STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday 9 December

Buy 'Em Now!

We’re in the golden age of corporate America, and you simply must have your share of it. You must take advantage of the buying opportunity of a lifetime. Stocks are cheap and you should buy ‘em. Corporate profits have never been better, dividends never higher, balance sheets never cleaner, and as an added bonus, the corporate indiscretions of the bubble era have been totally purged from the system. CEO’s now sign off on company’s financial statements. The system is clean and neat and not only has corporate profit never been better, the prospects for the future has never been better either. The only way to benefit from the good fortune of the best-of-breed corporations is to own the stocks of these well run companies. The bear market is finally over and you should buy stocks. This economy is great!

To not buy stocks would be to risk missing out on the benefits of compounding and the investing opportunity of a lifetime. A 40-year-old investing one hundred thousand dollars today and returning a conservative 10% per year in stocks would be worth about a million dollars at age 65. (This assumes no additional savings which is a good assumption). With social security in trouble, you can’t afford not to buy stocks now!

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The sadistic and negative crowd suggests that there is something unhealthy about the red hot real estate market. I just don’t see their point which makes no sense. What’s so bad about a bull market in real estate? History has shown that except for a few pauses, real estate basically always goes up. Why should next year be any different than the last few? A bull market is a bull market, and if my net worth is increasing via my home, what’s so bad about that? And if new and innovative mortgage products afford more Americans the opportunity to own a home, why should I quibble? Isn’t America the land of innovation anyway?

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Inverted yield curve. So what? Buy stocks now! Forgetaboutit! Buy ‘em now!

HA! HA! There's more.

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

"Stocks are cheap and you should buy ‘em. Corporate profits have never been better, dividends never higher." Are we in the roaring 2000?

Housing Bubble Bursts in U.S. Mortgage Bond Market

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=nifea&&sid=a2P0e3wlzcg8

Bonds backed by home loans to the riskiest borrowers, the fastest growing part of the $7.6 trillion mortgage market, have lost about 2.5 percent since September on concern an 18-month rise in interest rates may force more than 150,000 consumers to default.

``We've been hearing about risks of a house price bubble, easy credit and loans to borrowers that really don't qualify, and now in the last couple of months we're starting to see things turn for the worse,'' said Joseph Auth, a bond fund manager who helps oversee $135 billion at Standish Mellon Asset Management in Boston. ``We don't know if it's going to be a hard or soft landing.''

Mortgage securities with low ratings and loans from Ameriquest Mortgage Co. and New Century Financial Corp., two Irvine, California-based companies that specialize in lending to the 50 million people with histories of late payments and bankruptcies, yield the most in two years. The rise in yields reduced the value of loans made by lenders, resulting in lower profit margins and higher rates for consumers with bad credit.

The slump in the bonds is one of the first signs the housing boom is ending after the Federal Reserve's 12 interest- rate increases. Real estate has accounted for about half the economy's growth since 2001, according to Merrill Lynch & Co.

Growing Market

About 13.4 percent of all mortgages at the end of June were to borrowers considered most likely to default, such as those with high credit card balances, up from 2.4 percent in 1998, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The Washington- based trade group's 2,700 members represent 70 percent of the home-loan business.

The amount of bonds backed by these high-risk loans has more than doubled since 2001, to a record $476 billion, according to the Bond Market Association, a New York-based trade group of more than 200 securities firms.

more...

:sarcasm:

SINGAPORE - Natural gas prices rose to a new record Friday as a winter storm hit the northern United States, while crude and heating oil prices also gained amid expectations for strong demand.

Natural gas for January on the New York Mercantile Exchange reached a new intraday high of $15.52 per 1,000 cubic feet in Asian trading before slipping back to $15.351 per 1,000 cubic feet, up nearly 36 cents. The contract had closed at $14.994 overnight, also a new record.

Nymex crude was also higher. Light, sweet crude oil for January delivery surged 58 cents to $61.24 a barrel in midday electronic trading in Europe.

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"The price rise is all based on forecasts of cold weather to hit large portions of the United States," said Victor Shum, a Singapore-based analyst at energy consultants Purvin & Gertz. "The weather affects natural gas, but the (trading) psychology also affects the oil market."

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rose more than a dollar on Thursday, breaking well above $60 a barrel as an arctic chill gripped the heating markets of the eastern United States.

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The gains came as a cold spell fired up furnaces from the U.S. Midwest to the eastern seaboard in a trend that forecasters said could linger for another two weeks.

"We had a warm start to the winter but now it is starting to look a bit ugly. The focus will be on cold weather for some time to come," said Craig Pennington, global energy portfolio manager at Schroders.

more

10:13am 12/09/05 JAN CRUDE FALLS 26C TO $60.40/BRL IN EARLY NY TRADING

10:13am 12/09/05 JAN NATURAL GAS LOSES 21.4C, OR 1.4%, TO $14.78/MLN BTUS

Despite Bush's Optimism on Reconstruction, Iraq Headed for Less Oil Production in 2005 Than '04

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/051208/iraq_oil.html?.v=2

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Despite President Bush's optimism on Iraq's reconstruction, the country appears set to pump less crude in 2005 than last year's disappointing showing and far less than under Saddam Hussein.

The only bright spot for Iraq's oil sector, hampered by unrelenting insurgent attacks on its infrastructure, is that near-record oil prices have softened the blow by boosting export earnings.

"The general integrity of Iraqi oil infrastructure appears to us to be heading backwards rather than forwards," London-based Barclay's Capital said in a report issued Thursday.

The attacks have made it all but impossible to attract foreign expertise needed to rejuvenate Iraq's rusty oil infrastructure, drill new wells or take any number of steps toward increasing production or exports.

Legal disputes between Iraq's provinces and central government about ownership of oil is also keeping investors away, said Jamal Qureshi, an oil analyst with PFC Energy in Washington.

more...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The expected downturn in the housing market could end up costing 800,000 construction and finance jobs, putting a big dent in economic growth over the next two years, a report from UCLA said.

But even with economic growth slowing as much as 1 or 2 percentage points, the nation should be able to avoid a recession, according to the widely watched report from UCLA Anderson Forecast.

The authors of the report admitted that they had forecast earlier this year that the slowdown in the housing market was going to start in mid-2005, which now looks like it was a little premature. But they noted that recent reports from home builders, real estate agents and the government indicate the slowdown may have now begun.

The report, released Wednesday, forecast a loss of 500,000 construction jobs and 300,000 jobs in the financial services sector from the housing slowdown, but noted that job losses would not spread across many industries, other than some limited pullbacks in manufacturing.

more...

Report: Speculators could hasten the real estate cool-off by putting properties on the market.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/12/07/news/economy/housing_investments/index.htm

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Recent economic data may point to a cooling housing market and some investors are already dashing for the exits, according to a news report published Wednesday.

Speaking with real estate brokers and analysts from such hot real estate markets as Las Vegas, Miami and Washington, D.C., The Wall Street Journal reported that fewer people are buying property as an investment vehicle.

A researcher at Arizona State University told the paper that in the hot market of Phoenix, as many as 30 percent of the properties for sale on the market right now are owned by investors, while Sandra Geary, a real estate broker in Sonoma County in California said that her sales to investors have dipped by over 75 percent.

"Now that the market is slowing down, it's scaring investors away," Geary told the Journal.

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If demand by investors weakens, that could hasten any slowdown in the market, David Berson, chief economist at Fannie Mae told the Journal. According to his estimates, home sales will fall by 10.4 percent over the next two years due to a drop in the number of investors and the number of second home purchases. :popcorn:

more...

