STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 11 March 2016

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 11 March 2016[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 10 March 2016

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 10 March 2016
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Dow Jones 16,995.13 -5.23 (-0.03%)
[font color=green]S&P 500 1,989.57 +0.31 (0.02%)
[font color=red]Nasdaq 4,662.16 -12.22 (-0.26%)


[font color=red]10 Year 1.93% +0.04 (2.12%)
30 Year 2.69% +0.02 (0.75%) [font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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(click on link for latest updates)
Market Updates
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

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


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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.
02/06/14 Matthew Martoma convicted of insider trading while at hedge fund SAC (Stephen A. Cohen) Capital Advisors. Expected sentence 7-10 years.
03/24/14 Annette Bongiorno, Bernard Madoff's secretary; Daniel Bonventre, director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, both computer programmers convicted of conspiracy to defraud clients, securities fraud, and falsifying the books and records.
05/19/14 Credit Suisse, which has an investment bank branch in NYC, agrees to plead guilty and pay appx. $2.6 billion penalties for helping wealthy Americans hide wealth and avoid taxes.
09/08/14 Matthew Martoma, convicted SAC trader, sentenced to 9 years in prison plus forfeiture of $9.3 million, including home and bank accounts
08/03/15 Former City (London) trader Tom Hayes found guilty of rigging global Libor interest rates. Each fo eight counts carries up to 10 yr. sentence.
08/21/15 Charles Antonucci Sr, former pres. Park Ave. Bank sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for bribery, fraud, embezzlement, and attempt to steal $11MM in TARP bailout funds, as well as $37.5MM fraud on OK insurance company. To pay $54MM in restitution and give up additional $11MM.
09/21/15 Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn apologizes for VW cheating on air quality standards with emission testing avoidance device. Stock drops 20%, fines may total $18B.
09/22/15 Stewart Parnell, CEO Peanut Corp. of America, sentenced to 28 years in prison for selling salmonella-tainted peanut butter that killed nine.
12/17/15 Martin Shkreli, former CEO Turing Pharmaceuticals and notorious price gouger, arrested on securities fraud charges. Posted $5M bail, resigned as CEO.
2/25/16 Jason Keryc sentenced to 9 years in prison, 3 years supervised release and to pay back $180MM to investors he bilked in a Ponzi scheme while an acct. mgr at Agape World.



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

[Gungnir]

1. How Vancouver Is Being Sold To The Chinese: The Illegal Dark Side Behind The Real Estate Bubble

No one seems to be pointing out that the city will look like Detroit after the bubble bursts.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-10/how-vancouver-being-sold-chinese-illegal-dark-side-behind-real-estate-bubble

One month ago, when describing the latest in an endless series of Vancouver real estate horror stories, in this case an abandoned, rotting home (which is currently listed for a modest $7.2 million), we explained the simple money-laundering dynamic involving Chinese "investors" as follows.

Chinese investors smuggle out millions in embezzled cash, hot money or perfectly legal funds, bypassing the $50,000/year limit in legal capital outflows.
They make "all cash" purchases, usually sight unseen, using third parties intermediaries to preserve their anonymity, or directly in person, in cities like Vancouver, New York, London or San Francisco.
The house becomes a new "Swiss bank account", providing the promise of an anonymous store of value and retaining the cash equivalent value of the original capital outflow.

We also explained that hundreds if not thousands of Vancouver houses, have become a part of the new normal Swiss bank account: "a store of wealth to Chinese investors eager to park "hot money" outside of their native country, and bidding up any Canadian real estate they could get their hands on."

The Post article, however, is not about the use of Vancouver (or NYC, or SF, or London) real estate as the end target of China's hot money outflows - by now most are aware what's going on. It focuses, instead, on those who make the wholesale selling of Vancouver real estate to Chinese tycoons who are bidding up real estate in this western Canadian city to a point where virtually no domestic buyer can afford it, and specifically the job that unlicensed "wholesalers" do in spurring and accelerating what is currently the world's biggest housing bubble.

A bubble which, the wholesalers themselves admit, will inevitably crash in spectacular fashion.


