators' travel -- WP

"Heads of product safety agency took trips from manufacturers, lobbyists"


"By Elizabeth Williamson

updated 1:56 a.m. MT, Fri., Nov. 2, 2007
The chief of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and her predecessor have taken dozens of trips at the expense of the toy, appliance and children's furniture industries and others they regulate, according to internal records obtained by The Washington Post. Some of the trips were sponsored by lobbying groups and lawyers representing the makers of products linked to consumer hazards.

The records document nearly 30 trips since 2002 by the agency's acting chairman, Nancy Nord, and the previous chairman, Hal Stratton, that were paid for in full or in part by trade associations or manufacturers of products ranging from space heaters to disinfectants. The airfares, hotels and meals totaled nearly $60,000, and the destinations included China, Spain, San Francisco, New Orleans and a golf resort on Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Notable among the trips -- commonly described by officials as "gift travel" -- was an 11-day visit to China and Hong Kong in 2004 by Stratton, then chairman. The $11,000 trip was paid for by the American Fireworks Standards Laboratory, an industry group based in an office suite in Bethesda whose only laboratories are in Asia."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21589678/

______________________________________________

Yup, all tied up like a bow... and here we are trying to figure out the markets. The game is rigged. Regulation is
an empty word under the current Corporatist Regime.

Edit: Added link. :blush:

[AnneD]

68. Power plant to capture carbon dioxide

A Houston-area power plant will become the site of a project to capture large amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide — up to 1 million tons per year — so that it can be stored underground or used for enhanced oil recovery.

NRG Energy, the owner and operator of the W.A. Parish power plant near Sugar Land, will work with Powerspan Corp. to install the system, which will use an ammonia-based solution to capture CO2 from the power plant's exhaust and release it in a form that is ready for transportation and permanent underground storage.

While CO2 capture has been tested on a small scale, on power plants generating between one and five megawatts of power, the Parish plant project will be done on a 125 megawatt unit, making it the largest such project in the world, according to the companies.

The W.A. Parish plant produces about 20 million tons of CO2 annually.

CO2, one of the byproducts of burning coal for power production, is considered by many to be one of the main components of human-caused climate change.

For decades CO2 has been used to push more oil out of older oil fields, but a number of smaller scale projects are under way to test the long-term storage of it in underground formations.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5268005.html

Sounds like it is worth a looksie......

[Buttercup McToots]

72. YEAH!!!!

$800

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[Hugin]

75. Meanwhile: The markets doggedly claw their way back up to... Meh.

@ ~12:30 EDT...

Index Last Change % change
• DJIA 13532.43 -35.44 -0.26%
• NASDAQ 2799.17 +4.34 +0.16%
• S&P 500 1503.74 -4.70 -0.31%

[TrogL]

84. Loonie Watch

Highlights

Current:



30-day and 90-day vs.greenback:



30-day vs. Euro, Yen, UK Pound and Swiss Franc




Currency Comparison: http://members.shaw.ca/trogl/looniewatch.html

Detailed analysis: http://quotes.ino.com/exchanges/?r=CME_CD

Up-to-the-minute graph: http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=CME_CD.Y%24%24&v=s&w=5&t=l&a=1

