The "up-to-the-minute Market Data" thread

reply to post by Hastobemoretolife


I'm all in!

I have a friend who owns a place on Nevis,good place to start?
Several itty-bitty islands around there...

That my friend,would be a tax I'll gladly pay if they require it because if you lose your sense of humor,I truly believe ALL will be lost!

They'll probably leave us with little else to enjoy.

These are amazing and historic "times" to me in many ways and I am just itching to see how the next chapter reads!

reply to post by irishchic


I'm game.

I'm interested in the next chapter myself. I live by the fact that without pain there can be no joy, etc.

You might have to give me pole dancing lessons for me to get through these hard times! Might have a hard time competing with the women though.

I'm ready for this week to be over, this dog and pony show of Timmy the Tax Cheat asking for power to confiscate businesses just because he deems them to big to fail worries me.

He's pitching and I hope the people in congress have enough sense to not buy. It is also looking like we are about to have our first major commercial real estate failure on the horizon.

As Hx3 said many many pages back, "I can see the flames over the horizon. "

[edit on 26-3-2009 by Hastobemoretolife]

Originally posted by irishchic
I don't think they will hold.
In San Antonio the commercial vacancies are staggering and we're doing "well down here so they say!

A friend of mine just moved there about two months ago and she's been telling me that SA "is really smart" and "does things to bring in businesses" (which are mostly NOT free-market tactics, from what I can tell) and things are just "great." I believe your word over hers (you've been there longer and she's comparing it to Michigan), but is there any data out there to support any of this, or do we just have to believe what our contacts tell us about differing parts of the country.

She also tells me that 95% of the SA population is completely clueless to this whole economic situation. Is this true, in your experience, or is it just that Michigan is so FUBAR'ed that you could go anywhere and people would seem unreasonably optimistic?

JP Morgan is delaying their contributions to employees 401K plans:

www.bloomberg.com...

This isn't SO horrible, but I am getting tired of this mentally retarded market ignoring warning signs all of the time. It is totally irrational at times (rallying or crashing).

US backing for world currency stuns markets

US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner shocked global markets by revealing that Washington is "quite open" to Chinese proposals for the gradual development of a global reserve currency run by the International Monetary Fund.
The dollar plunged instantly against the euro, yen, and sterling as the comments flashed across trading screens. David Bloom, currency chief at HSBC, said the apparent policy shift amounts to an earthquake in geo-finance.

"The mere fact that the US Treasury Secretary is even entertaining thoughts that the dollar may cease being the anchor of the global monetary system has caused consternation," he said.

Mr Geithner later qualified his remarks, insisting that the dollar would remain the "world's dominant reserve currency ... for a long period of time" but the seeds of doubt have been sown.

The markets appear baffled by the confused statements emanating from Washington. President Barack Obama told a new conference hours earlier that there was no threat to the reserve status of the dollar.

"I don't believe that there is a need for a global currency. The reason the dollar is strong right now is because investors consider the United States the strongest economy in the world with the most stable political system in the world," he said.

The Chinese proposal, outlined this week by central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, calls for a "super-sovereign reserve currency" under IMF management, turning the Fund into a sort of world central bank.

The idea is that the IMF should activate its dormant powers to issue Special Drawing Rights. These SDRs would expand their role over time, becoming a "widely-accepted means of payments".

More at link

UN panel urges reserve currency reform

World leaders should give urgent attention to reaching consensus on creating a global reserve system that would replace the US dollar as the main international currency, the United Nations General Assembly was told on Thursday.

The recommendation, by an advisory committee set up by the 192-member world body, followed China’s proposal for an extension of the use of special drawing rights (SDRs) created by the International Monetary Fund and the eventual replacement of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

Andrei Denisov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, told a General Assembly meeting on the global financial crisis: “The current situation requires new collective solutions agreed at the international level.”