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/print_story.asp?print=1&guid={6A5F04FE-3B84-4131-B4D8-436569ADE73E}&siteid=mktw

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Talk about well timed.

As concerns grow over a slowdown in the recently booming U.S. housing market, new financial products are becoming available that help companies, professional investors and even regular folk to hedge themselves against movements in home prices.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the world's largest futures exchange, is plans to introduce new contracts in April tied to home prices in ten cities including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Earlier this year, online derivatives exchange HedgeStreet introduced contracts based on the future median price of single-family homes in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Diego and San Francisco, as published by the National Association of Realtors. See full story.

The U.S. residential real estate market is worth almost $19 trillion, according to Federal Reserve data, making it bigger than the stock market and almost as large as the fixed income market.

But unlike equity and bond markets, until now there's been no liquid market or other efficient way to hedge the risks of movements in real estate. The lack of such tools has become more evident as the recent housing boom has pushed the industry into an even more prominent role in the U.S. economy.

The CME's contracts are mainly designed for companies whose fortunes are tied to real estate markets, such construction firms, developers, mortgage lenders and real estate investment trusts, Craig Donohue, chief executive of the exchange said.

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These people need to check in to the nearest Gamblers Anonymous meeting. :eyes:

I know a tool I'd like to liquidate.

-excerpt-

"I made a lot of life decisions based on the way things were supposed to be," she says, in between bites of an omelet at Toshi's, a diner near the Delphi plant. "Now they want to take half away from us."

What's playing out here in America's automotive alley may be the last gasp of the assumption that good factory jobs will last a lifetime. And workers here see it as something more: a warning that the American dream itself is at risk.

The outlines of the challenge go beyond the auto industry, they say - global competition, shrinking union bargaining power, an eroding industrial base. If middle-class paychecks continue to be clipped, they wonder, what will drive the economy forward? What tax revenue will the government have?

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Such views are fed, in part, by the circumstances around them. As lifelong residents of this area, Mary and Neil remember the Flint of their youth, then known as "Buick City," as a kind of automotive boomtown. GM employed as many as 80,000 workers in a city with a population barely twice that number, propelling prosperity far beyond the city limits.

more...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1208/p01s03-usec.html

for their future. We can't anymore. There's absolutely NO certainty.

Have I mentioned lately how much I HATE republicans???


:donut: Good mornin' Ozy! I can't wait to see what this new day brings!!! :bounce:


:kick:

:donut: and lurkers. Well, I hope you all make the Stock Watch thread a frequent viewing. I suspect we will be having some really 'exciting' times, complete with many 'surprised' economists, upper middle class suffering financial lose, and middle class inching closer to poverty. Loved the barker's call to the Wall St. side show tent. When they start barking about how great things are.....they need fresh suckers. So, hold on to your wallet friends.
Happy hunting and watch out for the bears.

http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=NYBOT_DXY0

Last trade 91.28 Change +0.02 (+0.02%)

Dollar Slides as Weather Cools

http://www.dailyfx.com/story/dailyfx_reports/daily_fundamentals/5368_dollar_slides_as_weather.html

US Dollar
Watching the price action in the dollar over the past six days has been very similar to watching a child on a see-saw – two days of losses reversed by one day of gains. There was little to drive the weakness in the dollar today aside from a larger than expected jobless claims report. Initially predicted to dip to 318k from an upwardly revised 321k, claims actually increased to 327k. Although it may be tempting to call the latest move in the EUR/USD a bottom, especially since we reported this morning that our FXCM Speculative Sentiment Index flipped into net short territory, until we get a break of the 11/28 high at 1.1903, it may still be too early to confirm that we are seeing one. With the Northeast expected to be blanketed by yet another snow storm, we are watching the weather channel just as closely that we are watching the quote screen. Oil prices have rallied back above $60 a barrel, which is adding pressure on the dollar at the moment. Gold prices rose for the sixth consecutive day, coming just shy of the $520 mark. Today’s themes are expected to resonate into the next 24 hours, especially since the University of Michigan consumer confidence survey and wholesale inventories are the only pieces of data due out for release from the US tomorrow, neither of which is particularly market moving. Looking ahead to next week however, the story is very different. Not only do we have the Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting, but also retail sales, the trade balance, CPI, industrial production, Philly Fed and the Treasury International Capital flow report. Therefore it would not be particularly surprising to see any breakouts or attempt to create a breakout extend into the following week.

Euro
The Euro is crawling back and we are watching very closely for a turnaround. Conflicting comments from various officials at the European Central Bank suggests to us that even though most members of the ECB may be hawkish, they are choosing their words very carefully in fear of saying anything that could cause their currency to shoot higher. In effect, they are trying to manage both inflation and interest rate expectations at the same time. They know all two clearly that their own recovery has been spurred by weakness in their currency. Therefore they want to tread very carefully to make sure that they do not jeopardize this stimulus. Comments from ECB member Bini Smaghi was the real culprit for the pop higher. Earlier in the day, he hinted that more rate hikes were to come, but later retracted his comment. In contrast, ECB members Weber, Issing and Hurley were in concerted agreement that the ECB will not follow-up their latest rate hike with a series hikes. Even so, it is clear that the central bank is hawkish, but it seems that the next move may not be till the latter part of the first quarter. Meanwhile the only piece of Eurozone economic data released today was German industrial production, which accelerated by 1.1 percent, the second consecutive monthly rise. The rebound was expected for the most part given the strong October PMI report. According to the November PMI report released recently, last month’s performance should have been a touch weaker.

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9:48am 12/09/05 DEC. UMICH CONSUMER INDEX BETTER THAN 86.1 EXPECTED

9:48am 12/09/05 DEC. UMICH PRELIM CONSUMER SENTIMENT 88.7 VS. 81.6 NOV.

U.S. consumers brighten in time for the holidays

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-12-09T174500Z_01_N0842457_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-WRAPUP-2.XML

CHICAGO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - U.S. consumer sentiment brightened in early December, suggesting an upbeat mood heading into the holiday shopping season, data showed on Friday.

Confidence jumped for a second straight month as the gloom of Hurricane Katrina and record high gasoline prices in late summer faded into memory. The job market picked up steam as well.

The University of Michigan's closely watched consumer sentiment measure rose to 88.7 in early December from November's final 81.6. Wall Street analysts had forecast the index at 85.5.

The Michigan survey and other confidence indicators have closely correlated recently with gasoline prices. The national average for self-serve, regular unleaded gas on Dec. 2 fell to $2.13 a gallon, a six-month low.

"In the last month we got a good payrolls report so that probably helped," said Elisabeth Denison, economist at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in New York. November U.S. payrolls growth was a four-month high at 215,000.

...more...

Now, be happy! Damnit!

(please note: I do not believe this report a bit - it attempts to convince me of feelings I do not possess and a reality that I did not experience last weekend)

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/newsfinder/pulseone.asp?dateid=38695.4168495255-853924853&siteID=mktw&scid=0&doctype=806&

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Inventories at U.S. wholesalers rose 0.2% in October as sales climbed 1.2%, the Commerce Department said Friday. The inventory-to-sales ratio fell to 1.13 in October from 1.15 in September, marking the latest monthly decrease. In May, the ratio was at 1.19. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch were expecting inventories to expand further, by 0.5%. October wholesale sales were weak compared to strong gains of 2.4% in September and 1.8% in August.