Extensive details at link

[Hotler]

12. I wonder how soon that shit is going to start here in the Denver area.

Housing prices a through the roof here, it's crazy what shit homes are selling for here.

[DemReadingDU]

13. New housing around here too

and not cheap houses either.

A developer said we build the houses, then the jobs come.

Huh?

How can people afford those new expensive houses, and there are no jobs with high salary to pay for them?

[Gungnir]

2. The Incredible Story Of How Hackers Stole $100 Million From The New York Fed

So, hackers that are so incompetent that they can't spell "foundation" or use spell check can steal $100M.
I feel so confident in our system, I think I need to go into rousing chant of USA! USA! USA! or should it be we're #1! ? (sarcasm)

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-10/incredible-story-how-hackers-stole-100-million-new-york-fed

The problem is that the counterparty on the other side of the SWIFT order was not who the Fed thought, and what should have set off red lights is that the recipients was not the government of the Philippines but three casinos!

If at this point flashing light bulbs are going off above the heads of some of our more industrious readers, we can understand why: after all if a fake SWIFT money order is all it takes to have the Fed send you $100 million dollars then...
...
Separately, a Reuters report digs into the details of the SWIFT wire requests: it notes that the hackers breached Bangladesh Bank's systems and stole its credentials for payment transfers, two senior officials at the bank said. They then bombarded the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with nearly three dozen requests to move money from the Bangladesh Bank's account there to entities in the Philippines and Sri Lanka, entities which as will be revealed shortly were... casinos.
...
Hackers misspelled "foundation" in the NGO's name as "fandation", prompting a routing bank, Deutsche Bank, to seek clarification from the Bangladesh central bank, which stopped the transaction, one of the officials said.

Much more dunb-assery exposed at link

[Gungnir]

3. UK Inquiry Finds Gulf "Allies" Sustaining ISIS In The Face Of Oil Price Collapse

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-10/uk-inquiry-finds-gulf-allies-sustaining-isis-face-oil-price-collapse



A collapse in oil revenues available to Islamic State is likely to have made it increasingly dependent on donations from wealthy Gulf states and profits from foreign exchange markets, the first UK inquiry into the terror group’s funding has heard.
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But experts have told the committee the UK government may be vastly over-estimating the importance of oil revenue, and underestimating the extent to which Isis is reliant on foreign donors in the Gulf or its manipulation of the Iraqi banking system.



Luay al-Khatteeb from the Iraq Energy Institute claimed the cost of waging war for Isis must be so high, and its oil revenues now so limited, that it must be accessing large-scale donations.



“Some might wonder to what extent Gulf Arab financing has continued to subsidise the caliphate. Certainly, IS was able to draw on some other sources of income between January 2015, when Raqqa’s economy had reportedly collapsed, and mid-January 2016, when IS forces have been able to launch a major new Syrian offensive. The money is coming from somewhere.”

[Gungnir]

4. German Bank That Almost Failed Now Being Paid To Borrow Money

Interesting analogy

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-10/german-bank-almost-failed-now-being-paid-borrow-money

German bank Berlin Hyp had just issued 500 million euros worth of debt… at negative interest.

I wondered if I really did go through a time warp, because this is exactly the same madness we saw ten years ago during the housing bubble and the subsequent financial crisis.

To explain the deal, Berlin Hyp issued bonds that yield negative 0.162% and pay no coupon.
...
During the housing bubble, banking lending standards got completely out of control to the point that they were paying people to borrow money.

[Gungnir]

5. World's Largest Hedge Fund Appoints Hardware Engineer As Co-CEO

I wonder if Douglas Adams ever considered how Magrathea ended up with all the money.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-10/worlds-largest-hedge-fund-appoints-jon-rubinstein-co-ceo

That the world's largest hedge fund, Ray Dalio's Bridgewater, just announced the appointment of an hardware engineer, even one as enlightened as former NeXT and Apple executive Jon Rubinstein, should tell you all you need to know about what is really going on in the "market."

