STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday 28 June

Summary

On 6-16-06 we said, "Last week the downside momentum was exhausted by the end of the day on Tuesday, resulting in a robust rally on Wednesday/Thursday and ending with a minor pullback on Friday. Last week's price action was in line with the market behavior one would expect from the combination of the chart pattern and of the technical readings that have prevailed over the past five weeks. Consequently--from past history going back 40 years--we know the three most likely outcomes going forward, and the signs to look for, for early clues with regards to the specific that will ultimately play out. The three most likely scenarios for the next 7-10 trading days are shown in the three SP charts below. All three start out the same way--with price pulling back further, however, the first two ultimately have a bullish resolution while the third one has a bearish resolution. On the bullish side basically we can expect either a partial or a full re-test of last week's lows and then a rally up to the first upside targets (see table below). On the bearish side, the indices won't be able to take advantage of the existing bullish set-ups due to renewed selling pressure, resulting in a violation of last week's lows and in a further decline to the first downside targets (see table below)."

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Given last week's price action--for the time being--scenario#2 has been eliminated. It will come back in the picture if the SP declines to its most recent low, plus or minus five points, but it holds. At the same time, both the Quantifiers and price have formed a "bullish flag" which suggests that investors are betting that the FED will raise interest rates by 25 basis points--as expected--and indicate that it will pause for now, its campaign. Whether the FED takes such a position or not is something that is anybody's guess. What we do know is this. If after the FED meeting the bullish flag has a bullish resolution, the SP ought to rally up to 1290 within the next 3-5 trading days. Conversely, if it doesn't, if price breaks down from the bullish flag, then the SP ought to re-test its most recent lows around 1220, and perhaps decline further to the 1205-1175 zone. Until we have a clear resolution, CASH IS KING!

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

10:30 AM Crude Inventories 06/23
Briefing Forecast NA
Market Expects NA
Prior 1385K

10:31 AM ET 6/28/06 U.S. CRUDE SUPPLY DOWN 3.4 MLN BRLS LAST WK: ENERGY DEPT.

10:31 AM ET 6/28/06 U.S. DISTILLATE SUPPLY UP 1.8 MLN BRLS: ENERGY DEPT.

10:31 AM ET 6/28/06 U.S. GASOLINE SUPPLY DOWN 1 MLN BRLS: ENERGY DEPT.

Government says supplies fall more than three times what was expected; Gasoline stocks also post surprise drop

http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/28/markets/oil_eia/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote

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In its weekly inventory report, the Energy Information Administration said crude supplies fell by 3.4 million barrels. Analysts were looking for a drop of only 800,000 barrels, according to Reuters.

EIA said gasoline stocks fell by 1 million barrels. Distillates, which are used to make heating oil and diesel fuel, rose by 1.8 million barrels.

Analysts were looking for a 100,000 barrel build in gasoline supplies and a 1.2 million barrel increase in distillates.

Despite the drop in crude and gasoline supplies this week, the EIA said crude stocks still remain well above average and gasoline supplies are about normal.

Also supporting prices Wednesday is the closure of a key shipping channel in Louisiana, limiting output at three refineries before the July 4 Independence Day holiday when travel is expected to be busier than ever.

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uptick on this news, must be the overall sentiment holding that sector down.

thank you

- the Energy Dept's figures seem to be all over the place.

SINGAPORE - Crude oil prices rose above $72 a barrel Wednesday on anticipated strong gasoline demand over the July Fourth weekend and Iran's continued resistance to shut down its nuclear enrichment program.

Traders also were anticipating the U.S. government's weekly petroleum supply report to be released later in the day.

"A fall in the gasoline inventories now will be a trigger for a bullish market," said Tetsu Emori, chief commodities strategist for Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo. "The U.S. can't produce as much gasoline as they want to, and supply and demand is getting tighter."

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Gasoline futures rose 0.15 cents to $2.2000 a gallon after rising almost 2 cents on Tuesday as the shutdown of a key shipping channel near Lake Charles, La., disrupted crude oil supply to three nearby oil refineries and forced them to reduce fuel production.

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10:03 AM ET 6/28/06 AUGUST CRUDE UP 18 CENTS AT $72.10/BRL AHEAD OF SUPPLY DATA

10:03 AM ET 6/28/06 JULY NATURAL GAS DOWN 0.7 CENT AT $6.10/MLN BTUS

10:03 AM ET 6/28/06 AUGUST NATURAL GAS FALLS 0.7 CENT TO $6.305/MLN BTUS

DETROIT - General Motors Corp. predicted Tuesday that U.S. sales overall will decline this year and said it will briefly bring back some incentives to clear inventory as the 2007 model year approaches.

GM will offer zero percent financing for up to six years on most Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac and GMC models during a sale that begins Thursday and ends July 5.

The automaker announced last June that it would let customers pay the employee price for vehicles, and it was followed in July by Ford and Chrysler, pushing sales to record numbers.

Those records won't be topped, so sales this year are likely to drop a bit from 2005, said Paul Ballew, GM's executive director of global market and industry analysis. Higher interest rates and fuel prices also will keep sales lower than last year, he said.

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General Motors isn’t the most efficient automaker in America. It does not produce the highest-quality cars (that would be Porsche), the funkiest designs (check out Scion), or offer the best prices when you factor in resale values (versus Honda and Toyota). But say this for the General: nobody beats it at downsizing. GM CEO Rick Wagoner acknowledged as much in a press conference this week, noting that “over the past 10 years, (GM) has had a lot of experience in this regard.”

He ain’t kidding. In 1993, GM employed more than 266,000 hourly workers in North America. As of this year, the figure was 141,000. And it’s about to shrink even more. Some 35,000 blue-collar workers have agreed to take buyouts or early-retirement deals, which will save GM $8 billion in annual structural costs, starting in 2007. GM expects to take a $3.8 billion charge to account for the buyouts. But the savings are about $1 billion more than GM had initially targeted — a rare piece of good news for a company known more for its misfires. Said Wagoner, “We’re coming along very rapidly on the road back.”

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But trimming the fat is one thing, growing some muscle is quite another. So Wagoner’s next step, expanding sales in what’s shaping up to be a brutal summer selling season, won’t be easy. Already, a price war is looming, as dealers try to clear inventory for new models arriving in the fall. Chrysler is expected to announce rock-bottom employee-pricing for everyone, along with 30 day money-back guarantees. “We lost momentum,” said DaimlerChrysler chairman Dieter Zetsche at a luncheon in New York on Tuesday, adding that sales have been “held hostage” by the troubles at Ford and GM. Not to be outdone, GM has announced zero-percent financing sale for the July 4th holiday weekend. Analysts expect June sales for GM to be down 36% from last year — when GM launched an employee-pricing promotion that cleared dealer lots (and killed profits). GM’s overall U.S. sales are down 8% this year and the company is on track to lose a few more points of market share. GM’s redesigned full-size SUVs, the Cadillac Escalade and Chevy Tahoe have sold well. But with gas prices staying around $3 a gallon — and even with GM touting controversial gas discounts — the luster of those models may soon fade (joining other full-size models that are languishing at dealerships like beached whales).