Historical values http://www.x-rates.com/d/USD/CAD/data30.html

2007-09-21 Friday, September 21 0.999201 USD
2007-09-24 Monday, September 24 0.998901 USD
2007-09-25 Tuesday, September 25 0.9995 USD
2007-09-26 Wednesday, September 26 0.99552 USD
2007-09-27 Thursday, September 27 0.99691 USD
2007-09-28 Friday, September 28 1.00412 USD
2007-10-01 Monday, October 1 1.00715 USD
2007-10-02 Tuesday, October 2 0.9998 USD
2007-10-03 Wednesday, October 3 1.00392 USD
2007-10-04 Thursday, October 4 1.002 USD
2007-10-05 Friday, October 5 1.01885 USD
2007-10-08 Monday, October 8 1.01885 USD
2007-10-09 Tuesday, October 9 1.01564 USD
2007-10-10 Wednesday, October 10 1.01906 USD
2007-10-11 Thursday, October 11 1.02627 USD
2007-10-12 Friday, October 12 1.02701 USD
2007-10-15 Monday, October 15 1.02501 USD
2007-10-16 Tuesday, October 16 1.0227 USD
2007-10-17 Wednesday, October 17 1.02712 USD
2007-10-18 Thursday, October 18 1.02743 USD
2007-10-19 Friday, October 19 1.03767 USD
2007-10-22 Monday, October 22 1.01926 USD
2007-10-23 Tuesday, October 23 1.03381 USD
2007-10-24 Wednesday, October 24 1.02987 USD
2007-10-25 Thursday, October 25 1.03381 USD
2007-10-26 Friday, October 26 1.03961 USD
2007-10-29 Monday, October 29 1.04745 USD
2007-10-30 Tuesday, October 30 1.04888 USD
2007-10-31 Wednesday, October 31 1.05307 USD
2007-11-01 Thursday, November 1 1.05296 USD
2007-11-02 Friday, November 2 1.06838 USD


Current values

http://quotes.ino.com/exchanges/?r=CME_CD)

Market         Open   High    Low   Last  Change    Pct 
CD.Y$$ Cash     1.0685 1.0699 1.0679 1.0699 +0.0140 +1.33% 
CD.Z07 Dec 2007 1.0678 1.0725 1.0667 1.0700 +0.0142 +1.34% 
CD.H08 Mar 2008 1.0685 1.0704 1.0678 1.0704 +0.0144 +1.36% 
CD.M08 Jun 2008 1.0515 1.0552 1.0511 1.0558 -0.0011 -0.10% 
CD.U08 Sep 2008 1.0525        1.0525 1.0555 -0.0011 -0.10% 
CD.Z08 Dec 2008 1.0501 1.0550 1.0500 1.0550 -0.0011 -0.10% 
CD.H09 Mar 2009 1.0055 1.0060 1.0050 1.0545 -0.0011 -0.10% 

Other combinations: (http://quotes.ino.com/exchanges/?c=currencies)

Market              Open    High     Low    Last   Change     Pct 
AUSTRALIAN $/CANADIAN $ (NYBOT:AS)
ACD.Z07 Dec 2007 0.8671 0.8671 0.8671 0.8671 -0.0138 -1.59%  
AUSTRALIAN $/US$ (NYBOT:AU)
AU.Z07 Dec 2007 0.91585 0.91585 0.91585 0.91585 -0.01485 -1.62%  
CANADIAN $/JAPANESE YEN (NYBOT:HY)
HY.Z07 Dec 2007 121.770 121.770 121.770 121.770 +1.215 +1.01%  
EURO/AUSTRALIAN $ (NYBOT:RA)
RA.Z07 Dec 2007 1.5560 1.5560 1.5560 1.5797 +0.0217 +1.39%  
EURO/BRITISH POUND (NYBOT:GB)
GB.Z07 Dec 2007 0.69590 0.69720 0.69590 0.69660 +0.00115 +0.17%   
EURO/CANADIAN $ (NYBOT:EP)
EP.Z07 Dec 2007 1.35700 1.35700 1.35700 1.35700 -0.01425 -1.04%  
EURO/JAPANESE YEN (NYBOT:EJ)
EJ.Z07 Dec 2007 165.39 166.24 165.25 165.50 +0.18 +0.11%   
EURO/US$ (LARGE) (NYBOT:EU)
EU.Z07 Dec 2007 1.44910 1.44910 1.44910 1.44910 +0.00235 +0.16%  

Blather (from http://quotes.ino.com/exchanges/?r=CME_CD)

The December Canadian Dollar was higher overnight as it extends this fall's rally into uncharted territory. Stochastics and the RSI are overbought but are neutral to bullish signaling that sideways to higher prices are possible near-term. Upside targets are hard to project as December extends this fall's rally into uncharted territory. Closes below the 20-day moving average crossing at 1.0336 would confirm that a short-term top has been posted. First resistance is the overnight high crossing at 1.0657. First support is the 10-day moving average crossing at 1.0436. Second support is the 20-day moving average at crossing at 1.0336.

Analysis

Remember the loonie broke $1.06 yesterday? It's currently sitting above $1.07.