[Gungnir]

6. China Proposes Unprecedented Nationalization Of Insolvent Companies: Banks Will Equitize Non-Perform

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-10/china-proposes-unprecedented-nationalization-insolvent-companies-banks-will-equitize

In what may be the biggest news of the day, and certainly with far greater implications than whatever Mario Draghi will announce in a few hours when we will again witness the ECB doing not "whatever it takes" but "whatever it can do", moments ago Reuters reported that China is preparing for an unprecedented overhaul in how it treats it trillions in non-performing loans.
...
However, China now appears to be taking a surprisingly different track, and according to a Reuters report China's central bank is preparing regulations that would allow commercial banks to swap non-performing loans of companies for stakes in those firms. Reuters sources said the release of a new document explaining the regulatory change was imminent.

According to Reuters, the move would represent, "on paper, a way for indebted corporates to reduce their leverage, reducing the cost of servicing debt and making them more worthy of fresh credit."
...
In effect, the PBOC is proposing the biggest debt-for-equity swap ever seen. What it also means is that since the secured lender, which is at the top of the capital structure will drop all the way down, it wipes out the existing equity and unsecured debt, and make the banks the new equity owners, and as such China's commercial banks will no longer be entitled to interest payments or security collateral on their now-equity investment.

Sure, why not...

[Gungnir]

7. Missing Clinton E-Mail Claims Saudis Financed Benghazi Attacks

With all the other crazy-assed stories today, why not add Bengazi?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-09/missing-clinton-e-mail-claims-saudis-financed-benghazi-attacks

Something that has gone unnoticed in all the talk about the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mails is the content of the original leak that started the entire investigation to begin with. In March of 2013, a Romanian hacker calling himself Guccifer hacked into the AOL account of Sidney Blumenthal and leaked to Russia Today four e-mails containing intelligence on Libya that Blumenthal sent to Hillary Clinton.

For those who haven’t been following this story, Sidney Blumenthal is a long time friend and adviser of the Clinton family who in an unofficial capacity sent many “intelligence memos” to Hillary Clinton during her tenure as Secretary of State. Originally displayed on RT.com in Comic Sans font on a pink background with the letter “G” clumsily drawn as a watermark, no one took these leaked e-mails particularly seriously when they came out in 2013. Now, however, we can cross reference this leak with the e-mails the State Department released to the public.

The first three e-mails in the Russia Today leak from Blumenthal to Clinton all appear word for word in the State Department release. The first e-mail Clinton asks to have printed and she also forwards it to her deputy chief of staff, Jake Sullivan. The second e-mail Clinton describes as “useful insight” and forwards it to Jake Sullivan asking him to circulate it. The third e-mail is also forwarded to Jake Sullivan. The fourth e-mail is missing from the State Department record completely.

This missing e-mail from February 16, 2013 only exists in the original leak and states that French and Libyan intelligence agencies had evidence that the In Amenas and Benghazi attacks were funded by “Sunni Islamists in Saudi Arabia.” This seems like a rather outlandish claim on the surface, and as such was only reported by conspiracy types and fringe media outlets. Now, however, we have proof that the other three e-mails in the leak were real correspondence from Blumenthal to Clinton that she not only read, but thought highly enough of to send around to others in the State Department. Guccifer speaks English as a second language and most of his writing consists of rambling conspiracies, it’s unlikely he would be able to craft such a convincing fake intelligence briefing. This means we have an e-mail from a trusted Clinton adviser that claims the Saudis funded the Benghazi attack, and not only was this not followed up on, but there is not any record of this e-mail ever existing except for the Russia Today leak.

Lots more detective work at link.

[Punx]

14. If our "Friends" the Saudis were involved

It would be sure to get buried if true. May explain why that particular e-mail is missing, or just coincidence.

[Gungnir]

8. Wall Street Journal Analysis of Mortgage Settlements Shows Very Little Went to Wronged Borrowers

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/03/wall-street-journal-analysis-of-mortgage-settlements-shows-very-little-went-to-wronged-borrowers.html

We’ve depicted the various settlements of mortgage liability, most importantly, the 2012 49 state/Federal deal called the National Mortgage Settlement, as a “get out of jail almost free” card for banks. It was tantamount to a second bailout for the widespread failure to securitize mortgages in accordance with the bank’s own requirements, and the resulting foreclosure abuses that resulted.

