STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 19 March 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 19 March 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 18 March 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 18 March 2014
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Dow Jones 16,336.19 +88.97 (0.55%)
S&P 500 1,872.25 +13.42 (0.72%)
[font color=black]Nasdaq 4,333.31 0.00 (0.00%)

[font color=green]10 Year 2.67% -0.02 (-0.74%)
30 Year 3.61% -0.02 (-0.55%)[font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

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


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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.
02/06/14 Matthew Martoma convicted of insider trading while at hedge fund SAC (Stephen A. Cohen) Capital Advisors. Expected sentence 7-10 years.








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

[kickysnana]

1. Link WillPitt What I've learned about the Affordable Care Act

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024685964

============
Also: http://drphil.com/shows/show/2193

Dr Phil had a family that was referred to MassGen for additional workup for a 15 year old daughter with mitochondrial disease. Within days MassGen took her off her medicine, referred the CT family to DCF for endangering their daughter. When she came into the hospital she was sick but walking, not anymore, is losing her hair and require oxygen to walk but in a psychiatric wing she is being treated for somnambulist disorder.

Dad said, nobody believes this can happen. All the experts there from other states say that this was a abuse of their ability to claim harm when none was happening. The parents were following order to the letter the doctors from Tufts. There has been no interview with the family and no plan put forth for reunification of the family but they are talking about putting her in foster care

I say it happened to lost of kids with Lyme Disease so it can happen to anyone until they get a better system. DCF refers to MassGen and MassGen refers to DCF.

[DemReadingDU]

2. WillPitt: Worse Than the Mob: The Insurance Industry Is Organized Crime

3/6/14 Worse Than the Mob: The Insurance Industry Is Organized Crime
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024616679
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/22279-william-rivers-pitt-worse-than-the-mob-the-insurance-industry-is-organized-crime

[tclambert]

3. And the insurance industry was granted an exemption from anti-trust laws.

Not that anyone else fears anti-trust laws, either . . .

[jtuck004]

4. Discouraging...

[xchrom]

5. MONITOR: BIG BANKS SATISFY MORTGAGE SETTLEMENT

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MORTGAGE_SETTLEMENT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-03-18-18-55-25

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's four biggest banks slashed billions of dollars from mortgages and other debts, enough to satisfy their obligations under a national mortgage settlement that stemmed from so-called robo-signing.

A report on Tuesday from the monitor overseeing the settlement says Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., and Wells Fargo & Co. have provided some $50 billion in relief to more than 600,000 borrowers.

The settlement, reached in February 2012, was prompted by disclosures that some mortgage-servicing companies had processed foreclosures without verifying documents. The problem became especially severe after housing prices crashed around the time of the 2008 financial crisis and the number of foreclosures soared.

Because of the settlement, banks cut the size of mortgage balances, modified loans and allowed homeowners to sell their house for less than they owed. It also let some borrowers refinance even though they wouldn't usually qualify because they owed too much.

[xchrom]

6. LONDON 'DRAINING LIFE' FROM REST OF UK ECONOMY

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_WEALTH_GAP_TALE_OF_TWO_BRITAINS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-03-19-03-08-01

LONDON (AP) -- There's London. And then there's the rest of the U.K.

A tale of two Britains has increasingly emerged since the Great Recession. While the government trumpets the country's recovery from the financial crisis and its status as the world's fastest-growing developed economy, the rhetoric hides an increasing divide: One that pits London's boom against the malaise in cities such as Manchester and Birmingham that are struggling to remain vibrant in the 21st century.

Buoyed by foreign investment and a resurgent financial industry, the economy of London and the rest of Britain's South East region has expanded almost twice as fast as the rest of the country since the 2008 financial crisis. A chasm that began opening with the decline of Britain's textile and coal industries a century ago is widening as London's ability to attract jobs and investment leaves the rest of the country struggling.

Britain's economy is, by some calculations, the most dependent on a single urban area among the world's most industrialized nations.

[xchrom]

7. GLOBAL STOCKS SUBDUED AHEAD OF FED NEWS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-03-19-05-50-20

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Global stock markets were subdued Wednesday ahead of the outcome of the Federal Reserve's first policy meeting under its new chief.