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1208689,00.html

:donut:and lurkers. And the punch line is that Detroit's gas emissions are not as toxic as those that emanate from Washington D.C.

And speaking about unpleasant gases....I was tooling around Houston the other day and took some old sideways to avoid the traffic around the Galleria and found myself around George Sr's neighborhood. Took me 3 days and 2 spray bottles of Fa breeze to get the stench of ill gotten money out of my car. I almost didn't recognize it because I used the church they go to as a landmark and the church now has a butt ugly pseudo neo gothic in sandstone building. They cut way too many trees down to build that eyesore.

And speaking of the Seniors....our channel 11 has been airing a PSA that start with Bush fielding a softball question about eating meals together when he was growing up and him making fun of his mom's cooking. It also featured Barbara Bush talking about the importance of families having meals togather...how it leads to less drug use in kids, less juvenile delinquencies, etc. No, I am serious. Stop laughing. She really says that in a voice over while they show black and white photos of a Bush family gatherings. I swear, with these folks, the jokes write themselves.

I also found myself in Beaumont. I had some free time so I drove around town, checked out the port etc. There is still too much of the tell tale blue tarps on the roofs...esp in the poorer part of town, near the port. And folks are still dealing with heavy debris. The good news is that gas was $1.65-so I filled the car. There was not much activity at the retail businesses, but things seemed steady otherwise.

I am slowly unpacking from the move. I tore up my knee in the last phases of the move and am being super careful in letting it heal in order to avoid surgery (possible meniscus tear). The stairs at the new apartment have been a challenge-but I have been improving. The knee brace and my good chiropractor have helped.

I didn't miss all the gyrations in the market-I hardly looked and market stuff at all-it was pretty much as I expected. But once again,I missed your take on it.

Happy hunting....and watch out for the bears.

We surely do miss you around here!

Come back soon, okay?

:grouphug:

I missed all of you too. I am not connected in the house yet so communication is a bit spotty. I do have much work cut out for me this summer-what with the move, theraphy for the knee, prn work, and activities with my daughter, etc. I'll try to post when I can.

"Specialist" mortgages have become the fastest-growing segment of the home loans market as new lenders target customers with patchy credit records.

Investment banks, former building societies and even a new start-up have rushed to enter the lucrative market for sub-prime mortgages, in search of higher returns than in the cut-throat market for conventional home loans.

Borrowers who might in the past have failed to get a loan are now being accepted.

The Financial Services Authority, the City regulator, has identified the market as a priority area for supervision and has raised concerns lenders might not have factored in the risk of a downturn properly.

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FRANKFURT (Reuters) - U.S. shares are seen edging higher on Wednesday, recovering some of the previous session's losses, with trading likely to be thin in the run-up to the U.S. central bank's interest rate decision on Thursday.

At 0940 GMT, futures pointed to gains of between 0.1 and 0.2 percent for Wall Street's three main stock market indexes.

"Not many investors will be in the market today and tomorrow. People will be waiting for the Fed," said Heinz-Gerd Sonnenschein, an equity strategist at Germany's Postbank.

The U.S. Federal Reserve meets on Wednesday and Thursday and is widely expected by economists to increase interest rates and signal further monetary tightening to keep inflation in check.

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Haim Saban, the media mogul who made a fortune dubbing the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for western audiences, yesterday snapped up the largest Spanish broadcaster in the US market for $12.3bn (£6.75bn).

The board of Univision - perhaps best known among Latino audiences for its sometimes melodramatic telenovelas or soap operas - yesterday accepted an offer from a financial consortium, including Mr Saban, Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners and Texas Pacific Group.

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The man whose credits also include being a co-producer of cult sci-fi film Blade Runner, and who helped Elton John find fame in the US, is determinedly reclusive, believing it best to "stay out of the spotlight - it fades your suit".

The successful bid, pitched at $36.25 per share, was higher than the $35.50 Mr Saban's consortium offered and was rejected last week, but below the $40 that Univision had originally hoped to secure.

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1807421,00.html

EMI Group and Warner Music have each rejected £2.5bn bids for the other. EMI this morning dismissed as “wholly unacceptable” a 320p a share takeover approach from rival Warner Music as it attempted to retrieve control of the bid battle.

The British company, whose artists include Kylie Minogue, also revealed it had improved its original $4.2bn (£2.3bn) cash-and-shares offer for Warner Music, which was formally rejected last night. EMI’s revised bid was made last Friday, when the offer was increased from $28.50 a share to $31 a share - £2.5bn - this time all in cash.

Explaining how it would finance the deal, the company said: “EMI envisages that the proposal would be funded by debt finance and a rights issue, both of which would be fully underwritten, and the disposal of certain music publishing assets.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/06/28/uemi28.xml

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Honda Motor Co. has selected an eastern Indiana site for its new North American auto plant, according to a newspaper report, ending a feverish scramble among five states for the lucrative investment and jobs.

Honda and state officials would not confirm the online report Tuesday by The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio. The company has scheduled a news conference Wednesday morning in Greensburg, Ind. The town of 10,500, which sits along Interstate 74, is 50 miles southeast of Indianapolis.

A spokesman for Honda of America in Marysville, Ohio, Ed Miller, declined to comment on the report, which cited two people familiar with the decision. Jeffrey Smith, assistant vice president of American Honda, also declined comment when contacted by The Associated Press. In Tokyo, Honda spokeswoman Nori Ishii said the company planned no announcements from its headquarters.

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Consumer confidence rose in June and existing home sales fell less than expected in May, providing signs that the economy remains resilient and that the Federal Reserve may need to tighten credit policy more.

A widely watched barometer of consumer confidence improved slightly in June after declining in May, according to a New York-based private research group. And sales of existing homes in May fell for the third time in the past five months, though the numbers indicate the housing market is headed for a soft-landing, not a collapse.

"These reports are signs that the economy does have resilience, but it is not a Superman economy, and it does have some weaknesses," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group. "The economy is still flying but at a lower altitude."

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/06/27/ap2844096.html

(Kyodo) _ Tokyo stocks fell almost across the board Wednesday in the wake of large drops overnight in U.S. shares, with the benchmark Nikkei index ending below the key 15,000 line for the first time in a week with a loss of nearly 300 points.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average plunged 285.70 points, or 1.88 percent, to 14,886.11. The Tokyo Stock Price Index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange slid 21.86 points, or 1.41 percent, to 1,527.51.

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Trading volume on the TSE's main section came to 1,466.62 million shares against Tuesday's 1,470.86 million shares.

The TSE's Second Section index lost 26.53 points, or 0.61 percent, to 4,325.79 on a volume of 42.65 million shares. In Osaka, the near-term September Nikkei 225 index futures contract dropped 210 points to 14,920.

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LONDON, June 28 (Reuters) - European stocks erased early losses to trade flat on Wednesday as takeover news and strength in oil stocks offset persistent jitters over rising global interest rates.