The Wall Street Journal has endeavored to find out where the money, which nominally totals $110 billion across the six biggest banks, went. While the story does not say so crisply, perilously little benefitted borrowers despite concerted efforts to pretend otherwise.

The reason that the Journal fails to discern this fact it that it perpetuates one of the myth of these deals, which yours truly, Dave Dayen, and others who have written regularly on this topic, have debunked: that the “consumer relief” portion of these deals represented a meaningful cost to the perps, and was beneficial to homeowners.

Of that $110 billion, nearly $45 billion was called “consumer relief,” which experts argued had real economic costs to the banks on the order of ten cents on the dollar:

lots more at link

[Gungnir]

9. 57 different pesticides found in poisoned honeybees

http://phys.org/news/2016-03-pesticides-poisoned-honeybees.html

European honeybees are being poisoned with up to 57 different pesticides, according to new research published in the Journal of Chromatography A. A new method for detecting a whole range of pesticides in bees could help unravel the mystery behind the widespread decline of honeybees in recent years, and help develop an approach to saving them.

...
But it's not as simple as banning one pesticide that's killing bees; the relationship between pesticide use and bee death is complex and scientists are still trying to figure out exactly what's happening. In the new study, researchers from the National Veterinary Research Institute in Poland have developed a method for analyzing 200 pesticides at the same time, to figure out what's really putting honeybees at risk.

...
With so many pesticides currently in use, it's difficult to work out which ones are harming the bees. Certain combinations of pesticides, or their use over time, could affect honeybees in different ways. In order to understand what's really going on, we need to know which pesticides and at what concentration levels are present in honeybees.

...
The team used the method to investigate more than 70 honeybee poisoning incidents. Their findings revealed 57 different pesticides present in the bees—it's a toxic puzzle they hope their new method will help solve.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-03-pesticides-poisoned-honeybees.html#jCp

[Gungnir]

10. Spending on public higher education overlooks net benefits as investment in state's future

http://phys.org/news/2016-03-higher-overlooks-net-benefits-investment.html

Published in the Journal of Education Finance, the article develops the total return of public education relative to the full costs to the state of Illinois, the key criteria for determining whether there is under- or over-investment for the most efficient statewide development.

McMahon concluded that public education in Illinois contributes to investment returns of 9.5 percent for K-12; 15.3 percent for community college; and 13.4 percent for university, respectively, for every dollar that's spent—returns that are well above the 7.2 percent the money would have earned if invested in an index fund that tracked returns of the S&P 500, McMahon noted.

(Updated calculations based on the newest earnings data at each education level, corrected for dropouts and other factors, show returns relative to costs of 12.9 percent at two-year institutions and 12.3 percent at the four-year institutions.)
...
"In Illinois, what is happening is not just a disaster for higher education but also a growing disaster for the state budget, as time passes," he said. "It's a disaster for economic growth and the business climate, and a disaster for broader development and well-being of the state. Allowing Chicago State to close and not funding MAP grants, which forces students to drop out of school without the necessary skills to succeed in the working world—all of that will have serious implications for the state of Illinois that should be fairly obvious."

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-03-higher-overlooks-net-benefits-investment.html#jCp

[Gungnir]

11. Tumours shrunk 'dramatically' in 11 days

mind blowing results

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-35775314

A pair of drugs can dramatically shrink and eliminate some breast cancers in just 11 days, UK doctors have shown.
...
The study, which also took place at NHS hospitals in Manchester, gave the treatment to women with tumours measuring between 1 and 3cm.

In less than two weeks of treatment, the cancer disappeared entirely in 11% of cases, and in a further 17% they were smaller than 5mm.
...
Breast cancer is now thought of as at least ten separate diseases, each with a different cause, life expectancy and needing a different treatment.

[Hugin]

15. I'm keeping an eye on that crude oil chart.

Seems awful fishy.

[Warpy]

16. Yes, the billionaires have decided that temporarily defunding ISIS and destabilizing

a few OPEC members, Venezuela chief among them, has just about run its course so they're pumping up the price again. Do expect to see a few peaks and valleys as the suckers follow them and the fat cats cash out, leaving the suckers holding overpriced futures before the market rises again.