In early European trading, stock markets were mostly muted with tensions over Russia's annexation of Crimea still in the background. Germany's DAX added 0.4 percent to 9,275.99 while France's CAC 40 drifted 0.2 percent lower to 4,306.34. Britain's FTSE 100 shed 0.1 percent to 6,601.01.

On Wall Street, stocks were poised to gain with Dow Jones and Standard & Poor's 500 futures each up 0.1 percent.

The U.S. Federal Reserve ends a two-day policy meeting Wednesday, the first headed by new governor Janet Yellen.

[xchrom]

8. Osborne to stick to austerity course with new budget plan

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/uk-britain-budget-idUKBREA2I00820140319

(Reuters) - Chancellor George Osborne will announce a pre-election budget on Wednesday that is likely to offer some tax relief to voters but will stick closely to his tough decade-long plan to fix the public finances.

Britain goes to the polls in May 2015 and the annual budget plan is one of the government's last opportunities to make a difference to how people feel about their finances before then.

But Osborne is seeking to turn his focus on austerity into a trump card in the fight against the opposition Labour party, which remains a few percentage points ahead of the Conservatives.

"The question for (Labour) is why would you give the keys back to the person who crashed the car?" Osborne told the BBC on Sunday when he again sought to remind voters how Labour was in power when the financial crisis of 2007-09 tipped Britain into a deep recession and exposed its shaky public coffers.

[xchrom]

9. French FM to visit Cuba in sign of warming EU ties

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/uk-france-cuba-eu-idUKBREA2I0SN20140319

(Reuters) - France's foreign minister said on Wednesday he would soon travel to Cuba, the first such visit in 30 years and a sign of the quickening pace of improving ties between the European Union and Havana.

Cuba this month accepted a proposal by the EU to open negotiations on a new political accord, saying it was willing to talk about human rights as part of discussions that would end what it considers a one-sided relationship with Europe.

On February 10, the EU agreed to begin negotiations with Cuba to increase trade, investment and dialogue on human rights in its most significant diplomatic shift since it lifted sanctions on the communist-ruled country in 2008.

"I will soon go to Cuba, which is something new," Laurent Fabius said during a news conference with his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Alberto Figueiredo.

[xchrom]

10. Japan business mood steady in March, but seen weakening - Reuters Tankan

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/uk-japan-economy-tankan-idUKBREA2H2CF20140319

(Reuters) - Confidence at Japanese manufacturers held steady in March but is seen weakening over the next three months, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday as firms prepare for a sales tax rise next month that some expect will hurt economic momentum.

Sentiment at non-manufacturers, including retailers who have benefited from consumers bringing forward purchases to beat the tax rise, rose 1 point to a record high of plus 31 points, the Reuters Tankan for March showed.

However, the monthly Reuters survey, which closely correlates with the Bank of Japan's tankan, showed the service-sector mood index is expected to drop to plus 14 points by June.

Compared with three months ago, the Reuters Tankan showed sentiment for both manufacturers and service-sector firms had improved slightly, pointing to steady readings in the BOJ's quarterly tankan.

[xchrom]

11. Exclusive - States to probe Comcast plan to buy Time Warner Cable

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/uk-timewarnercable-comcast-states-idUKBREA2I0VL20140319


(Reuters) - Florida is part of a "multistate group" that will join the U.S. Justice Department in evaluating if Comcast Corp's plan to merge with Time Warner Cable Inc. is legal under U.S. antitrust law, Florida said in a statement to Reuters.

It was not known how many states had joined the task force.

Indiana officials were also looking at the deal, said a spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office, who did not indicate if Indiana was part of the multi-state group.

The attorneys general group is focused on broadband rather than cable in assessing the $45.2 billion deal, according to a source familiar with the effort who was not authorized to speak on the record.

[xchrom]

12. New York seeks curbs on high-frequency trading

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26637465


New York's attorney general has called for curbs on services provided to high-frequency traders.

In particular Eric Schneiderman highlighted services that allow traders to get faster access to information.

He said traders can make "rapid and often risk-free trades before the rest of the market can react".