Speaking to the RIA news agency, he added: “This proposal is aimed at a practical realisation of the idea about a new global accounting unit or a new global currency. It is a question which should be discussed to create a ­consensus.”

Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel-prizewinning US economist who chairs the UN advisory committee, said reform of the global reserve system was long overdue. In the context of the present financial crisis, the dollar-based system meant that poor countries were lending to rich countries at virtually zero interest rates rather than using reserves to stimulate their own economies.

He told the General Assembly that financial instability had obliged developing countries to accumulate dollar reserves to protect against a rainy day. The consequence, however, was to tie up trillions of dollars that could be spent on helping them combat the worst effects of the financial crisis.

“The current system contributes to global instability, it contributes to the insufficiency of global aggregate demand,” Mr Stiglitz said.

The dollar-based reserve system was bad for the world’s economies and bad for the US. “The global reserve system has been fraying for a long time. It’s hard to be a strong reserve currency when that currency is highly volatile,” he said. There was great uncertainty because of the size of the Federal Reserve balance sheet and of US debt.

More at link

NYC unemployment in sharpest monthly jump ever

New York City’s unemployment rate leaped last month to 8.1 percent from 6.9 percent, the biggest jump in any month on record, New York State’s Department of Labor said on Thursday.

The rise ended a long period when the city’s job market was outperforming the nation’s. The city’s unemployment rate is now equal to the national rate.

The city lost 3,600 jobs in February, a month when hiring in tourism-related businesses usually leads to an increase in overall employment. In the previous 10 years, the city had added an average of 18,900 jobs in February.

“The city’s economy continues to weaken month-by-month with over-the-year losses widening dramatically,” said James Brown, an analyst with the Labor Department.

A year ago, the city’s unemployment rate was 4.4 percent. The city’s rate has been much higher in the past — it hit 11.7 percent in 1992 — but it has not risen so much in any month since record-keeping started in 1976. The current rate is the highest for the city since October 2003.

Just in case you missed it, South Park on the Economy

Well - I just caught up on the thread - and boy am I dizzy -

All the while I'm thinking about all those folks in the tent cities -
and all of the pressure so many folks have been feeling for so long -
high mortgages and insurance payments - all the things that have kept them in jobs they hate - too far away from happiness - too busy to smell the roses or talk to their kids - or play their guitar.. or etc...

It isn't a good thing that people are homeless -
in fact it's frightening.
I've been there -

but I will say this -
It may be the most relaxed they have been in a long time -
Their lives will be forever changed. They will embrace simplicity -
They will smile differently.
And - having said that - I hope that they are not without real shelter for long.

Sorry to get all ... touching and stuff...
Hope I didn't make anyone do this...

Here's the news for the day -

Thur 3-26-2009
LAYOFF DAILY

Northern Arizona University -45
Google -200
NY Times -100
Clifford Chance Cuts Again -24
Trinity Industries Idles 2 Plants -156
Trane Co. -80
Blender Magazine Shuts Down -30
Belmont County Sheriff's Dept. -68
Fairchild Semiconductor Closing 2 Plants
Disney Update/Estimate -450
Cooper Standard Automotive -650
Agilent Technologies -2,700
Burton Snowboards -5%
Flint Journal -82
Graphic Packaging Corp. -30
Law Firms: Dechert -125/Edwards -60
Noranda Zinc Plant -45
United Way Kentucky -4
Pajaro Valley Schools -222
Lafarge SA -130
Oshkosh School Teachers -39
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen -2,500
Ownens Corning Selkirk Plant -60
Beaufort County NC -12
Toledo OH Police -75
Williams County OH Deputies -7
Jackson Hughston Hospital -70
Boston Schools -500
Timken Canada -140
Backyard Adventures Closing TX Plant -75
Sandvik Closing USA Plant -90
Fayetteville Publishing -18
Disney Theme Park Layoffs
City of Lakeville MN -9
Children's Farm Home -9
ESCO Turbine Technologies -32
New Hampshire Public TV -5
Bakersfield CA Newspaper -26
IBM Layoff Update -5,000
Tulare County Govt. -11