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The FTSEurofirst 300 index <.FTEU3> of top European shares was up 0.04 percent at 1,270.48 by 0800 GMT after having fallen as much as 0.5 percent in opening trade.

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European Central Bank policymakers have been sounding increasingly hawkish, and another sign of strong growth came as the GfK market research group said German consumer sentiment was set to jump to a new five-year peak in July.

Around Europe, the UK's oil-stock-heavy FTSE 100 <.FTSE> was up 0.4 percent, while Germany's DAX <.GDAXI> and France's CAC 40 <.FCHI> were flat.

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European equity markets turned higher by mid afternoon on Wednesday as Wall Street opened in positive territory. Media stocks and insurers were at the head of the advance.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.4 per cent to 1,274.60, while Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax added 0.2 per cent to 5,471.86, Paris’ CAC 400 gained 0.4 per cent to 4,790.25 and London’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.6 per cent to 5,688.7.

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Media stocks leapt on consolidation hopes after Britain’s EMI jumped 10 per cent to 310p after spurning the advances of Warner Music of the US. Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier added 2.6 per cent to €11.54, while Pearson, owner of the Financial Times and FT.com, gained 1.8 per cent to 708p.

Shares of Axa advanced 2 per cent to €24.76 as investors welcomed news of its bond issuance to help refinance its purchase of Winterthur. The sector was broadly higher, with Italy’s Generali up 2 per cent to€26.29 and Swiss Re up 1 per cent to SFr83.15.

Oil companies added weight to the gains as crude prices continued to hover around recent highs near $72 a barrel. France’s Total was up 1 per cent to €49.73 and Royal Dutch Shell gained 1.6 per cent to €25.62.

Dieter Zetsche, chairman of DaimlerChrysler said the company’s US Chrysler division was spending too much on incentives to clear “unacceptable” levels of vehicle inventory. DaimlerChrysler fell 0.3 per cent to €37.20.

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Media stocks attracted interest on Wednesday as the takeover battle between EMI of the UK and US rival Warner Music intensified. The sector rose more than 1 per cent, a performance beaten only by oil and gas.

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The overall market continued to drift as investors awaited news from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate meeting. The US central bank’s decision and accompanying statement will come after the close of European markets on Thursday. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 index edged up 2.35 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 1,272.25. The CAC 40 closed 2.76 points, 0.1 per cent higher at 4,774.0 while the Xetra Dax in Frankfurt closed relatively flat, down 2.28 points at 5,456.87.

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

Last trade 86.59 Change +0.06 (+0.07%)

US Newswire Heats Up

http://www.dailyfx.com/story/dailyfx_financial_markets_headlines/US_Newswire_Heats_Up_1151424761452.html

The convulsive, range-bound activity in the dollar based pairs that was expected because of the intensifying economic schedule and the countdown to the FOMC meeting kicking off tomorrow, had another spasmodic attack following a mix of fundamental fodder. Amongst the majors, price action is tailoring off to make for a number of technical setups. In the benchmark EURUSD, a run up in the euro to a five day high around 1.2620 was slowly backed down 60 points before drifting back into the mid of the range. Perhaps the biggest nail bitter was the dollar’s action against the Japanese yen. A quick spike above the now strong 116.55 resistance just before the beginning of the North American session, put shorts on the edge of their seats before being battered down 60 points. Both the pound and the swissie are undergoing contracting ranges, with the former consolidating to horizontal support around 1.8260 and the latter increasing pressure at 1.2410.

The economic flow out of the US was in a full roll Tuesday morning with indicators of existing home sales, regional Fed manufacturing and consumer confidence putting the dollar on its toes. With all the indicators posting simultaneously, there was little chance for the dollar to build momentum either way since the two headline figures provided contradictory sentiment. Beginning with the bad, existing home sales in May dipped 1.2% on the back of a more severe 2.2% contraction the month before. The solid figure for the annual pace of home sales market 6.67 million units, the slowest pace since the beginning of the year. While this contraction was inline with the general consensus among housing data, its more immediate effect was to completely negate yesterday’s surprisingly positive new home sales report. Any feeling that the Fed is full-steam ahead for a 50 bp hike this time around or an assured 25 bp move in August based on a rebounding housing market has completely dissipated. Moving on to the good, consumer confidence rallied a greater than expected 105.7, offsetting some of the large decline over the previous month. The Conference Board’s survey of 5,000 households revealed Americans are more confident about the future, but less so about their current situation. The expectations component of the read advanced to 87.6 from 85.1 in May. This was largely due to leveling off gas prices and greater expectations for the job market. Following last month’s contraction in the unemployment rate to 4.6%, a low not since July 2001. However, consumers’ assessment of how they are position now actually fell with a read of 132.7 from 134.1. Those responding with the perception that jobs were plentiful fell to 28.1% of the sample group. Given recent positive numbers in claims numbers, this could be a viable impression though with firms taking in higher input costs and lending rates it may not be reasonable for the three to six month term the survey covers. Loosing much of its market impact potential, the Richmond Fed issued a manufacturing index read of the region at 4. A figure both flat and below expectations of a round 7 read.

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FOMC to Push Dollar Pairs Out of Range Trading Mode

http://www.dailyfx.com/story/dailyfx_reports/daily_fundamentals/FOMC_to_Push_Dollar_Pairs_1151444014716.html

US Dollar

It has been an extremely quiet day in the currency market. Trading has essentially grinded to a halt after the London close as the EUR/USD, USD/JPY and GBP/USD fluctuates within a narrow 20 point trading range. We expect to see much of the same thin cautious trading tomorrow especially since we have no significant data due for release compared to today’s release of consumer confidence and existing home sales – both of which were stronger than expected. Existing home sales fell from 6.75 million to a better than expected 6.67 million in the month of May while consumer confidence jumped from an upwardly revised 104.7 to 105.7 thanks to a drop in petrol prices. As we read other people’s expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do on Thursday, it is becoming clearer that the upcoming meeting will be catalyst that pushes us out of the current range trading mode. Some analysts are predicting Thursday’s quarter point rate hike to be Fed’s last while others are mulling over the possibility of a 50bp surprise move. Right down the middle are those in favor of a quarter point hike with a hawkish bias and on top of that, everyone has good reasons. At this point it is really a guessing game and with even the experts divided, a hard one at that. Should the Fed continue to be tough with inflation, more analysts will be joining the 6 percent club and the dollar will continue to rally, making a run to 118 USD/JPY and 1.24 EUR/USD very likely. The scale is tilted slightly more in favor of that scenario but at the same time many people have been screaming that Bernanke is playing with fire by not pausing. There are so many possible scenarios including one from Fed Watcher John Berry who said that the central bank could raise rates, pause, and then raise them again. Such a big event risk is one that is difficult to trade, however it could very well set the tone for weeks to come.

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http://www.kitcocasey.com/displayArticle.php?id=805

Good day... The dollar continued to trade in a tight range yesterday as the markets await the FOMC rate hike and accompanying statement due out tomorrow. While a 25 bp hike is already 'baked in the cake,' there have been recent calls for a 50 bp surprise to 'shock' the markets into believing the new Fed chief is serious about keeping inflation down. I still think a 25 raise will be what we get, but the accompanying statement will show a continued tightening bias that will continue to keep the dollar bulls happy. With no real data due to be released this morning, look for any activity in the markets to be generated by continued speculation on the FOMC's actions. Should make for another boring day in the markets.