10:00am 12/09/05 U.S. OCT. WHOLESALE GOODS SALES CLIMB 1.2%

10:00am 12/09/05 WHOLESALE INVENTORIES RISE LESS THAN EXPECTED

10:00am 12/09/05 U.S. OCT. WHOLESALE INVENTORIES RISE 0.2%

time around? I see silver broke through $9 as well. None of this bodes well for the buck these days, yet it seems to be holding its own. :shrug:

Heavy duty hedge and derivatives funds?

JP Morgan?

:shrug:

This is a somewhat old article (from 2000) that was posted back a few days. The gist of the article was that the Fed (Greenspin) started to flood the money supply beginning in 95 using M3, and to cover what was happening, the derivatives market, read that the Pirates of the Caribbean, keep the Gold prices down thus severing the traditional Gold versus Oil price ratio.

What Gold is doing is rebounded to its traditional ratio now that Oil has gone up due to increased supply of money and also reduced production from the middle east. It remains to be seen if the reduced supply of oil is 'man made' or if the fields are drying-up (peak oil).

It seems the demand for Gold, Silver too, is running higher than supply, even though supply doesn't seem to be reduced. Must be a lot of folks would rather trust Gold as a hedge instead of dollar based securities, thus much higher demand and the shorting bears cannot keep-up. It's a sign that all is not well with what Greenspin has been up to this last 10 years or so with the value of our money. He's just another cheap labor conservative that's been in charge of the money supply. What would we expect from a bunch of Republicans.

Anyway here is that old article, it was posted by onebluesky originally, as far as I can tell.

http://www.zealllc.com/commentary/goldinoil.htm

following an agenda of destroying the value of money and extracting the stored value of peoples savings by policies that can only mean people will need their savings to live, and when the savings rate dries-up and accumulated wealth had been transfered to the wealthy, then the economic system would be caused to stop.

When that happens, then the currency will deflate, but nobody but the wealthy will have any stored wealth and the wealthy will buy back the 'tangibles' at rock bottom prices.

All this is a very old banker/kings trick to steal stored wealth. And this is why the founders placed the printing of money in the hands of 'the people'. All that talk about removing political control of the supply of money from politicians to a supposed non-political manager was a ruse, to gain control of the money supply by bankers. At least congress can be fired.

Without the economic stability of good money, there really is no freedom. Lack of economic freedom reduces all to slavery. It's a Republican value to reserve economic freedom to only the wealthy. after all, the wealthy are the main ones represented now by the government. It is they that have bought the politicians. All this talk of freedom and democracy is just so much hogwash.

We been had. All that left is to watch it unwind and try to find a safe haven. And that is where gold comes in. Gold don't lie. Say what we will about being a fixed supply, thus a drawback and not suitable for a modern economy. It being a fixed supply is exactly why to store wealth it's far better 'currency' than any paper. Maybe it's not good for making money work to create new money, true, but with gold, it preserves value in relationship to stuff like oil or wheat or whatever tangible things, regardless of what some paper is doing.

Kings been shaving gold coins as long as commerce has existed. Trying to tax and confiscate without being seen. Nothing new today, just a lot of new ways to hide what's being done with fancy statistics and exotic names like M1, M2, M3, discount rates, reserve rates and derivatives. This stuff makes something basic like knowing value very hard to figure out and who are the thieves as people see their stored value of a lifetime disappear.

Greenspan should never have been let anywhere near the money, but the Republicans like him.

on back then and Greenspin went along with it.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FK06Ad01.html

snip>

Foreign-currency reserves at the Bank of Mexico, the nation's central bank, were insufficient to meet the massive demand of speculators seeking to convert pesos to dollars. In response to the crisis, the US organized a financial rescue package of up to $40 billion from the US, plus another $10 billion from Canada, the IMF and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The multilateral rescue package was intended to enable Mexico to avoid defaulting on its dollar debt obligations and thereby overcome its short-term dollar liquidity crisis and to prevent the crisis from spreading to other emerging markets through contagion. It was not to help a Mexican economy hemorrhaging from a bankrupt monetary policy, one that allowed foreign and domestic speculators to collect their phantom Ponzi peso profits in real dollars. The Mexican rescue package in 1995 created moral hazard for international banks on a global scale.

In the weekend before Mexico's pending dollar default, the US government took the lead in developing an emergency rescue package. The package put together by the Fed under Alan Greenspan and the Treasury under Robert Rubin, a former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs and a consummate bond trader, included short-term currency swaps from the Fed and the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF), a commitment from Mexico to an IMF-imposed economic austerity program for $4 billion in IMF loans, and a moratorium on Mexico's principal payments to foreign commercial banks, mostly US, with Fed regulatory forbearance on resultant bank capital adjustments that affected bank profits. It also included $5 billion in additional commercial bank loans, additional dollar liquidity support from central banks in Europe and Japan and pre-payment by the US to Mexico for $1 billion in oil and a $1 billion line of credit from the US department of agriculture.

The ESF was established by Section 20 of the Gold Reserve Act of January 1934, with a $2-billion initial appropriation. Its resources have been subsequently augmented by special drawing rights (SDR) allocations by the IMF and through its income over the years from interest on short-term investments and loans, and net gains on foreign currencies. The ESF engages in monetary transactions in which one asset is exchanged for another, such as foreign currencies for dollars, and can also be used to provide direct loans and guarantees to other countries. ESF operations are under the control of the secretary of the treasury, subject to the approval of the president.

ESF operations include providing resources for exchange-market intervention. The ESF has also been used to provide short-term swaps and guarantees to foreign countries needing financial assistance for short-term currency stabilization. The short-term nature of these transactions has been emphasized by amendments to the ESF statute requiring the president to notify Congress if a loan or credit guarantee is made to a country for more than six months in any 12-month period. Short-term currency swaps are repurchase-type agreements through which currencies are exchanged. Mexico purchased dollars in exchange for pesos and simultaneously agreed to sell dollars against pesos three months hence. The US earned interest on its Mexican pesos at a specified rate.

It was Bear Stearns chief economist Wayne Angell, a former Fed governor and advisor to then Senate majority leader Bob Dole, who first came up with the idea of using the ESF to prop up the collapsing Mexican peso. Bear Stearns, a Wall Street giant, had significant exposure to peso debts. Senator Robert Bennett, a freshman Republican from Utah, took Angell's proposal to Greenspan and Rubin. Both rejected the idea at first, shocked at the blatant circumvention of constitutional procedures that this strategy represented, which would invite certain reprisal from Congress.

Congress had implicitly rejected a rescue package that January when the initial administration proposal of extending Mexico $40 billion in loan guarantees could not pass. The chairman of the Fed advised Bennett that the idea would only work if Congress's silence could be guaranteed. Bennett went to Dole and convinced him that the whole scam would work if the majority leader would simply block all efforts to bring this use of taxpayers' money to a vote. It would all happen by executive fiat. The next step was to persuade Dole and his counterpart in the House, Speaker Newt Gingrich. They consulted several state governors, notably then Texas governor George W Bush, who enthusiastically endorsed the idea of a bailout to subsidize the border region in his state. Greenspan, who historically opposed bailouts of the private sector for fear of incurring moral hazard, was clearly in a position to stop this one. Instead, he used his considerable power and influence to help the process along when key players balked. Moral hazard infected not only the banking system, but also the political system making a mockery of the constitution. Few in Washington were prepared to be reminded that it was this kind of systemic corruption in the name of the common good that had brought down the Roman Empire.

more...