High frequency trading is where firms create sophisticated computer programs to buy and sell stocks in milliseconds, faster than any human.

[xchrom]

13. Budget: UK is fastest growing economy -George Osborne

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-26632862

Britain is growing at a faster rate than any other advanced economy, Chancellor George Osborne has told MPs.

He revised growth forecasts up to 2.7% in 2014 but warned the job of recovery was "far from done".

The Chancellor is delivering his fifth budget in the House of Commons.

He is expected to unveil measures to shore up economic recovery and help working people with the cost of living - and more tax breaks to boost productivity.

[xchrom]

14. JPMorgan Agrees to Sell Commodities Unit for $3.5 Billion

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-19/jpmorgan-said-to-agree-on-sale-of-commodities-unit-to-mercuria.html

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) agreed to sell its physical commodities unit to Mercuria Energy Group Ltd., ending the bank’s five-year foray into owning and storing raw materials and vaulting the Swiss firm closer to the world’s biggest commodity traders.

Mercuria will pay $3.5 billion in cash for the unit, according to a statement from the New York-based bank today.

“Our goal from the outset was to find a buyer that was interested in preserving the value of JPMorgan’s physical business,” Blythe Masters, head of the company’s global commodities business, said in the statement. “Mercuria is a global leader in the commodities markets and an excellent long-term home for these businesses.”

JPMorgan is selling amid concern that banks could control prices if they own commodities as well as trade them, or suffer catastrophic losses that would endanger the financial system. The Federal Reserve said in July it might force insured lenders to get out, and JPMorgan agreed later that month to pay $410 million to settle claims that it manipulated power markets, without admitting wrongdoing.

[xchrom]

15. Pound Extends World-Beating Surge as BOE Sees Further Increases

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-19/pound-rises-before-boe-minutes-unemployment-data-gilts-fall.html

The pound, the best-performing major currency in the past year, strengthened after the Bank of England said there’s a risk of future gains as Britain’s economy recovers amid falling unemployment.

Sterling climbed against all of its 16 major peers as Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne prepared to lay out a budget focused on securing Britain’s economic recovery. The pound has gained 10 percent in the past 12 months, the best performer among 10 developed-nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes, on signs accelerating growth will prompt the Bank of England to raise interest rates sooner than it projected. U.K. government bonds declined.

“It’s our base case scenario that the pound goes higher,” said Steven Saywell, global head of foreign-exchange strategy at BNP Paribas SA in London. “Despite the recent weakness in sterling, particularly against the euro, expectations are for sterling to rise again if the data continues to come out stronger.”

[xchrom]

16. Trading Probe Breaks String of Gains for U.S. Exchange Operators

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-18/speed-probe-hits-exchange-stocks-amid-signs-of-life-in-markets.html


Things had been improving for U.S. stock exchanges, with volume rising, the bull market entering its sixth year and investors coming back to the market.

The run of luck was broken yesterday by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is probing whether U.S. markets are giving high-frequency traders unfair advantages by offering faster access and data than is normally available to the public. Nasdaq OMX Group Inc.’s stock fell the most in seven months.

For exchange executives, Schneiderman’s inquiry threatens to revive public scrutiny that peaked in the aftermath of the 2010 flash crash, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell almost 1,000 points in a matter of minutes. It’s raising questions about the fairness of markets just as Virtu Financial Inc., a high-frequency trader that has earned money every day but one for five years, prepares for an initial public offering.

“The investigation is totally appropriate,” Brian Barish, who helps oversee about $10 billion as president and chief investment officer of Denver-based Cambiar Investors LLC, said in a phone interview. “There is something ethically wrong with providing a certain group of individuals preferential access to information and preferential timing.”

[xchrom]

17. Greece Recovery Gains Momentum in First Bank Bond Sale Since ’09

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-18/piraeus-spurs-busiest-first-quarter-for-europe-junk-bond-sales.html

Greece’s comeback from an international bailout that roiled world markets and threatened to cause a breakup of the euro is underway.