I spoke to a few different investors yesterday who were trying to 'trade' on the upcoming release by the FOMC and wanted my opinion on what would happen to the currency markets. I freely offered my opinion, just as I have in the first paragraph, but then went on to remind them that our attitudes toward the investments we offer are slightly different than what these 'traders' were trying to do. At EverBank, we continue to believe that currency and metals investing is something you do for diversification, not just for daily profits.

For individual investors, trying to 'time' the markets and trade off of FOMC interest rate actions is usually a losing proposition. There are just too many possibilities to try and predict; and even if you get the interest rate call correct and predict what the accompanying statement will say, the markets don't ever seem to react as you would have thought they would. For example, last Thursday leading indicators came in below expectations, and on Friday the Durable Goods Orders also came in well below expectations. You would expect both of these items to cause a sell-off in the US$ since they reflect the poor fundamentals of the U.S. economy and would also predict a pause by the FOMC. But, as Chuck reported, the dollar rallied on both pieces of data.

Don't get me wrong, I think that it is important to try and get a general feel for where the markets will go given certain circumstances. But it is more important to look at the overall asset allocations in a portfolio and make sure you are well balanced and diversified. The investments we offer don't use leverage, so the average investor will not be able to use them to profit from short-term swings in the markets. You should use our products as a way to hedge your portfolio against the risks of a falling dollar and of higher inflation (both risks that are very much on the horizon). So, no matter what the FOMC does or announces tomorrow, currency and metals should be in everyone's portfolios. Even if the Fed raises by 50 basis points, the fundamentals of the U.S. economy have all but guaranteed the US$ will continue to weaken over the next few years. Sorry about my getting off track a little bit there, but I wanted to try and explain where we are coming from. Now back to the currency markets!

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Senators to scrutinize hedge funds
Fired SEC attorney to testify before Senate panel

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/8F8NNXMPtbW8HpkCsWb9RV?siteid=mktw&dist=morenews

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Washington and Wall Street may get a rare public look at how securities regulators track hedge funds' behavior on Wednesday, when a former Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer goes before a Senate panel probing the industry.

Attorney Gary Aguirre told Congress that he was running the SEC's investigation into whether prominent hedge fund Pequot Capital Management engaged in insider trading. Aguirre said that he was fired in September after he sought the testimony of a Wall Street executive, reported to be John Mack, chief executive of Morgan Stanley (MS : 60.04, -0.36, -0.6% ) .

The SEC won't confirm or deny it's investigating Pequot. But the hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee may shed light on the methods regulators use to catch potential cases of wrongdoing involving hedge funds -- the big, lightly regulated pools of money serving mostly wealthy investors.

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But the Wall Street-policing agency itself may come in for a drubbing over the dismissal of former lawyer Aguirre, for allegedly getting too close to a big-time executive who happens to be a major fund-raiser for President Bush.

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Daniel Strachman, managing partner of A&C Advisors, said that people knowledgeable about the trades in question may have alerted exchange officials and regulators.

"Somebody dropped a dime on them," he said about Pequot.

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It's sounding more and more like the mob every day :eyes:

(jmho, but I think these 2 cases are tied together)

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyid=2006-06-27T163313Z_01_N27350867_RTRUKOC_0_US-FINANCIAL-MORGANSTANLEY-SEC.xml&src=rss

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S securities regulators on Tuesday said Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) had agreed to pay $10 million to settle charges that it failed to maintain proper procedures to prevent the misuse of insider information.

"Morgan Stanley failed to conduct any surveillance of a massive number of employee accounts held at the firm and trading in certain securities in those and other accounts," the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said.

The firm had a "systematic breakdown" in the mandatory compliance function of monitoring accounts and the trading of certain securities to detect insider trading, the SEC said.

The SEC statement detailed five violations, some of which began as early as 1997 and continued through this year.

According to the SEC, Morgan Stanley did not conduct any "Watch List" surveillance on hundreds of thousands of employee and employee-related accounts searching for possible insider trading. A company would be added to a brokerage's watch list if the brokerage has inside information on that company.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/22/business/22wall.html?n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fM%2fMack%2c%20John%20J%2e

Morgan Stanley reported strong second-quarter results yesterday, far surpassing analysts' forecasts and providing a welcome boost to John J. Mack as he approaches his one-year anniversary as chief executive.

As with other investment banks that have already reported results, the firm's robust performance was propelled by stellar growth in trading and investment banking. Pretax profit at Morgan Stanley's institutional securities division, which is responsible for the bulk of the firm's profit, rose by 179 percent compared with the period last year.

Although that division was hit by a number of departures in the wake of last year's power struggle, yesterday's results suggest that the institutional business has survived that rough patch.

Overall earnings for the quarter were $1.9 billion, up 111 percent compared with last year. Revenue came in at $8.9 billion, an increase of 48 percent compared with last year. Earnings per share came in at $1.86.

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For the second quarter, the firm's value-at-risk ratio, a measure of the amount of risk that an investment bank bears, reached $96 million. That level was seldom reached during the time of Philip J. Purcell, Mr. Mack's predecessor, who took a more cautious approach to risk-taking.

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have included NOT using INSIDER TRADING to boost profits?

strickly on their number...You don't suppose the guys with the lower numbers we're working at some disadvantage - like NOT using insider info? Hmmm, indeed. :freak:

did Martha Stewart go to prison for insider trading or lying?

:evilgrin:

to thinking about that piece in Monday's Wrap-up again. Think of how many of Bush's buddies can hide behind that National Security BS?

http://www.financialsense.com/Market/daily/monday.htm

“The President just delegated authority to John Negroponte that allows him to exempt any publicly traded corporation that is working on national defense issues or national security issues from the reporting and accounting requirements under the 1934 Securities and Exchange Act. It's basically the rules and regulations that require companies to keep accurate records, accurate books, accurate accounting . . . and then disclose those projects and that information to investors……”

Then look back at what Dimson did for Kenny-boy:

http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/index.php?ntid=85522&ntpid=0

Lay cashed in even before Bush was sworn in as president, entering the inner circles of the new administration and using the access he had paid for to craft its agenda on the issues that mattered most to Enron.

Bush took good care of his contributor-in-chief, appointing the Enron founder as one of five members of the elite "Energy Department Transition Team," which set the stage for Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force and administration policies designed to benefit corporations such as Enron. A report on "Bush Administration Contacts with Enron," compiled at the request of U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., by the House Committee on Government Reform, found evidence of at least 112 contacts between Enron and White House or other administration officials during the month prior to the corporation's very-public collapse in late 2001.


I guess Martha just didn't have friends in low enough places. :evilgrin:

"Frankie Fingers" or something wrote that.

http://img.slate.com/id/2118326/
Where Do Mob Nicknames Come From?

that George 'Dubya' Bush gives nick names to 'close associates'? I think not.

http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=NY&last=mack&first=john

hmmmm....