9:46am 12/09/05 FEB GOLD TAPS FRESH 24-YR HIGH NEAR $529/OZ IN MORNING TRADE

9:46am 12/09/05 FEB GOLD LAST UP $3.90 AT $526.60/OZ AFTER $528.90 HIGH

9:46am 12/09/05 MARCH SILVER TOPS $9 FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 1987

9:46am 12/09/05 MARCH SILVER UP 4.5C, OR 0.5%, AT $9.035/OZ

10:48am 12/09/05 FEB GOLD HITS AN OVER 24-YEAR HIGH OF $534.30/OZ

10:48am 12/09/05 FEB GOLD LAST UP $10, OR 1.9%, AT $532.70/OZ

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/newsfinder/pulseone.asp?dateid=38695.4541383565-853930813&siteID=mktw&scid=0&doctype=806&property=symb&value=&categories=&

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- February gold climbed as high as $534.30 an ounce in New York. Prices for a front-month contract haven't traded at levels this high since April of 1981, according to monthly charts. The contract was last at $532.50, up $9.80, or 1.9%. March silver also climbed 12 cents to $9.11 an ounce after a $9.14 high, the loftiest futures price since May 1987. And January platinum climbed near a 26-year high of $1,012 an ounce and was recently trading at $1,008, up 90 cents.

$7 ceiling we used to hear about during the last big run up.

I didn't realize it was up that much for the week - been busy around here again. Not able to spend as much time on DU as I used to. :-(

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ft/20051208/bs_ft/fto120820051709580050;_ylt=AoLlIFohyzr.m605acaXPvT2ULEF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

US and European equities lacked a clear direction on Thursday, although there was no stopping the seemingly relentless rise in the price of gold.The precious metal hit a fresh 24½-year high, confounding widespread expectations that its advance would come to a halt after it broke through the $500 an ounce barrier just over a week ago.Analysts said gold had benefited from recent concerns about inflation, borne out of the prolonged rally in the oil market."Investors increasingly sought an alternative to the major currencies, which themselves are representatives of economies suffering from varying mixes of ill-conceived policies," said Seven Days Ahead, a London independent consultancy. "That alternative was gold."

Meanwhile, Wall Street gyrated amid uncertainty about the level to which US interest rates might rise next year.Stuart T. Freeman, chief equity strategist at US brokerage AG Edwards, said the recent rally in US stocks had stalled after last week's stronger than expected US economic data made investors cautious about future Federal Reserve action."The next important date to look forward to in terms of economics will be the December 13 Fed meeting," he said."We might see a sell-off if the central bank does not indicate that the end of the rate hike cycle is near. Anything that hints at a less hawkish tone should result in further upside follow through into the new year."

on Yahoo! (!!!)

I knew i would find it posted here! - on the most informed SMW in the Universe.

-mojavekid

Marketeers attempt to stay on top of the financial news as much as possible.

Heh-heh, you didn't think I'd miss the big story on gold did you?

-54anickel (who just loves shiny things) ;-)

http://www.321gold.com/editorials/schmidt/schmidt120905.html

snip>

Investment managers are busy window dressing their client accounts. Many have not owned Gold in their managed accounts. Few want to send out December statements without some exposure to the precious metals. The calendar is helping in another manner. The investment community starts winding down for the year in the first weeks of December. Tax loss selling has been completed and the moneys have been repositioned to convince clients how well their money is being managed. In short, the period of maximum flow from this group is now being felt in the Gold market.

Federal Reserve watchers, not all reading the signs the same, are also shifting to Gold. These handicappers of Fed Res policy are divided into two groups. First, some think the Federal Reserve is close to the end of the interest rate raising cycle. To them, lower interest rates are just a matter of time. Such a development would be bearish for the dollar, and makes buying Gold a good idea. Another group reads the minutes of the FOMC and focuses on concerns of higher inflation ahead. This latter group is motivated by those worries to buy Gold.

snip>

The nominee for Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Bernanke, will likely be as good for Gold as the outgoing Chairman. Bernanke's Delusion and Bernanke's Illusion will serve as foundations for monetary policies that will likely enhance the price of $Gold. The new Chairman will build on the view that Federal Reserve policy has not been faulty over the past many years. Bernanke is President Bush's gift to Gold investors. Thank you, Mr. President!

snip>

Central banks around the world, following the lead of the Federal Reserve, have created unprecedented amounts of liquidity over the past decade. When that liquidity was being stored in U.S. government and agency debt the potential to influence prices was minimal. With the tendency to invest money away from the US. dollar, that liquidity is pushing a broad array of prices higher. Gold, oil, commodities, paper stocks, housing and others prices are rising as that liquidity is now being freed from the shackle of U.S. debt. That unleashing of liquidity may be having an inordinate impact at the present time on Gold's price, and the prices of U.S. equities. Such a development increases short-term price risk without disturbing the long-term dynamics.

snip>

A caveat in all this seeming rationale thinking does exist. Markets discount the future, not what we know today. The world has a massive investment in U.S. dollar denominated assets. Much of the global economic machine is dependent on the U.S. consumer spending binge. U.S. consumption exceeds income. Negative savings is the term applied to that situation. To date, that deficit has been financed by converting equity in homes to cash. Should U.S. consumers not have access to that source of cash, spending would fall by more than $500 billion. The U.S. dollar would plunge. 1930 would by contrast look like a spring picnic. Is the Gold market telling us something?

more...

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=10722

The market price for an ounce of gold rose to more than $500 last week, a significant milestone for economists watching precious metals and commodities markets. The last time gold topped $500 was December 1987, in the wake of the “Black Monday” stock market collapse earlier that fall.

Gold prices historically rise when faith in paper currencies erodes, as investors seek the intrinsic value of gold to protect themselves from inflation. It’s interesting to note that while the U.S. dollar has regained some of its value relative to other paper currencies like the Euro, it continues to lose value relative to gold and other hard assets. This shows the folly of using one fiat currency to value another.

Gold is history’s oldest and most stable currency. Central bankers and politicians don’t want a gold-backed currency system, because it denies them the power to create money out of thin air. Governments by their very nature want to expand, whether to finance military intervention abroad or a welfare state at home. Expansion costs money, and politicians don’t want spending limited to the amounts they can tax or borrow. This is precisely why central banks now manage all of the world’s major currencies.

Yet while politicians favor central bank control of money, history and the laws of economics are on the side of gold. Even though central banks try to mask their inflationary policies and suppress the price of gold by surreptitiously selling it, the gold markets always cut through the smokescreen eventually. Rising gold prices like we see today historically signify trouble for paper currencies, and the dollar is no exception.

more...

My strategy, which started at around $425, has been to put a couple of thousand $ into GLD every $25 increment as it's risen. Just bought some more this morning at $52.60.

Given that I'm up about 25% on my initial investment, in the matter of a few months, I wonder how much potential there is for it to continue increasing at such a dramatic pace. A 25% increase from here over the next 6 months, would put it at $656 by May.

Perhaps I'm being too one tracked in my thinking, especially given my political bent. But I see many different factors converging to form the "perfect storm," in gold and other metals.

We've borrowed to the hilt over the last 4 years, and there is a lot of money out there, but it's mainly going Up to those at the top. Now that interest rates are rising, people are going to stop borrowing, and thus, spending, since they'll have less to waste. Also, everyone who engaged in speculation in real estate, or who has gained a job related to the real estate/mortgage/financing industry, or anyone who borrowed too much against their home, which is now decreasing in value......is in deep deep doo doo!