TOTAL 11,600 - approx -

*not including - these two items -

*6,000 GM UAW Workers Take Buyout
*Michigan Factory Jobs 12 Months -112,000

Gold $933.30
===
S&P 500 -3.90 823.40 3/26 11:05pm
Fair Value 829.18 3/26 10:29pm
Difference* -5.78

NASDAQ -6.00 1267.00 3/26 11:05pm
Fair Value 1281.05 3/26 10:29pm
Difference* -14.05

Dow Jones -33.00 7816.00 3/26 11:05pm
===
New Zealand 2625.94 9.69 0.37% 15:54
Australia 3619.80 33.50 0.93% 14:14
Nikkei 225 8719.55 83.22 0.96% 11:51
TOPIX 834.48 7.67 0.93% 11:00
TSE 2nd Sec 1846.54 8.55 0.47% 11:50
JASDAQ 41.12 0.24 0.59% 11:01
Korea 1247.29 3.49 0.28% 11:55
Taiwan 5409.44 22.88 0.42% 11:15
Taiwan OTC 82.27 1.75 2.17% 10:55
Shanghai 2375.20 13.50 0.57% 11:15
Shanghai A 2493.58 14.67 0.59% 11:15
Shanghai B 157.08 1.08 0.69% 11:15
Shenzhen A 827.10 12.36 1.52% 11:00
Shenzhen B 351.14 3.60 1.04% 11:00
SHSZ 300 2515.17 35.38 1.43% 10:59
Shenzhen comp 9108.09 124.22 1.38% 11:00
Hong Kong 14157.70 48.72 0.34% 11:00
HK CN Ent 8518.76 29.47 0.35% 10:59
HK Aff Crp 3214.21 30.99 0.97% 11:00
Singapore 1751.47 -7.32 -0.42% 11:00
SGX China 53.95 0.90 1.70% 11:14
Vietnam 289.21 2.96 1.03% 10:15
Thailand 439.40 2.48 0.57% 03/26
Philippines 2036.65 48.39 2.43% 11:14
Malaysia 884.86 -0.61 -0.07% 11:15
Indonesia 1464.47 44.50 3.13% 10:15
India 10003.10 335.20 3.47% 03/26
Pakistan 4753.34 -44.53 -0.93% 03/26

Tension simmers at Nomura as Lehman bonuses loom
www.reuters.com...

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Things are getting tense at Japanese brokerage Nomura Holdings.

As Japan's annual banker bonus season nears, there are expectations that many of the 8,000 or so Lehman staff inherited in a bold acquisition of the failed Wall Street broker late last year may walk or be axed.

Concerns over pay disparity and job security are rife and have soured the mood at Nomura, which bought Lehman's Asian, European and Middle Eastern divisions in a bid to raise its global profile and get instant access to places like China, Dubai and London.

While some legacy Lehman bankers, used to taking risks and making snap decisions, are frustrated by a traditional Japanese corporate culture of bureaucracy, hierarchy and deliberate decision making, two sources at the bank say Nomura veterans resent how Lehman staffers are paid and how some replaced Nomura executives.

"The mood within the office is very bad," said one London-based Nomura employee, a sentiment shared in Asia, according to several bank staffers contacted by Reuters, none of whom wanted to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

More at Link...

More Foo-Foo Bonus Whoha...

Berry Bad fer Business moral...


[edit on 3/26/2009 by Hx3_1963]

reply to post by Hx3_1963


I tell ya, I don't think anybody in this administration has held anything other than a government job. It shows too.

Finance isn't exactly an easy job. Especially when you are dealing with multinational corporations and anywhere between 5 digit and 13 digit numbers. Granted numbers should have never passed the 12 digit mark, but the government let the bankers run wild. And this is what you get.