The morning drive-in economist is sitting in the corner in a straightjacket, refusing to speak. The rest are also passing over in silence.

[Spazito]

85. While the focus has been on the Canadian dollar vs the US dollar....

this CTV article has finally stated what many people (Canadians included) did not know and that is the fact:

The Canadian dollar, already the world's best-performing major currency this year, rose as high as $1.0717 Friday from Thursday's close of $1.0512.

The currency has soared 25 per cent this year against the greenback — and almost 7 per cent in the past month alone. The gains are most striking against the U.S. dollar, but the loonie is also stronger against every single major world currency this year, including the euro, the yen and the Brazilian real.

http://ctv2.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071102.wloonie1102/business/Business/businessBN/ctv-business

I have to confess my focus had been on the competing dollars and was unaware of the above info.

[Ghost Dog]

91. Resource/Commodity Currency

+ contemporary US & global anti-dollar market psychology.

[Amonester]

93. Yes, but it's just too fast. Thousands of small "shops" struggle.

Selling most of their products abroad is getting more and more difficult each day.

Watch out for layoffs en masse. :(

[Spazito]

101. According to this article, those who have lost jobs in one sector are finding jobs in others...

Canada's economy is churning out not only more but also better jobs, with layoffs in manufacturing being offset by the creation of high-quality work in other sectors, a Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce report released Monday said.

snip

The improvement in job quality comes amid the well-documented woes of Canada's manufacturing industry. Pummelled by the soaring Canadian dollar, many manufacturers have been forced to cut jobs, leaving thousands of people out of work, many of them in Ontario.

However, Benjamin Tal, a CIBC economist and author of the report, said in Canada “the loss of manufacturing jobs is being offset by job gains in sectors with equivalent and higher employment quality.”

The CIBC report listed the low and high-paying sectors that gained and lost work in the first three quarters of the year. Rental and leasing services, clothing manufacturing, textile product mills, furniture manufacturing, and plastic and rubber manufacturing were among the low-paying sectors where job creation stalled. But jobs popped up in other, high-paying industries such public administration, oil and gas extraction, computer and electronic manufacturing, municipal administration, motor vehicle and parts wholesaler distribution, as well as non-store retailing.

more

http://ctv2.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071029.wjob_quality1029/business/Business/businessBN/ctv-business

[Amonester]

104. Yes, but those who lost their "low-paying" sectors' jobs are not qualified

(or considered"too old" at forty-five plus (!!)...) to apply for the "new" (if true...) "high-paying" industries' jobs.

Unless many "upper-level" management "snobs" decide to "give them a chance" by training them "on the job" because I heard they have a hard time finding enough "not too old already and qualified" workers.

[Spazito]

106. Not accurate, there are jobs to be found, for example....

Alberta is crying for workers of ANY age, offering signing bonuses even for the most basic service jobs as well as for the higher-paying jobs. As to "if true", the statistics speak for themselves as to job creation adding to that the jobs are full time positions and not part time.

I can only assume you are providing an opinion and not facts due to the lack of links to back up your statements. If you have links that would provide data different from those I have put in my previous posts, I would appreciate the opportunity to read them.

[TrogL]

108. Stores are closing here

...because they can't get employees.

I drive around the industrial area on the south side of Edmonton and every damn business has a help wanted sign up with dust on it.

[Spazito]

109. Exactly, the jobs are there which was my point to the previous

poster. It is not a lack of jobs but, rather the opposite, in Alberta anyway, it is a surplus of jobs available versus the number of people seeking employment.

[Amonester]

97. OTOH...

I wouldn't be surprised to start hearing about National Hockey League players wanting to get paid (or "overpaid") in former-Monopoly money (Canadian dollars) instead of in all the new-Monopoly money.

Watch for a general strike in the NHL? :rofl:

[Ghost Dog]

99. Did Romney up taxes or close loopholes?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071102/ap_po/romney_tax_loopholes;_ylt=AjEIKmYhh4eANiT8osRtVGas0NUE

BOSTON - Mitt Romney's Harvard MBA and gold-plated resume convinced many business leaders he would follow in the tradition of corporate-friendly Republicans when he was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2002.