Combine this with the problems other currencies are having, and the prediciment the Fed is in, to raise interest rates to stimulate interest in holding the $, especially for those in China/Japan, and also the problem this is going to eventually cause in the U.S. economy, due to a shortage of money for those anywhere below the top 5-10% who are comfortable and liquid.

Thus, I would think gold or other metals, which are finite in amount, will be more and more valuable, as things start to deteriorate to a significant extent over the coming months and years.

even if he tends to piss on your leg once in awhile. He's still always there to bark when something isn't quite right around the homestead.

PMs are extremely volatile, I wouldn't buy it hoping to get rich quick, but rather as a hedge, shelter against the storm so to speak. And don't under estimate TPTB, they'll try to keep the gold inflation alarm going off for as long as they can. They were fairly successful in shaking out some of the weak hands about a year ago after the gold market started to heat up. Of course their efforts DO create a nice buying opportunity here and there. ;-)

I don't care how they try to spin it ("eligible for an additional round of stock options.") it is a crappy thing to do to people right before the holdiays..



http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8EC9FN8D.html


Snack maker Frito-Lay Inc. says it will stop regular work at its headquarters building Friday and call in all 2,000 employees for meetings at which 250 of them will learn they have lost their jobs.

The company announced the cuts and picked the jobs to eliminate in early November, but individual employees will not learn their fate until Friday's one-on-one meetings with supervisors, said Charles Nicolas, a company spokesman.

Nicolas said the unusual procedure gives more privacy to laid-off employees. He also said delaying the layoffs from November to December allowed the departing workers to be eligible for an additional round of stock options.

The timing of Frito-Lay's layoffs, coming right before the holidays, would have raised eyebrows not long ago. That taboo has faded. "A generation ago, companies didn't lay off many people at this time of year, but now we see the fourth quarter as the heaviest time of layoffs for the year," Challenger said.

All these upper managers and CEO's who are laying off the slaves are probably part of the rightwing greed & grab GOP donators. You know...the same ones that are slamming the meme of "Happy Holidays", since "Christ" isn't mentioned.

You can take a worker's job, but don't forget to put "Christ" back in Christmas.

Jeeeezzzzzuuuussss!!!! These people should burn in hell for what they're doing to the American people.

:kick:

that has seen tons of jobs go overseas, companies shut their doors, house foreclosures..all since the chimp regime started. Yet the county still went 70%+ for chimpass in 2004.

Take a look at this article to see just how red...BTW, the article hints at it but the reason why they are probably heading to more "rural" areas of the county is that we are getting alot more minorities/lower income in the bigger cities, so no doubt the local repukes are starting to change their tactics.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/stories/DN-ward_08cco.ART0.North.Edition2.187cf6b2.html


Collin County is a fierce GOP stronghold. The last Democrat elected to a county post, former county Commissioner Wallace Webb, left office in 1988. Last year, 71 percent of voters in Collin cast ballots for President Bush.

But if the GOP is to continue its reign in Collin County, she said, the party needs to appeal to an increasingly diverse suburban population while also maintaining its following in rural areas.

"If we are not proactive ... then I can see, all of a sudden, we wake up after one election and, 'Uh-oh, we lost a county commissioner seat. Uh-oh, we almost lost a state rep seat,' " she said. "And I want to do things now to prevent that from happening."

Her outreach strategy includes attracting new members by recruiting door to door, holding welcome events, training younger GOP clubs such as the College Republicans, and approaching homeowners associations, churches and chambers of commerce. She also plans to appoint a new vice chair for northern Collin County, which is mainly rural.

http://www.newsmeat.com/washington_political_donations/Jack_Abramoff.php

Jack Abramoff , 47 (bio)
lobbyist, GOP fundraiser; indicted for fraud
$171,933 Republican
$83,985 special interest
total: $255,918

and Scanlon's:

http://www.newsmeat.com/washington_political_donations/Michael_Scanlon.php

Michael Scanlon (bio)
lobbyist; convicted of bribery conspiracy
$57,000* Republican
$2,000 special interest
total: $59,000

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-12-09T143306Z_01_N09343153_RTRIDST_0_MARKETS-FED-OPERATIONS.XML

NEW YORK, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve said on Friday it added temporary reserves to the U.S. banking system through over-the-weekend system repurchase agreements.

The benchmark federal funds rate last traded at 4.125 percent, above the Fed's current 4.0 percent target for the overnight lending rate.

Further details of the operation are available at: http://www.ny.frb.org/markets/omo/dmm/temp.cfm

hmmm.... 4.125 percent today, 4.06 yesterday....

looks like something's afoot :think:

http://www.fxstreet.com/nou/noticies/afx/noticia.asp?pv_noticia=1134079259-f05e0f08-45206

WASHINGTON (AFX) -- Americans increased their household debt at an annual rate of 11.6% in the third quarter, the fastest growth in 18 years, the Federal Reserve said Thursday in its quarterly flow of funds report

Total outstanding debt in the household sector rose to $11 trillion

Total debt in the economy increased at a 9.1% annual rate, one percentage point faster than in the second quarter, to $25.72 trillion

Non-federal borrowing grew at a 10% pace, the fastest in six years. Total nonfederal debt outstanding grew to $21.13 trillion. Net national savings fell by $120.5 billion at an annual rate. It was the first quarter that net savings had been negative since the Fed began tracking the data in 1952

a few more numbers worth a looksie...:wow:

One of the first things one does in unsure financial times is....avoid new debt.
The second thing one does is beef up your savings by cutting back on non essentials.
The third thing you do is pay off as much of your debt as you can as soon as you can after you have added to your savings.

People are credit happy here. They don't know how to do without their "chochkees". Shopping is a hobby to them.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=reutersEdge&storyID=2005-12-08T203513Z_01_YUE872069_RTRUKOC_0_US-ECONOMY-FED.xml

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal Reserve officials may be close to changing some of the guidance they offer to financial markets in their post-meeting statement next week, but they will need to tread carefully to avoid sparking an overreaction.

snip>

Economists say that, after what would be the 13th rate rise, to 4.25 percent, on Tuesday, the term "accommodative" could be replaced, since official rates are close to the neutral range that neither boosts nor puts a drag on growth.

snip>

The risk is that by dropping the reference to "accommodative" and hence hinting that policy is close to neutral, financial markets will assume the Fed is done tightening because in the past, Fed officials said they wanted to restore borrowing costs to neutral.

However, as the Fed has closed in on that nebulous level of rates, officials have become tight-lipped about the value of the concept of neutral, implying they may need to tighten further.

Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, in a letter released on Wednesday, said that reliance on a single measure such as neutral "would be unwise as a strategy for formulating monetary policy."

more...

Deceptive Warnings: Nearing Economic Disruption, the Fed Distorts Perception

http://www.prudentbear.com/archive_comm_article.asp?category=Guest+Commentary&content_idx=49402

As Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan sails toward his port of retirement, he and his associates are now given to issuing warnings, on numerous topics and with increasing frequency.

Most recently, the Fed Chairman has warned of fiscal policy causing a “pernicious drift toward fiscal instability” and of a “protectionist reversal of globalization”1. He also warns that he fears“that we may have already committed more physical resources to the baby-boom generation in its retirement years than our economy has the capacity to deliver” so Congress needs to review how best to review its limited resources2 (this is not news - in 2002, the O’Neill Report identified that, in 2002 dollars, the Government had $43 trillion in future unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid3).