Now, that just about all the people that brought these companies to failure have taken the money and ran, the people put in charge of untangling this rats nest times 20 aren't getting compensated and even worse being demonized to further an inexperienced politicians agenda.

If the people that caused the disaster were still in charge I could understand the bonus outrage, but you know the government just HAD to have this bill passed because it was such an emergency, and instead of taking blame they are just passing it along. So the way I see it they should eat it. I firmly maintain my position that I can care less about 165 million or 228 million what ever it is out of 170 billion.

Talk about being out of touch.

reply to post by redhatty


The market did not like Geithners comments...
I was talking about that here....

www.abovetopsecret.com...'

reply to post by Hastobemoretolife
Yeah some misplaced priorities...

They're gonna keep screwing around and who ever's left is going to leave...

...then who's gonna mop up the spilled milk???
===
S&P 500 -3.90 823.40 3/26 11:31pm
Fair Value 829.18 3/26 10:29pm
Difference* -5.78

NASDAQ -6.00 1267.00 3/26 11:05pm
Fair Value 1281.05 3/26 10:29pm
Difference* -14.05

Dow Jones -34.00 7815.00 3/26 11:43pm



[edit on 3/26/2009 by Hx3_1963]

reply to post by Hx3_1963


I don't know. It isn't exactly like any ole accountant can walk into a place like AIG and know exactly what is going on. You have to have been in the business for a few years to understand what goes on.

There won't be anybody left to clean up the mess and we will all be suffering because all the talent will have run off. They "think" they know what they are doing, but it is like someone smarter than me once said, "When somebody comes up with a theory they look at all the pluses and never the negatives."

Too bad we all have to suffer.

reply to post by Hastobemoretolife
Yeah the problem with those "assets" is all the different tranches owned by god knows who and what postions they hold...

I wouldn't want to just step in and have to try and figure all that out from scratch...the things would default before I even found the holders phone numbers I fear...

Do not for a second believe that the fact that the stock market rallied has defused the underlying problem. It has not. The underlying problem is not the stock market. It is the credit (bond) market - that is, the underlying reality that there is too much debt out there in relationship to GDP, it cannot all be serviced, and as the economy contracts it feeds a vicious spiral where a default produces unemployment which drops both spendable income (and thus income available debt service) AND tax revenues, giving it to the credit market in all orifices. This is "deflationary destruction" and it is inevitable when government pushes off the normal cyclical cleaning out that recessions do, as our government has.

tickerforum.org...

reply to post by Hx3_1963


You'd do better than me my head would explode trying to sort out what is what, then on top all that all the lawyer speak. I walk in and walk out, hey on second though they might pay a few million in bonuses if we take the job and make it through a day.

East Asia seems to all be in the green except for Straits Times, Hang Seng, and Seoul.

I guess people are choosing to only look at the optimistic news. waiting for when it is all going to drop. It would be nice to see who is going to get rich off of the shorts.

S&P 500 -4.30 823.00 3/27 1:31am
Fair Value 829.18 3/26 10:29pm
Difference* -6.18

NASDAQ -6.00 1267.00 3/26 11:05pm
Fair Value 1281.05 3/26 10:29pm
Difference* -14.05