Within three years, some had a vastly different opinion, after Romney's efforts raised the tax bill on businesses by $300 million as part of a multifaceted plan to eliminate a state budget deficit estimated from $2.5 billion to $3 billion.

Romney, who is now running for president declaring he never raised taxes as governor, says he merely closed "loopholes" in the tax code. Business leaders see things differently. "These certainly were tax increases and a new source of revenue for the commonwealth," said Brian Gilmore, executive vice president of Associated Industries of Massachusetts, the state's largest business lobbying group. "His indicating that he balanced a budget without raising taxes is misleading at best," Gilmore added. "We respectfully disagree."

Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said the loophole closings were more about tax enforcement than tax increases. "In cases where companies were using aggressive accounting to escape their tax liability in a way that was never intended by the law, we closed those loopholes," he said.

...

One of the biggest tax "loopholes" identified by Romney were real estate investment trust subsidiaries created by banks to hold mortgages. Parent banks received dividend income from the trusts and took advantage of deductions to lower their state taxes.

"The biggest loophole closing involved banks that were calling themselves real estate companies in order to avoid bank taxes," Fehrnstrom said. "Those were the types of abuses we stopped. That's called tax enforcement."

...

Businesses were also angry at Romney's incremental approach to tighten those laws.

Romney proposed such "loophole" closures over three successive years, but he hit a wall in 2005. Pressure from business leaders forced him to cut in half a proposal for $170 million in tax loophole closures. He also had to abandon a plan to give the state's top revenue officials authority to pursue corporations that lowered their tax bills by transferring profits outside Massachusetts.

"The thing that was irritating about it is that he kept coming back the following year. At that point, I was thinking, 'You already had your shot at the apple,'" said Bill Vernon, state director for the National Federation of Independent Business. "When you continue to do that, it has a negative impact on business."

/...

[Ghost Dog]

100. Nb. As regards "Commonwealth":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth

The English noun commonwealth dates originally from the fifteenth century. The original phrase "common wealth" or "the common weal" comes from the old meaning of "wealth" which is "well-being". The term literally meant "common well-being". Thus commonwealth originally meant a state or nation-state governed for the common good as opposed to an authoritarian state governed for the benefit of a given class of owners. The word was a calque on the Latin word res publica meaning "public affairs" or "the state", from which the English word republic arises.

[Ghost Dog]

102. Nb. re. Calque:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-CALQUE.html

CALQUE
From: Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language | Date: 1998 | Author: TOM McARTHUR
Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language

CALQUE, also LOAN TRANSLATION. A word or other expression formed by translating from another language, such as Shaw's superman (1903), from German Übermensch (as used by Nietzsche in 1883). The Romans calqued freely from Greek; from poiótēs (suchness), posótēs (muchness), they formed qualitas and quantitas. Calques are often used for ad hoc glossing, as with ‘suchness’ and ‘muchness’ above. Sometimes, a Greek original and its Latin calque have both entered English: apátheia and its calque indolentia provide English with both apathy and indolence. Calques are often formed from compounds in a source language: for example, German Weltanschauung becoming English ‘world-view’. They may also consist of entire translated phrases, such as ‘Time flies’ from Latin Tempus fugit and ‘that goes without saying’ from French cela va sans dire. See BORROWING, FOREIGNISM, LOAN.

[Ghost Dog]

103. Nota Bene:

:evilgrin: :smoke:

[UpInArms]

110. ending the mess with no Dewey decimals

Dow 13,595.10 27.23 (0.20%)
Nasdaq 2,810.38 15.55 (0.56%)
S&P 500 1,509.65 1.21 (0.08%)
10-Yr Bond 4.291% 0.07

NYSE Volume 4,285,059,000
Nasdaq Volume 2,473,391,250

4:25 pm : Market bulls got the news they were waiting for on Friday when the October jobs report turned out to be better than expected. The data fueled some opening gains, but then was quickly relegated to an afterthought amid renewed concerns about the financial sector's prospects.