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/10/04/8186791/index.htm

excerpt:

WILDCARDS: Stan O'Neal, CEO of Merrill Lynch, and John Mack, recently ousted co-CEO of Credit Suisse

hmmm.... why was he "ousted" from Credit Suisse?

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:mcfmbkBXuwsJ:www.securitiesfraudfyi.com/credit_suisse_first_boston.html+%22john+mack%22+Credit+Suisse&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=opera

Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) is an investment banking unit of Credit Suisse Group, a financial services company that operates worldwide. During the rise and fall of the telecom industry, CSFB became highly decentralized and lost a firm hold on its spending. The company and its lead technology banker, Frank Quattrone, came under investigation in a number of federal probes regarding IPO allocation practices and research analysis. In a response to the precarious standing of the company, Lukas Mühlemann, Chairman of Credit Suisse Group, brought John Mack aboard as CEO. When asked what had motivated Credit Suisse Group to replace Allen Wheat (the former CEO) with Mack, a former president of Morgan Stanley, Mühlemann focused on how Mack had a team building approach that would bring the divisions of the company together into a "cohesive whole."
Gary Lynch and Frank Quattrone

John Mack started at CSFB in July of 2001 and began hiring advisors within months. One of the experts John Mack hired was Gary Lynch. Lynch had been head of the Enforcement Division of the SEC between 1985 and 1989, and a partner for Davis Polk & Wardwell until August of 2001 - when he was hired on as CSFB's Global General Counsel. In a press release, Mack cited Lynch's "impeccable reputation for complete integrity and credibility," along with his extensive experience with regulatory matters, as reasons for his being hired.

When Frank Quattrone, CSFB's top technology banker, first faced federal investigations (2001), Lynch performed an internal inquiry and concluded that Quattrone had done nothing wrong. The decision to keep Quattrone at CSFB came as a surprise to many who had assumed he would be removed. Lynch maintained that there was no evidence of wrongdoing until January 31, 2003, when new email records were uncovered by CSFB. Quattrone was temporarily suspended from CSFB two days later. Lynch personally informed regulators of the suspension and told them that CSFB would cooperate with any necessary investigations.

...more...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/27/bloomberg/bxcs.php

excerpt:

Dougan's investment banking unit, which accounts for the largest slice of Credit Suisse's profits, returned to profitability after Grübel's former co- chief executive, John Mack, now chief executive of Morgan Stanley, slashed about 10,000 jobs. It still lags behind competitors like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group and UBS.

In the first five months of this year, Credit Suisse ranked sixth in equity underwriting, third in high-yield bonds and 12th in global takeovers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. "Although Mack cut costs and risk, he also presided over a reduction in the CSFB franchise," said Matt Spick, a Deutsche Bank analyst who rates the stock a "buy," using the investment bank's old name. "Celebrity doesn't work when managing a bank."

Tell me it ain't soooooo!!!!

http://www.horatioalger.com/members/member_info.cfm?memberid=MAC03

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20060628/cm_thenation/1596823

Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began investigating one of the nation's largest hedge funds, Pequot Capitol Management, for possible insider trading. Up until last summer, the inquiry was headed by SEC lawyer Gary Aguirre.

His investigation proceeded smoothly, Aguirre claims, until he asked for testimony from former Pequot chairman and Morgan Stanley CEO, John Mack, a top Bush donor whom Aguirre's supervisor said had "powerful political connections."

Bush accepted more money from Wall Street than any other industry for his re-election campaign and Mack was one of nine Wall Street "Rangers" who raised $200,000 for W.

Aguirre's supervisors blocked Mack's testimony and fired Aguirre on September 1, only 11 days after he received a pay increase and was praised by his boss.

"His efforts have uncovered evidence of potential insider trading and possible manipulative trading by the fund," wrote his supervisor, Robert Hanson. "He has consistently gone the extra mile, and then some."

more....

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ah3NtVbkqvIc&refer=home

June 28 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government needs to step in and regulate the $1.2 trillion hedge-fund industry or states will ``join forces'' and oversee the private investment pools, the attorney general of Connecticut told senators.

``Right now hedge funds are in a regulatory void,'' the attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, said today at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington. Federal ``inertia'' on hedge funds ``will invite state action.''

Lawmakers are heightening their scrutiny of hedge funds after the lightly regulated investment vehicles have more than doubled their assets over the past five years. A federal appeals court in Washington last week struck down U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules that required many hedge funds to register with the agency and submit to inspections of their books and records.

``This is a subject of enormous importance to the United States economy,'' said Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican and the committee's chairman.

more...

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B84B62819%2D70A9%2D4DA4%2DB9C3%2D6AAA85E210B8%7D&dist=newsfinder&symbol=&siteid=mktw

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Gary Aguirre, a former Securities and Exchange Commission investigator, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that he would limit his testimony to information that is already public after the agency warned him in a letter that providing non-public information may breach regulations. Arlen Specter, chairman of the committee, took issue with the SEC's position and said Aguirre may be able to provide full testimony during a later, private hearing. "We need to know the facts," Specter said. "This is particularly troubling when your testimony may question the propriety of the SEC itself." Aguirre has become embroiled in recent controversy over hedge funds after letters he wrote to policians and SEC Chairman Christopher Cox alleged insider trading by a leading firm in the industry.

Trying to shut the whistleblower up, again????

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/business/28donate.html?ei=5099&en=df4c5cae5a0a79c5&ex=1152158400&adxnnl=1&partner=TOPIXNEWS&adxnnlx=1151496138-+WP7KLPes98Gl3IeD794CQ

(free registration or try www.bugmenot.com)

Lawrence J. Ellison, chief executive of the Oracle Corporation and one of the world's wealthiest people, has decided not to donate $115 million to Harvard as he announced he would last year, the company confirmed yesterday.

Harvard had planned to use the donation, which would have been the largest single philanthropic donation the university had ever received, to establish the Ellison Institute for World Health, a research organization devoted to examining the efficiency of global health projects.

Mr. Ellison decided to cancel his plans for the donation after the resignation in February of Lawrence H. Summers, the president of Harvard, amid a storm of controversy.

Mr. Summers's five-year tenure at Harvard was characterized by attempts to change the university's culture and by a personal style that alienated some professors. He also had missteps, like his remarks suggesting that "intrinsic aptitude" could help explain why fewer women than men reached the highest ranks of science and math in universities.

<snip>

Mr. Ellison's announcement of the donation in June 2005 was greeted with much fanfare because of its size. Earlier this year. Mr. Ellison agreed to pay $100 million to the Ellison Medical Foundation, a separate fund, in an unusual settlement of an insider trading lawsuit.

...more...

Surely you jest, Mr. Luckovich. Has anyone ever sighted one? Maybe this is the only kind of car Luckovich knows how to draw, but someone should tell him that these creatures are usually seen driving large SUVs.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/6/prweb404208.htm

(PRWEB) June 28, 2006 -- Total Bankruptcy, already a source of extensive information about bankruptcy, credit, and the economy, has added a section reporting on the impact of mass layoffs across the country. The section includes the latest mass layoff statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, along with specific reports of recent, current, and upcoming mass layoffs across the country.