Nominally, Chairman Greenspan is giving warnings. However, the cadence and varied topics of successive warnings by Chairman Greenspan over the past few months have created a cacophony so as to give them little effect – and the warnings are issued on important but secondary issues that mislead the public as they divert citizens’ attention from the root cause and scope of approaching economic correction.

Notable in recent warnings from Greenspan, Federal Reserve Governors, and their allies, is the focus on fiscal matters for which the President and Congress have responsibility, while the nation faces two primary threats that arise directly as a consequence of decades of Federal Reserve monetary policy failure:


§ The U.S. and World economy face a potential inflation and interest rate spike with a disrupting effect on financial markets and existent investment bubbles; especially if they were to occur suddenly.


§ The economy is distorted and is declining in sustainable economic terms due to an historically high debt level that has grown strongly during the past 20 years.


much more....

After all, we can't have any money around to fund the phucking PROMISES of Social Security and Medicare, that we've all been PAYING ON for our entire working lives, now, can we!!

Republicans.... you can't get any worse.

:kick:

Dow 10,759.76 +4.64 (+0.04%)
Nasdaq 2,248.55 +2.09 (+0.09%)
S&P 500 1,257.17 +1.33 (+0.11%)
10-Yr Bond 4.490 +0.26 (+0.58%)

NYSE Volume 220,998,000
Nasdaq Volume 233,177,000

10:00AM: Holding onto modest gains, the indices stand just above the unchanged mark. Eight of ten economic sectors lend support - but spirited leadership has not yet emerged. On the back of Alltel (AT 67.18 +2.36), Telecom has risen highest, but, as the sector accounts for only about 3% of the broader market, its +0.8% has a muted effect. The two declining sectors are Materials, which swings just below the flat line, and Energy, which is off 0.7%. Yesterday marked crude's sixth jump in seven sessions, but futures contracts have slightly dipped today (to $60.60 per barrel) and have perhaps spurred some consolidation within the sector. Separately, the University of Michigan recently released its preliminary read on consumer confidence, which was 88.7 for December, up from 81.6 for November and 74.2 for October. The data doesn't correlate well with spending trends in the short-run, but it certainly isn't bad news for the holiday shopping period.NYSE Adv/Dec 1506/1013, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1346/965

9:40AM: The equity market's major averages opened at the flat line, pressured by a trio of Dow components but supported by some corporate news and crude's recent retreat. Last night, Intel (INTC) provided its mid-quarter update and essentially narrowed its Q4 revenue outlook; its midpoint falls slightly short of Wall Street's expectations. IBM (IBM), meanwhile, has been downgraded at UBS, and Merck (MRK) suffers from the New England Journal of Medicine's assertion that a key Vioxx study could have had fudged data. On the flip side, Alltel's (AT) announced $9.1 billion spin-off of its fixed-phone line business has spurred the stock's 3% jump, and upped Q4 and FY06 guidance from Eli Lily (LLY) offers further upside. As for crude, January futures contracts have given back 0.1% and remain below $61.00 per barrel.

Dow 10,736.15 -18.97 (-0.18%)
Nasdaq 2,241.92 -4.54 (-0.20%)
S&P 500 1,254.38 -1.46 (-0.12%)
10-Yr Bond 4.509 +0.45 (+1.01%)

NYSE Volume 400,598,000
Nasdaq Volume 403,456,000

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/newsfinder/pulseone.asp?dateid=38695.4256247917-853926342&siteID=mktw&scid=0&doctype=806&

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Siemens Logistics and Assembly Systems, a division of Siemens AG (SI) ., said Friday it plans to close one facility in Wyoming and cut about 60 salaried workers at its Grand Rapids, Mich. headquarters to restructure its operations. The supplier of logistics and factory automation systems said it will close its Eastern Ave. facility in Wyoming by mid-2006, affecting 330 employees. Some of the workers will be transferred to its Plymouth Ave. plant. The cuts in Grand Rapids represents about 5% of its 1,200 member workforce, the company said. Siemens said the restructuring is part of a plan announced in September to fold in its material-flow solutions business into a new subsidiary called Dematic GmbH.

The headline writer on this attempted to make it sound as though only 60 jobs would be affected. I wonder why they do that shit :banghead:

... Wyoming is essentially a suburb of Grand Rapids. Part of the same economic and geographic community. Nice way of saying the changes are minor, though, in fact, the changes affect a third of the workforce....

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/5294195/c_5295551?f=home_todayinfinance

Buyback mania just won't quit. In the past week, several big companies disclosed plans to repurchase large blocks of their shares. A number of smaller businesses announced similarly large buybacks — large, at least, relative to company size.

By far the most ambitious user of its own capital is Chevron. The energy giant disclosed a $5 billion repurchase plan to cover the next three years, on the heels of buybacks totaling $5 billion under an earlier program initiated in April 2004. The company also announced a $14.8 billion capital and exploratory spending program for 2006, a 35 percent year-on-year increase.

Chevron is the latest among a growing number of companies to announce a buyback plan after issuing shares to complete a merger. Earlier this year Chevron paid a mix of stock and cash to buy Unocal for more than $17 billion.

Another company to launch a major buyback in recent days is drug giant Amgen. The company announced that its directors authorized additional common-stock repurchases of up to $5 billion; Amgen has $2 billion remaining under its previous program.

In a press release, the company citied "confidence in its long-term prospects" for the additional share-repurchase authorization.

more...

Even one failure could bring about a costly national chain reaction

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3500228.html

WASHINGTON - High-flying investors are pouring tens of billions of dollars into hedge funds in the expectation of large returns, but financial experts worry that, in the event of a market-rattling surprise, these funds could spread havoc through financial markets.

While hedge funds cater to institutions and the wealthy, experts say they have grown so large that, in a worst-case scenario, the failure of a few hedge funds could disrupt the banking system and hurt ordinary people too.

snip>

The risk of hedge funds was illustrated in 1998 with the blowup of Long-Term Capital Management. Despite having two Nobel-Prize-winning economists and some of the brainiest Wall Street traders, the hedge fund made enormous bet on bonds that went sour, and a coalition of Wall Street banks, corralled by the New York Fed, had to bail out the fund in order to avert a financial meltdown.

snip>

Magnifying the impact
"Because of their size and because of the nature of what they do and how they do it, they could end up magnifying the impact of any significant event," said Andrew Lo, an MIT economist who, despite heading up his own hedge fund, has become one of the industry's chief doomsayers. In a recent paper, he predicted that a reckoning for hedge funds is just around the corner.

The surprise could come in the form of a terrorist attack, the default of a large borrower, or even a sudden shift in interest-rate policy by the Fed. ''The list of things that could go wrong is long," Nouriel Roubini, a New York University economist, warned.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/business/09insider.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1134147784-fGtUQvSpSVkT50caFeIkXw

snip>

The rule in question is Section 16(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, known as the short-swing rule. It applies to officers, directors and anyone who holds more than 10 percent of the stock of a publicly traded company. Under 16(b), companies have the right to sue those holders over any profits made by buying and selling (or selling and buying) securities of a public company within a six-month window, with the profits going to the company and its shareholders.

The rule was developed to prevent insider trading. Section 16(b) operates "on the theory that short-swing transactions present a sufficient likelihood of involving abuse of inside information that a strict liability prophylactic approach is appropriate," the S.E.C. wrote in a recent filing. The rule applies regardless of whether the 10 percent holder has material nonpublic information.

Such a provision seems reasonable at a time when hedge funds have challenged companies from OfficeMax to Time Warner, demanding new directors or new management and calling for radical changes in corporate strategy. Buying shares, talking up changes and then selling when the stock appears to peak seems unsavory at best.