Piraeus Bank SA (TPEIR) sold 500 million euros ($697 million) of bonds yesterday in the first public debt sale from a Greek lender since 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At the same time, Infrastructure Minister Michalis Chrisochoides said Greece will probably sell debt for the first time in four years before May as the nation seeks to rebuild its finances.

“I don’t think Piraeus could have brought this deal a year ago but now the situation in the periphery has greatly improved,” said Volker Marnet-Islinger, head of corporate bond investment at Deka Investment GmbH in Frankfurt who helps oversee about 22 billion euros of bonds. “We’re seeing huge order books for high-yield deals.”

The newfound confidence mirrors sentiment toward the euro zone as a whole. Government bond yields from the peripheral nations of Greece to Ireland have sunk to the least since at least 2010 as the recovery from the sovereign-debt crisis gains momentum. Greece’s bonds have earned 18 percent this year through March 17, the most among 15 euro-area debt markets tracked by Bloomberg World Bond Indexes. Portugal’s returned 10 percent, and Spain’s gained 5.3 percent.

[xchrom]

18. Citigroup Sees Equity Solutions Fueling Derivatives Sales

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-19/citigroup-sees-equity-solutions-fueling-derivatives-sales.html

Customized trades may generate half the equity-derivatives revenue at Citigroup Inc. (C) within two years as investment banks seek to offset lower profit from stock broking and clients demand services beyond traditional dealing.

Equity solutions, such as structured products that allow clients to bet on a particular theme, will increase from the current low-double-digit share of the revenue generated by the bank’s derivatives and Delta One desk, Mike Pringle, Citigroup’s global head of equity trading, said in an interview.

The equity business “is undergoing the most rapid reinvention of the client base and what the stock market actually means,” London-based Pringle said in an interview. “That is only going to continue at an extremely rapid pace.” Exact figures are difficult to pinpoint as the offerings straddle business units, he said.

Citigroup, which ranks 10th by equity-trading revenue, generates almost two-fifths of its $3 billion in annual sales from derivatives. Investment banks are tempering the effect of lower stock-trading volumes and tighter commissions with higher-margin bespoke contracts that track underlying securities, often coupled with additional benefits such as hedges and leverage.

[xchrom]

19. Irish Bad Bank Said to Plan Sale of $418 Million Property Loans

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-19/irish-bad-bank-said-to-plan-sale-of-418-million-property-loans.html

Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency is preparing to sell real estate loans with a face value of more than 300 million euros ($418 million) as demand for property rises, three people with knowledge of the plan said.

The assets, linked to Irish developer Gerry Conlan, will be sold at a discount, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. David Clerkin, a NAMA spokesman at public relations firm Gordon MRM, declined to comment. Conlan also wouldn’t comment.

NAMA is planning to sell property portfolios valued at 250 million euros or more in each quarter of this year, Ireland’s bad bank said in February. The assets include groups of hotels, offices, retail spaces in Ireland and the U.K. and multifamily apartments, NAMA’s head of asset recovery Ronnie Hanna said March 13 at the MIPIM real estate conference in Cannes, France.

The group of assets for sale linked to Conlan, known as Project Spring, will not include the Mount Carmel hospital in Dublin, two of the people said. The hospital petitioned the High Court in Dublin to appoint a liquidator, according to NAMA, which holds Mount Carmel’s assets as loan collateral.

[xchrom]

20. Smuggled Gold in Flower Pots Defying India Import Limits

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-19/smuggled-gold-in-flower-pots-defying-india-import-limits.html

Returning home to the southern Indian state of Kerala from Dubai last month, 27-year-old welder Mohammed Ahmed Jaffer was arrested after customs agents said they discovered gold in the lining of his brass flower pot.

Jaffer allegedly was offered 30,000 rupees ($491) from an importer seeking to bring in 1 kilogram of bullion valued at about $50,000 without paying the 10 percent customs tax, case documents made available to Bloomberg show. Such stories have become commonplace in India, where the government raised duties on gold three times last year and illegal imports almost doubled to about 200 metric tons, the World Gold Council estimates.

“Smuggling is like cancer,” said T.S. Kalyanaraman, the billionaire chairman of Thrissur, India-based Kalyan Jewellers Ltd., which sells everything from necklaces to pendants at 55 stores in India and the United Arab Emirates. “It will spoil the country’s economy. If they continue this arrangement, it will be a heavy loss for the country.”