Mass layoffs impact the national economy, but their impact on local economies can be much more significant. The state of California saw nearly 50,000 jobs eliminated during April and May, 2006. That kind of concentration can create real crises in local economies, as hundreds or thousands of involuntarily unemployed workers suddenly find themselves in competition for the same limited pool of jobs.

Local economies can also be dramatically impacted by clusters of smaller layoffs, like the projected 9,000 jobs the Dayton, Ohio area expects to see eliminated by the end of the year.

Huge layoffs like those at MBNA and Sun Microsystems, which impact multiple local economies, can force people who were financially stable so long as their incomes were regular into debt -- and even into bankruptcy. More localized layoffs, like the elimination of nearly 1,000 jobs at two North Carolina Furniture Brands, International (Broyhill / Pacemaker) plants, can have the same impact in a smaller region.

Other recent and upcoming significant layoffs:

Whirlpool Corp.: 4,500 employees at Maytag plants in Herrin, Illinois; Newton, Iowa; and Searcy, Arkansas.

...more...

and here's the Mass Layoffs website address:

http://www.totalbankruptcy.com/mass_layoffs_across_us.htm

However, the two-year/10-year yield spread steepened slightly as overnight weakness in Japan's stock market, where the Nikkei index dropped 1.9 percent, created a bid for shorter-dated Treasuries, traders said.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B997D1417%2DB01F%2D4C3C%2DB00A%2D0F02448D750B%7D&dist=newsfinder&symbol=&siteid=mktw

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - An Wednesday afternoon Treasury Department auction of $14 billion in new 5-year notes meet with fairly soft demand. The indirect bid, a carefully watched category that includes foreign central banks, was well below average at 18.3%, reigniting concerns that foreign governments are diversifying away from dollar-denominated assets. The bid-to-cover - or bids accepted to bids rendered - ratio was somewhat weak at 2.05. The auction produced a high yield of 5.203% and a median yield of 5.184%.

1:07 PM ET 6/28/06 CORRECT: 5-YR NOTE AUCTION HAS WEAK 18.3% INDIRECT BID

1:03 PM ET 6/28/06 5-YR TREASURY NOTE AUCTION HAS 5.184% MEDIAN YIELD

1:03 PM ET 6/28/06 5-YR TREASURY NOTE AUCTION HAS 5.184% MEDIAN YIELD

1:04 PM ET 6/28/06 5-YR TREASURY NOTE AUCTION PRODUCES 2.05 BID-TO-COVER RATIO

1:02 PM ET 6/28/06 5-YR TREASURY NOTE AUCTION HAS 5.203% HIGH YIELD

Let the games begin ;)

Dow 10,941.54 +16.80 (+0.15%)
Nasdaq 2,101.13 +0.88 (+0.04%)
S&P 500 1,242.17 +2.97 (+0.24%)
10-Yr Bond 5.216 +0.06 (+0.12%)

NYSE Volume 124,676,000
Nasdaq Volume 110,309,000

09:40 am : Despite a limited batch of market-moving news items to account for the improvement in sentiment, stocks kick off the morning on an upbeat note. A sense that sharp declines across the board yesterday may have been overdone, which left the Dow with its worst one-day loss (-1.1%) in more than three weeks and the Nasdaq down 1.6%, has spurred some early bargain-hunting interest. However, early gains remain modest at best as the Fed is about to begin its two-day meeting to discuss monetary policy. Uncertainty surrounding the central bankers' tightening actions has produced choppy trading conditions that are likely to continue as investors sort out their hopes and fears ahead of the Fed's closely-watched policy directive tomorrow. DJ30 +17.54 NASDAQ +3.35 SP500 +3.69 NASDAQ Vol 82 mln NYSE Vol 68 mln

http://www.321gold.com/editorials/daughty/daughty062806.html

snip>

For instance, how about the spookiness of almost no increase in Total Fed Credit last week? $1.1 billion was almost nothing! Even Currency in Circulation is holding steady.

snip>

So this is getting to be serious business here, because new money has to always (homework assignment: Underline the word "always" and meditate on its significance) be coming from somewhere, more and more all the time, as that is the whole point of a Ponzi finance scheme. It's the only thing that makes it work: You either come up with more money, always, all the time, forever, or prices of some things go down. Or the prices of most things go down. Or the prices of all things go down. I dunno; I never was good at multiple-choice questions, and I am not going to try and answer this one, either.

snip>

-- Tony Cherniawski of The Practical Investor newsletter cites an article in Today's CNNMoney that states "Hedge fund transactions now make up 30 percent of all trades in the nation's stock exchanges, and they can have a major impact on the markets. The funds control an estimated $1.2 trillion in assets, according to the report."

He asks the burning question "Could it be that a few too many hedge funds are caught on the wrong side of their trades?" Without even waiting for me to hazard a guess, he immediately goes on to say "Next week will tell, since most hedge funds must provide their investors a liquidity option at the end of every quarter. Since things are not going well for the markets, those exercising their options may cause what is known as a 'crowded trade.' As the Wall Street Journal puts it in yesterday's article, 'Hedge funds are vulnerable to 'runs on the bank,' where investors worried about their investments demand (too many) withdrawals all at once. Thus, a string of difficulties in the market can quickly evolve into a crisis for a hedge fund as managers sell more and more losing investment positions to satisfy those seeking to withdraw their money.' "

-- I have always maintained that investing in the stock market, over the long term, is a net-loss game, and it should never be considered a part of saving for retirement. And I say this because the stock market must be, in the long run, a net-loss to the average investor. How could it NOT be? Where did the money come from to pay Wall Street hustlers trillions of dollars, and also pay all the people who heretofore "made money" from this type of investing, if not from you and me and other investors? And it actually DOES come from you and me and other investors, as the clever Bill Bonner at DailyReckoning.com puts it, "In order for markets to function as they do, most investors must be wrong most of the time."

more...