But the provision exempts registered investment advisers, registered investment companies and other institutions like registered banks, insurance companies and broker-dealers. And starting on Feb. 1, 2005, hedge fund advisers will be required to be registered as - you guessed it - investment advisers.

more...

Dow 10,751.36 -3.76 (-0.03%)
Nasdaq 2,246.78 +0.32 (+0.01%)
S&P 500 1,257.07 +1.23 (+0.10%)
10-Yr Bond 4.515 +0.51 (+1.14%)

NYSE Volume 845,083,000
Nasdaq Volume 794,598,000

12:00PM : Flat-line vacillation persists as the session's second half begins. A trio of Dow components exerts significant downward pressure, and choppy crude trading helps to further stunt trading action. At the same time, the Treasury market's return to the red again serves as a bearish backdrop for the equity market. Following yesterday's close, Intel (INTC 25.53 -0.17) delivered its mid-quarter update -- disappointing investors with its narrowed revenue range. The company's midpoint fell slightly short of Wall Street's expectation and spurred selling, but efforts have since been tempered. Fellow tech titan IBM (IBM 86.42 -1.08) suffers from UBS' downgrade, and National Semi (NSM 26.75 -0.53)-- despite yesterday's upside earnings report -- languishes after receiving two analyst downgrades. In spite of that sore spot, the semiconductor industry's rebound has provided some relative strength that keeps the Tech sector (+0.2%) on positive ground. Healthcare (+0.2%) has been an area of focus today. Merck (MRK 29.06 -0.62) serves as the third of the aforementioned Dow draggers, heading south following the New England Journal of Medicine's contention that a key Vioxx study could have included fudged data. On the other side of the pharmaceutical aisle is Eli Lily (LLY 54.03 +1.82), shining today after upping its Q4 and FY05 guidance to the high ends of previously-forecasted ranges. Further, the company issued upside FY06 guidance that translates to growth that's nearly double the average Wall Street consensus forecast for large-cap pharmaceutical companies. While a majority of the sectors stand positive, gains are modest and leadership lackluster. Telecommunications fares best, following Alltel's (AT 66.32 +1.50) announced $9.1 bln spin-off of its fixed-phoneline business; the sector comprises just about 3% of the overall S&P, though, and its 0.7% gain has minimal effect on the broader market. Despite a submerged bond market, the banking industry has helped push Financial's 0.4% higher. Utilities (+0.5%), the other rate sensitive sector, also retains a gain. After crude oil surged for the sixth session in seven yesterday, alongside natural gas' freshly hit high, crude futures have bounced around the $61.00 per barrel mark today. Presently, oil is off 0.6% and gives traders reason to lock-in more of the Energy sector's year-to-date profit. The sector's 1.0% loss weighs heavily upon the broader market, challenging the moderate gains offered by seven sectors. Separately, the University of Michigan's preliminary read on consumer confidence was 88.7 for December, up from 81.6 for November and 74.2 for October -- evidencing that confidence has risen while gasoline prices have fallen, the economic news has improved, and the depressing impact from Katrina has faded. The data doesn't correlate well with spending trends in the short-term, but it certainly isn't bad news for the holiday shopping period. NYSE Adv/Dec 1592/1493, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1376/1404

11:25AM : Financial's rise (+0.4%) and Tech's (+0.2%) climb back to positive ground have helped the indices clear the flat line. JP Morgan (JPM 38.99 +0.34) serves the former sector's standout, extending its recent run and helping to support today's market. To that end, banks in general are demonstrating relative strength. The rate-sensitive group's outperformance is perhaps more notable considering the Treasury market's submerged state. Sliding back to a 4.51% yield, the benchmark 10-year note (-12/32) has fully erased yesterday's gains. Anticipation of the FOMC's upcoming policy announcement - scheduled for next Tuesday - perhaps weighs upon that market as well as on equities.

in the House of Rep yesterday. Rangel of NY tried to introduce a bill to address the inflationary tax bracket creep of the alternative minimum tax (AMT). The GOP is trying to ramrod an extension of the repeal of the cap gains tax, which doesn't expire until 2006 and 2008 (boy, they must really be worried about losing control of House and Senate). I started streaming it a bit late, but I was looking at some clips and I can across this powerful presentation from Rep Taylor. It is worth a listen.

http://www.canofun.com/blog/viddate.asp

Now I not sure how to make the link, I have not succeeded but check out the Gene Taylor clip. He totally shames the other side of the aisle.

"it's been 102 days" and "the tax cuts for the wealthy don't even expire until 2008", "big check writers to the RNC".

Hell yeah! Go Rangel and Taylor! And while you're at it, what about the "average Joe" that's gonna get socked with the AMT?

Gene Taylor might be executive office material. Southern Democrat... Mississippi is a red state, no? We need to look to the DEM leaders in red states to see how it is done and for leadership. They are use to verbal fist d' cuffs that so many in the Senate seem reluctant take up. Did you notice the edge in Taylors voice (sounded like verge of tears due to anger). I think he would have been happy to strangle a few on the other side of the aisle. Loved the check writing swipe and tax cut jab.
I really have grown to appreciate the House Dem's. They do not roll over and play dead.

1:11
Dow 10,760.08 +4.96 (+0.05%)
Nasdaq 2,250.89 +4.43 (+0.20%)
S&P 500 1,258.27 +2.43 (+0.19%)
10-Yr Bond 45.21 +0.57 (+1.28%)
NYSE Volume 1,023,875,000
Nasdaq Volume 945,926,000

1:00PM: The indices have managed to bounce out of the red, and hover just above the unchanged mark. Although Consumer Staples is up just 0.2% today, the sector sports several pockets of relative strength. Hypermarkets have gained 0.8%, while household and personal products have notched 0.9%. Some standouts within these groups are Wal-Mart (WMT 48.10 +0.40), Costco (COST 48.98 +0.69), Avon (AVP 27.88 +0.35), Proctor & Gamble (PG 57.31 +0.30), and Kroger (KR 19.51 +0.14). Since this past April, Briefing.com has maintained a Market Weight rating on the Staples sector. With the Fed still in tightening mode and amid underlying anxiety about the pace of economic and profit growth in 2006, the sector offers some defensive options during times of uncertainty; the groups we favor include hypermarkets, drug store retailers, and household products.NYSE Adv/Dec 1656/1499, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1391/1462

Carlyle Bidding on Food Chain

The Carlyle Group is among the final bidders for the Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins restaurant chains, in what would be the first U.S. consumer retail investment for a company built around its expertise in defense, aerospace and telecommunications.

Carlyle has been eyeing Dunkin' Brands Inc. since this summer and has joined with Thomas H. Lee Partners LP and Bain Capital LLC, both of Boston, to submit a bid for the French-owned food chains, according to two sources familiar with the bid who spoke on condition of anonymity because the bidding process is supposed to remain private.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/08/AR2005120802033.html

Why would they want this? My guess is money laundering.Call me paranoid, but...:hide:

They're going to be owned by these A**Holes now?

But why would they want to buy it. Their expertise is military/industrial. That is why I think it has good money laundering potential for them.... lot's of cash, few receipts, world wide locations. Talk about your hot dough and cold cash. What about all the missing money in Iraq. It may sound crazy, crazy like a fox. I don't trust these neosatanist one bit.

what kind of restrictions the Judge put on the jury (no watching the news and no discussing the case are what you usually get), but I think they are wrapping up the closing arguments here in Houston.
This report is damning-the cherry picked the data to fit the result they wanted. It is a real fluke the complete data was discovered. I hope you don't have Merck stock cause this is will probably force them into a class action settlement. Studies are suppose to test product efficacy and uncover any problems, not bolster what you think the creatively designed results should be. What year did we stop teaching science in schools?