While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s increase in gold levies was intended to help fix India’s record current-account deficit, the move is also fostering the black market for smuggled metal to a country that was the world’s largest buyer in 2012. Based on last year’s average price, the value of illegally imported gold in 2013 totaled about $9 billion, or more than twice the annual revenue of Signet Jewelers Ltd., the largest U.S. jewelry chain.

[xchrom]

21. Swedish Banks Tighten Amortization Rules to Stem Debt Growth

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-19/swedish-bankers-tighten-amortization-rules-to-stem-debt-growth.html


Sweden’s main bank association recommended lenders force more borrowers to pay down their home loans as regulators and the government are working on a “road map” for stricter rules to halt a buildup in consumer debt.

The Swedish Bankers’ Association will ask banks to force households to amortize on all mortgages that exceed 70 percent of their property’s value, from a previous level of 75 percent, the group said today in an op-ed in newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

“Many households do not build a necessary buffer for their mortgage and a more healthy credit culture needs to be created,” Thomas Oestros, head of the association, wrote.

Low rates over the past years and a limited housing supply have fueled a surge in home prices and pushed debt levels to records in the $550 billion economy. Officials are working on a set of rules that will span several years of regulation to get debt growth under control and lower financial risks. They have signaled they will present a plan in the spring.

[xchrom]

22. McDonald’s Vietnam Served 400,000 in First Month, Owner Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-18/mcdonald-s-vietnam-served-400-000-in-first-month-owner-says.html


McDonald’s Corp. (MCD)’s first Vietnamese branch served more than 400,000 customers in its first month of business, according to the company’s local partner in the Southeast Asian nation.

The first outlet in Vietnam of the world’s largest restaurant chain opened Feb. 8 in Ho Chi Minh City. About 22,500 customers were served during the first 24 hours of operation, said Henry Nguyen, owner of Good Day Hospitality, which operates McDonald’s in Vietnam under a franchise arrangement.

The first month’s number of customers served exceeded “even what we thought were pretty high expectations,” Nguyen said at an investment conference today in Ho Chi Minh City, without giving a figure for initial targets. The restaurant sold 61,980 Big Macs in its first 30 days of business, Nguyen said.

The second outlet in the country also will be in Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen said.

[xchrom]

23. The Chinese Currency Just Fell To A Key Level And Billions Of Dollars Are At Stake

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-chinas-yuan-slides-to-near-one-year-low-as-economic-risks-mount-2014-19

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's yuan fell beyond 6.20 to the dollar on Wednesday for the first time since April last year amid market speculation the central bank will keep the currency weak as economic growth slows.
The yuan has tumbled 0.8 percent so far this week after the People's Bank of China (PBOC) on Saturday doubled the daily trading band allowed for the currency to 2 percent from the mid-point that it sets each day.

Spot yuan briefly fell as low as 6.2040 in early afternoon trade before ending at 6.1965. That marked a 0.07 percent loss on the day from Tuesday's close, and a fall of 1 percent from the mid-point.

"We see risks of further near-term yuan weakness, but do not expect this to extend beyond the second quarter. It is not in the PBOC's interests to have a sustained depreciation in the currency, as this will increase financial stability risks," economists at ANZ said in a research note.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-chinas-yuan-slides-to-near-one-year-low-as-economic-risks-mount-2014-19#ixzz2wPltld7W

[xchrom]

24. What The Cleveland Fed's Alternative Measures Of Inflation Are Telling Us

http://www.businessinsider.com/cleveland-fed-median-trimmed-cpi-2014-3

Every month the Cleveland Fed computes and publishes a median CPI and a 16% trimmed-mean estimate of the CPI. They add these calculations to the headline CPI and the CPI excluding food and energy. In a few seconds one can see the monthly rates of change for the last six months and the year-over-year rates of change.
Anyone may obtain this detail from the Cleveland Fed, which makes it available on their website



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/cleveland-fed-median-trimmed-cpi-2014-3#ixzz2wPmZ1GEC