:sarcasm:

when I read that one - how they provide the much needed "extra liquidity". Then that little piece by Liu last week speculating on an "orchestrated crash". :tinfoilhat:
I'm with Mogambo on this one :scared: :hide: :yoiks:

Dow 10,945.07 +20.33 (+0.19%)
Nasdaq 2,101.85 +1.61 (+0.08%)
S&P 500 1,242.04 +2.84 (+0.23%)
10-Yr Bond 5.218 +0.08 (+0.15%)

NYSE Volume 436,424,000
Nasdaq Volume 364,559,000

10:30 am : Little changed since the last update as stocks settle into a relatively tight trading range. While the absence of notable economic data ahead of today's two-day FOMC meeting is offering some early relief for investors, since policy makers have made it clear that they will base monetary policy on "incoming" data, an update from the Energy Dept. on weekly oil supplies could invite some volatility, especially with high gas prices on the minds of so many travelers heading into the 4th of July weekend.DJ30 +25.21 NASDAQ +3.32 SP500 +3.47 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1229/1374/340 mln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1028/1818/292 mln

10:00 am : Equities are still on the offensive as the bulk of industry leadership remains modestly positive. The blue chip indices are benefiting from relative strength in Financials, which has limped into positive territory for the year, and renewed enthusiasm for the underperforming Health Care sector. Energy is also lending some early support amid a modest rise in oil prices ahead of weekly inventories data (10:30 ET). The Nasdaq, though, which briefly slipped into the red, is now struggling to stay positive. Further deterioration in the semiconductor group following multiple analyst downgrades (e.g. ALTR -2.3%, MRVL -4.2%, XLNX -2.4%) and Rambus (RMBS 20.14 -2.99) warning that stock-option errors may require past financials to be restated have left the Tech sector as this morning's only disappointment. DJ30 +26.33 NASDAQ +3.07 SOX -1.1% SP500 +3.74 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1303/1105/202 mln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 846/1810/164 mln

gotta run for a while - see you all later :hi:

is this the beginning of the downward spiral??????

10:58
Dow 10,932.34 +7.60 (+0.07%)
Nasdaq 2,098.28 -1.97 (-0.09%)
S&P 500 1,240.37 +1.17 (+0.09%)
10-yr Bond 52.24 +0.14 (+0.27%)
30-yr Bond 52.59 +0.20 (+0.38%)
NYSE Volume 585,111,000
Nasdaq Volume 477,213,000

10:30 am : Little changed since the last update as stocks settle into a relatively tight trading range. While the absence of notable economic data ahead of today's two-day FOMC meeting is offering some early relief for investors, since policy makers have made it clear that they will base monetary policy on "incoming" data, an update from the Energy Dept. on weekly oil supplies could invite some volatility, especially with high gas prices on the minds of so many travelers heading into the 4th of July weekend.DJ30 +25.21 NASDAQ +3.32 SP500 +3.47 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1229/1374/340 mln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1028/1818/292 mln

10:00 am : Equities are still on the offensive as the bulk of industry leadership remains modestly positive. The blue chip indices are benefiting from relative strength in Financials, which has limped into positive territory for the year, and renewed enthusiasm for the underperforming Health Care sector. Energy is also lending some early support amid a modest rise in oil prices ahead of weekly inventories data (10:30 ET). The Nasdaq, though, which briefly slipped into the red, is now struggling to stay positive. Further deterioration in the semiconductor group following multiple analyst downgrades (e.g. ALTR -2.3%, MRVL -4.2%, XLNX -2.4%) and Rambus (RMBS 20.14 -2.99) warning that stock-option errors may require past financials to be restated have left the Tech sector as this morning's only disappointment. DJ30 +26.33 NASDAQ +3.07 SOX -1.1% SP500 +3.74 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1303/1105/202 mln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 846/1810/164 mln

up in real time. Wonder if there's support for the 50 bp bump rumor floating around.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4008084.html

NEW YORK - The average American CEO earns more in a half day of work than a minimum wage worker takes home all year, according to a study published on Tuesday.

The Economic Policy Institute said earnings data shows the average chief executive earned 821 times as much as a minimum wage worker, the highest gap ever.

"This extreme compensation ratio reflects both the extraordinary growth of CEO pay and also the diminishing value of the federal minimum wage that has not been raised since 1997," said Lawrence Mishel, president of the research group.

"Adjusting for inflation, the purchasing power of the minimum wage is now at its lowest since 1955."

bit more...

Geez, this makes the bickering over raising the minimum wage seem like a sick joke.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=34428&dcn=todaysnews

The overall cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other global anti-terror operations since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will top $500 billion next year, according to congressional estimates and expectations of future funding.

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said in a report that through the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the government will have spent $437 billion on overseas military and foreign aid funding. That includes the latest supplemental spending bill signed into law this month, which provided $69 billion for the war effort.


Add in roughly $1.5 billion in fiscal 2007 Foreign Operations funds for Iraq and Afghanistan; $50 billion in Pentagon "bridge" funds for the first half of fiscal 2007, plus as-yet-undetermined supplemental funds for the remainder of the next fiscal year, and total war-related costs will easily soar over $500 billion one year from now.


At least $37 billion or so will have gone to the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development for Iraq and Afghanistan reconstruction, embassy operations and other foreign aid programs. War costs alone are expected to be at least $450 billion, not including the expected supplemental request early next year.


Even assuming an eventual troop drawdown to 74,000 by fiscal 2010, war costs between fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2016 could total another $371 billion, the report said. Adding that to the $437 billion appropriated through the end of this fiscal year, total costs would reach $808 billion by fiscal 2016.

snip>

Congressional analysts are a bit mystified at the rapidly escalating costs.....

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aaw2ejMShsK8&refer=latin_america

June 28 (Bloomberg) -- The World Trade Organization must reach agreements on cuts to agricultural subsidies, tariffs and duties on industrial products this week or risk wrecking its five-year negotiations, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said.

Trade ministers from more than 40 nations are meeting in Geneva from tomorrow through July 2 in a bid to wrap up what Lamy calls the ``user manual'' for an eventual final accord. Agreeing on the basic formulas is a prerequisite for meeting an end-July deadline for governments to submit their commitments for lowering tariffs and subsidies.

``It is the moment of truth,'' Lamy told a news conference today. ``We cannot postpone any longer this decision. If we were to do that, it would put the entire project at risk.''

WTO negotiators have been struggling for months to produce the blueprint of a deal worth at least $96 billion to the global economy, according to World Bank estimates. With the European Union, the U.S., Brazil and India squabbling over the details, the talks are running against a Dec. 31 deadline as the end of the Bush administration's mandate from Congress looms.

more...

Dow 10,915.29 -9.45 (-0.09%)
Nasdaq 2,092.48 -7.77 (-0.37%)
S&P 500 1,238.61 -0.59 (-0.05%)
10-Yr Bond 5.222 +0.12 (+0.23%)

NYSE Volume 789,664,000
Nasdaq Volume 636,916,000

11:30 am : Stocks continue to lose steam as all three major averages are now trading below the flat line. Reversals in AXP, GE, and DIS have contributed to the Dow's inability to reclaim some of yesterday's 1.1% decline. The Nasdaq is faring even worse as the lack of enthusiasm for tech continues. Chip stocks are again suffering the brunt of the pressure as the PHLX Semi Sector Index is now down 15% for the quarter. DJ30 -18.97 NASDAQ -7.86 SOX -1.8% SP500 -1.18 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1643/1123/594 mln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1490/1519/526 mln

11:00 am : Major averages now trade in split fashion as early momentum begins to fade. Crude oil prices spiking higher and briefly flirting with $73 per barrel has benefited the Energy sector, which is at session highs (+1.3%). Oil has gotten a boost following an unexpected drawdown in weekly gasoline inventories and a larger than expected decline in crude oil supplies. However, Energy's leadership and the sector's potential to again post record earnings is currently being offset by the impact higher gas prices may have on consumption patterns now that the summer driving season is fully underway. DJ30 +5.04 NASDAQ -2.39 SP500 +1.07 XOI +1.3% NASDAQ Vol 472 mln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1128/1827/412 mln