Dow 10,786.90 +31.78 (+0.30%)
Nasdaq 2,255.75 +9.29 (+0.41%)
S&P 500 1,260.68 +4.84 (+0.39%)
10-Yr Bond 4.535 +0.71 (+1.59%)

NYSE Volume 1,516,734,000
Nasdaq Volume 1,376,841,000

3:00PM: Continuing to creep higher, the market's majors again touch a fresh set of highs. Sector standing remains more or less in tact, with eight still heading higher and the other two hanging onto losses. Of the gainers, Utilities and Financials lead with +1.2% each, and Healthcare (+0.3%) lags. Merck (MRK 29.02 -0.66) remains the sector's weakest link, and has incited selling that's taken pharmaceutical peers PFE and BMY significantly lower. Eli Lily's (LLY 53.59 +1.38) guidance-driven rise, though, serves as a mitigating effect. Several other pockets of strength have surface within Healthcare today; a number of issues, including ESRX, AGN, and TEVA, have hit 52-week highs.NYSE Adv/Dec 2019/1241, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1770/1223

2:30PM: With crude's (now 2.5%) drop spurring some buying - albeit modest - action, the market hits new highs. Per usual, the crude action weighs upon the Energy sector, which now imposes a 1.3% gain-tempering loss on the broader market. Separately, General Electric (GE 35.72 +0.37) announced that it will increase its 2005 stock repurchase plan by $1 billion, to $5 billion, as part of its previously announced plan to repurchase $25 billion of stock by 2008. GE is one of 18 Dow components presently trending higher; of them, General Motors (GM 22.84 +0.84), JP Morgan (JPM 39.27 +0.62), Citigroup (C 49.07 +0.57), and American Express (AXP 51.27 +0.62) provide the strongest support. Aside from the energy price pullback's effect, the last three issues are behind the Financial sector's (+1.1%) - and the broader market's - stance.NYSE Adv/Dec 1917/1312, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1689/1244

that farm subsidies cut will help them win back the farm vote and many former red rural farm states will be ripe for the picking. It was an awful thing to happen----but if DEM's hammer this hard, '06 and '08 will be be the death knell for GOP control.

ago that a lot of the local farmers had come up to him expressing their deepest regret for voting for *Co.

I think the GOP has already lost the "farm vote".

And if they didn't, you can BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR they wouldn't be screwing so many thousands of voters at a whack. They can do whatever they want now, because no matter how bad it gets, they will still be able to keep whatever control they want to over the lawmakers. Here's how it works:

As "republican" becomes a dirty word, the vote machine programmers allow just enough "wins" for the Democrats to fly under the radar of alerting too many voters that the fix is in. But, they ALSO get to control the primaries, so the Dem voters that are allowed to win primaries and run against repukes, are ALSO the Dem voters that are going to go easy on republican corruption. So, they avoid the danger of absolute republican collapse.

They MAY allow one of the houses of congress, and possibly even the White House, to fall to Dems. But if BOTH houses fell to Dems who were unfriendly to the corporate masters, then the republicans criminal activities would be totally impeached. They can't allow that. So, no matter who we run or elect, you can TAKE IT TO THE BANK that republicans will control enough seats that republican criminal mafia operatives will still get a pass.

Until the voting machine fiasco is taken care of, there's no way we're going to clean up our government.

:kick:

Tax cuts and the Patriot Act. I suppose they think this will help him in the polls - leadership and all, no lame duck. :eyes:

Friggen Bastards!

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :hurts:

I am so proud of them I could pop my buttons. The DEM's need to make a montage commercial of this. Taylor was the best, but McDermott and his Christmas stockings (yes, they were Christmas stockings)had me howling. Go to the canofun link earlier on this thread. He did an a/v aid that was a hoot. In the end, the poor had a lump of coal left in their stocking-to use for the winter. Almost PMP.

It is rather long, but I found it highly informative, and quite an easy read for someone not educated in the specifics, like myself. It has good charts also.

Deceptive Warnings: Nearing Economic Disruption, the Fed Distorts Perception

Dow 10,778.58 +23.46 (+0.22%)
Nasdaq 2,256.73 +10.27 (+0.46%)
S&P 500 1,259.37 +3.53 (+0.28%)
10-Yr Bond 45.37 +0.73 (+1.64%)
NYSE Volume 1,869,976,000
Nasdaq Volume 1,658,573,000

The equity market hurdled the flat line after lunch, boosted by a rise in the Financial sector that countered Energy's session-long, crude-inspired drag effect. A trio of Dow components - Intel, Merck, and IBM - stunted early advances, but a turnaround in the former and a well-pared loss in the latter helped the market's rise take root. While buying action was modest overall, an afternoon injection of bullish air sent the indices out of flat line vacillation mode and onto gaining ground. Despite the Treasury market's submerged status, rate-sensitive banks stood as one of the session's brightest spots and pulled the influential Financial sector 1.0% higher. Today's economic front was a quiet one, but a jump in consumer confidence teamed with anticipation of the FOMC's policy announcement on Tuesday - which is expected to include another ¼% rate hike - in bothering bonds traders. Pushing the 10-year down 16 ticks and up to a 4.53% yield, that market erased yesterday's gains and again served as an overhang for the equity market. With respect to Intel (INTC 26.11 +0.41), the company narrowed its fourth quarter revenue guidance yesterday evening - disappointing Wall Street with a midpoint that fell slightly below analysts' expectations. The stock suffered initial selling, but reversed course mid afternoon and contributed to the Tech sector's (+0.6%) solid stance. Following an analyst downgrade, IBM (IBM 86.96 -0.54) stood as a sore spot, but late-day buyers helped it to somewhat recover. Rising with the surging semiconductor industry, National Semi (NSM 27.16 -0.12) similarly pared much of its downgrade-driven loss. Meanwhile, the Telecom sector rose 0.5% on the back of Alltel (AT 65.89 +1.07), which announced a $9.1 billion spin-off of its fixed phone line business. A pair of pharmaceuticals kept the Healthcare sector in focus today. The New England Journal of Medicine's assertion that a key Vioxx study could have included fudged data sent Merck (MRK 29.13 -0.55) - the third of the aforementioned Dow laggards - south. On the flip side, Eli Lily (LLY 53.37 +1.16) shined after upping its Q4 and FY05 guidance to the high ends of previously-forecasted ranges. Perhaps more significantly, the company issued upside FY06 guidance that translates to growth that's nearly double the average Wall Street consensus forecast for large-cap pharmaceutical companies. Separately, the sector had several issues, including ESRX and AGN hit, 52-week highs. The Consumer Discretionary (+0.21%), Industrials (+0.7%), Utilities (+1.1%), Consumer Staples (+0.3%), and Telecom (+0.4%) sectors also booked gains. Crude's 2.1% drop, to below $60 per barrel, perhaps sparked some action that especially helped discretionary and transportation issues. At the same time, the price action gave investors reason to further consolidate some of the Energy sector's 33% year-to-date gain. As a result, the sector levied a 1.2% loss that somewhat challenged the momentum that Financials spearheaded. NYSE Adv/Dec 1943/1341, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1819/1201