Once again, Merrill Lynch (MER 57.28, -4.91) was at the epicenter of the concerns as it got rocked by a Wall Street Journal article that suggested the investment bank was working with hedge funds in an attempt to delay taking losses on its mortgage-backed securities. In essence, the article insinuated that Merrill Lynch might be trying to hide the losses from investors, which evoked bad memories about the Enron scandal.

As if the Journal article wasn't enough, Deutsche Securities downgraded Merrill Lynch to Hold from Buy amid its concerns that new write-downs for collateralized debt obligations could approach $10 billion.

Merrill Lynch eventually defended itself against the Journal article, saying it had no reason to believe that any such inappropriate transactions occurred since that would be a clear violation of Merrill Lynch policy.

The defense helped stem some of the bleeding in the financial sector, which was down as much as 3.4 percent at one point, but it didn't do much to aid Merrill's stock. On a related note, there were rumors circulating that Goldman Sachs (GS 229.60, -10.61) might be announcing a large write-down, but Goldman Sachs told CNBC those rumors were not true.

By the end of the session, the financial sector (-1.5%) managed to cut its losses in half. Famed value investor Bill Miller of Legg Mason played a part in that happening as he was quoted as saying some of the greatest gains over the next five years will be in securities people are panicked about today (i.e., financials).

Also, there was a late report from CNBC, citing Dow Jones, that Citigroup (C 37.73, -0.78) was going to be holding an emergency board meeting over the weekend. Details of the meeting were not mentioned, but it was assumed that it might lead to a change in leadership at the troubled bank. That assumption was reflected in Citigroup's stock price, which pared its losses in the final hour.

The rebound in the financials helped the broader market recover from its morning lows, which were established with losses of 121, 21 and 16 points, respectively, for the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P. By the closing bell, though, all three major indices were back in positive territory.

Outside of the financial sector, there were several pockets of strength. The technology sector (+0.9%) was one such area as it refused to relinquish its leadership post thanks to the relative strength of large-cap issues.

The energy sector (+1.1%) was the best-performing area Friday, as it garnered support from a 2.6 percent gain in oil prices to $95.93 per barrel.

The jump in oil prices came in the wake of the jobs report that suggested the U.S. economy is still holding up quite well despite the troubles in the housing and credit markets. That consideration translated into an expectation that demand for energy will remain high.

With respect to the employment report, the government reported that nonfarm payrolls rose 166,000 in October while September payrolls were revised down slightly to 96,000 (from 110,000). The unemployment rate held steady at 4.7 percent as did the average workweek at 33.8 hours. Hourly earnings, meanwhile, were up just 0.2 percent versus an expectation for an increase of 0.3 percent.

Despite the solid growth indication from the employment report, the Treasury market moved higher as it benefited from a flight-to-quality trade that followed the downturn in the financial sector. Separately, the dollar lost ground again Friday, which provided a boost to a number of commodities, including gold which traded up 1.9 percent to $815.20 per ounce.
DJ30 +27.23 NASDAQ +15.55 SP500 +1.21 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1482/1488/2.46 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1720/1516/1.72 bln

3:30 pm : Going into the last half-hour of trading, the market continues to be volatile as the Nasdaq makes it back into the green. The VIX Index, which measures volatility, is up 3.1% today.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg.com reports that the risk of owning the debt of Merrill Lynch (MER 55.85, -6.35) and Citigroup (C 36.98, -1.53) rose to the highest in at least five years on speculation that losses from the mortgage-market collapse will worsen.

Next week, the market will have another barrage of earnings reports to process. Cisco (CSCO 34.42, +0.24) is the headliner in the coming week, although the reports from AIG (AIG 57.91, -1.39), Time Warner (TWX 17.75, -0.25), Walt Disney (DIS 33.56, -0.24), News Corp. (NWS.A 21.05, -0.29 ), Qualcomm (QCOM 41.41, +0.13), General Motors (GM 36.82, -0.46) and Ford (F 8.82, +0.32) will also command added attention.

The economy will remain a hot topic of debate with Fed Chairman Bernanke adding to the debate on Thursday with testimony on the U.S. economic outlook before the Joint Economic Committee. DJ30 -34.51 NASDAQ +7.36 SP500 -5.88 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1723/1225/2.04 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 2032/1190/1.29 bln