Dow 10,971.40 +46.66 (+0.43%)
Nasdaq 2,110.89 +10.64 (+0.51%)
S&P 500 1,245.97 +6.77 (+0.55%)
10-Yr Bond 5.239 +0.29 (+0.56%)

NYSE Volume 1,578,457,000
Nasdaq Volume 1,300,858,000

3:00 pm : The indices continue to retrace morning highs and are now hitting their best levels of the day as buyers reclaim control of the action. With only two days remaining before Q2 comes to a close, some end-of-the-quarter window dressing on the part of portfolio managers appears to be contributing to the late-day recovery since all three indices rising in synch with each other, and turning in relatively the same performances (+0.4%) suggests program trading is behind the broad-based move to the upside. DJ30 +43.30 NASDAQ +9.56 SP500 +6.47 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1397/1550/1.24 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1305/1876/1.09 bln

2:30 pm : Major averages regain some momentum within the last 30 minutes, spearheaded by a turnaround in the Tech sector. Intel's (INTC 18.57 +0.52) 2.9% surge is helping to offset some of the losses in chip stocks while the software group inching into positive territory is also providing a lift. Nonetheless, without renewed enthusiasm for other beaten down tech giants (e.g. MSFT +1.1%, QCOM +0.9%, DELL +1.1%), investors are still selling the quarter's biggest losing groups, like semiconductor and networking which are off 15% and 19%, respectively, since the end of March. DJ30 +35.25 NASDAQ +6.41 SOX -0.8% SP500 +5.25 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1705/1243/1.10 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1589/1577/988 mln

Dow 10,963.95 +39.21 (+0.36%)
Nasdaq 2,109.68 +9.43 (+0.45%)
S&P 500 1,245.40 +6.20 (+0.50%)
10-Yr Bond 5.245 +0.35 (+0.67%)

NYSE Volume 1,787,863,000
Nasdaq Volume 1,450,439,000

3:30 pm : Market is off session highs but still holding onto the bulk of the day's modest gains as all 10 economic sectors remain positive. Energy is leading the charge (+1.8%) as oil prices, which briefly turned negative on the session, managed to close modestly higher and stay above $72 per barrel. Among all 29 sector components posting gains, Hess Corp (HES 50.31 +2.11) is turning in the best performance (+4.4%) following an upgrade from Merrill Lynch and is providing support for fellow Integrated Oil and Gas companies like XOM (+2.3%), COP (+2.1%) and BP (+1.4%). DJ30 +34.97 NASDAQ +8.57 SP500 +5.73 XOI +2.0% NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1463/1501/1.37 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1288/1903/1.22 bln

:crazy:

I played Puts today and did well, just wish I would have played a Call play on Garmin(GRMN - maker of GPS equipment - usually a top 10 out of the IBD's top 100) in the last half hour of trading, but buying a call right before the Fed's announcement is pretty much suicide unless you have insider information.

Let's see what the language is in the Fed's report will tell us for August ;)

Dow 10,973.56 +48.82 (+0.45%)
Nasdaq 2,111.84 +11.59 (+0.55%)
S&P 500 1,246.00 +6.80 (+0.55%)
10-Yr Bond 5.245 +0.35 (+0.67%)

NYSE Volume 2,032,279,000
Nasdaq Volume 1,648,073,000

Stocks regained some momentum late in Wednesday's trading, as oversold conditions beckoned for a bounce while easing geopolitical concerns and some portfolio rebalancing helped improve sentiment ahead of another widely anticipated Fed rate hike. The indices closed near session highs.

On the heels of a session in which the Dow logged its worst single-day percentage loss in more than three weeks, and a 1.6% sell-off on the Nasdaq that left the tech-laden index down 4.8% for the year, a sense that losses may have been excessive, especially given the lack of overwhelming evidence to support such a broad-based pullback, lent some early support. That is, until ongoing uncertainty surrounding what the Fed policy statement will imply about the need for more rate hikes tomorrow continued to act as an overhang on the market that kept stocks in a typical holding pattern heading into the culmination of a two-day FOMC meeting Thursday at 2:15 ET.

Be that as it may, in a market where limited participation can lead to volatile trading, news hitting the wires around 2:00 ET that Sunni insurgent groups will halt attacks if the U.S. removes its troops from the region provided just the right anecdote for a market obsessed with what the Fed may or may not say in its policy statement. As has been the case lately, volume on the NYSE did not surpass 1.0 bln shares until 2:30 ET.

With only two days remaining before Q2 comes to a close, some end-of-the-quarter window dressing on the part of portfolio managers also contributed to the late-day recovery that kept sellers on the sidelines into the close. All three indices rose in synch with each other and logged roughly the same percentage gains, which suggests that program trading was behind the broad-based move to the upside.

All ten economic sectors posted gains today, with energy pacing the way higher with a 2.0% gain. Crude oil prices, which briefly turned negative on the session, managed to close modestly higher and stay above $72 per barrel. An analyst upgrade on Hess Corp (HES 50.31 +2.11) and a larger than expected drawdown in crude stockpiles last week provided additional sector support.

The resilience of the rate-sensitive Financials sector, which inched back into positive territory for the year despite nervousness throughout the Treasury market ahead of tomorrow's Fed statement, was also worth noting. A report showing catastrophe bond issuance is on the rise renewed interest in struggling reinsurer Marsh and McLennan (MMC 26.96 +1.04) while Wells Fargo (WFC 66.25 +1.11) raising its dividend, announcing a 2-for-1 split, and setting a 25 mln share buyback also incited bargain hunters to take another look at the underperforming sector. Meanwhile, the spread between the 2-yr and 10-yr note remained inverted, as yields across the curve were at or near the projected fed funds rate of 5.25%.

Further, Technology's ability to hold onto modest gains in the face of rising interest rates that continue to question the valuations of growth stocks and further deterioration in the influential semiconductor group, also played a role in the market's ability to turn in a respectable performance.BTK -0.2% DJ30 +48.82 DJUA +0.5% DOT +0.2% NASDAQ +11.59 NQ100 +0.7% R2K +0.2% SOX -0.6% SP400 +0.1% SP500 +6.80 XOI +1.9% NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1398/1606/1.64 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1280/1972/1.49 bln

I won't be around long tomorrow and won't be here at all on Friday - you other marketeers and lurkers will have to keep the FedSpew and all noteworthy items out there for the world to see :D

:hi:

And have a fun extended weekend!

with the US (huh?) all is going to be just dandy!

Thanks for the good wishes, Roland - hoping for a break - we'll see :shrug:

insurgents, not "real" terrorists like them seven sonsofabitches in Miami. :sarcasm:

Exactly what "region" are we being asked to withdraw from anyway? Dang, step out to make a buck and miss all sorts of market moving news.

made here?
http://www.businessjive.com/nss/darkside.html

Link above was posted at this thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1526150

some errands to run right now. Looks mighty interesting!