Dow Jones -38.00 7811.00 3/27 1:40am
===
New Zealand 2653.48 37.22 1.42% 17:31
Australia 3614.40 28.10 0.78% 15:55
Nikkei 225 8695.95 59.62 0.69% 13:35
TOPIX 832.10 5.29 0.64% 13:35
TSE 2nd Sec 1844.14 6.15 0.34% 13:35
JASDAQ 41.40 0.52 1.27% 13:35
Korea 1237.33 -6.47 -0.52% 13:35
Taiwan 5423.96 37.40 0.69% 12:55
Taiwan OTC 82.15 1.63 2.02% 12:35
Shanghai 2374.47 12.77 0.54% 11:30
Shanghai A 2492.31 13.40 0.54% 11:30
Shanghai B 156.88 0.88 0.57% 11:29
Shenzhen A 821.07 6.34 0.78% 11:30
Shenzhen B 350.21 2.67 0.77% 11:30
SHSZ 300 2498.69 18.90 0.76% 11:30
Shenzhen comp 9031.22 47.35 0.53% 11:30
Hong Kong 14045.02 -63.96 -0.45% 12:35
HK CN Ent 8415.59 -73.70 -0.87% 12:35
HK Aff Crp 3187.99 4.77 0.15% 12:35
Singapore 1742.42 -16.37 -0.93% 12:40
SGX China 53.68 0.63 1.19% 12:55
Vietnam 287.41 1.16 0.41% 11:02
Thailand 441.10 1.70 0.39% 11:35
Philippines 2040.25 51.99 2.62% 12:11
Malaysia 884.06 -1.41 -0.16% 12:55
Indonesia 1463.30 43.33 3.05% 11:30
India 10112.27 109.17 1.09% 10:25
Pakistan 4779.03 25.69 0.54% 08:35

Las Vegas project considers bankruptcy: report
www.reuters.com...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - City Center, an $8 billion Las Vegas project owned by MGM Mirage (MGM.N) and Dubai World, has hired counsel to advise on a possible bankruptcy filing, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The casino operator, controlled by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, and its joint venture partner Dubai World are likely to struggle to pay $220 million due Friday on CityCenter, the newspaper said.

When contacted by Reuters, a spokeswoman for MGM Mirage declined comment.

CityCenter has hired Dewey & LeBoeuf to prepare for a possible Chapter 11 filing as soon as this weekend, depending on the outcome of talks between MGM Mirage, the lenders and Dubai World, the people told the WSJ.

Dubai World said on Monday it sued MGM over the CityCenter development, asking Delaware Chancery Court to find that some financial disclosures in a recent MGM filing constitute events of default under the joint venture.

CityCenter is a 67-acre residential, resort and retail complex on the Las Vegas Strip and it is slated to open late this year. MGM and Dubai World have $500 million to fund before a $1.8 billion bank facility becomes available in May.

Guess we won't have to worry about AIG exec's blowing our money there...


[edit on 3/27/2009 by Hx3_1963]

Originally posted by stander

Originally posted by pause4thought
FTSE at close:

That makes for a big gain on the Dow this week so far. Will it hold till last thing Friday is the question.

This gets settled

Top US lawmakers said Thursday that Congress would take action if accounting regulators and rulemakers failed to quickly improve the mark-to-market accounting standard that has forced banks to record billions of dollars in asset writedowns.

and the banks will record only the good news. That will stabilize the banks in the eyes of the traders and in less than one month, the Dow will snake around the 8k beam.

Amen.

www.google.com...JI

Pause, the Dow is getting to the 8k level faster than I predicted two weeks ago!

Do you think that I should see a doctor or somethin'?

Hey, can you post some essay on the inevitable collapse of the US economy apart from what I've been reading to scare the traders kakaless, so my prediction would go ahead as scheduled? I want the Dow to close above 8k on April 1 the Fool's Day, not before. I have secret reasons for that. Too secret to reveal now; the Chinese connection, you know . . .
afgen.com...

[edit on 3/27/2009 by stander]

reply to post by Hastobemoretolife


Who was the smarter than you guy? Did T. J. say that about positive and negitive?
Look for sell-offs this morning------ then a come back to cover in the aftrenoon.

[edit on 27-3-2009 by Donny 4 million]

Good Morning It's Friday!

Seven Year Result
March 26th, 2009 1:14 pm
The seven year auction was a rather bland affair and lacked the fireworks of the 5 year note auction.

The auction average was 2.384 which was slightly through the 2.385 bid side which prevailed at auction time.

Indirect bidding slumped to 28 percent from 38.7 percent at the initial auction last month.

One dealer reports speculative buying of 10 year notes post the auction.

Source

In the FT, Greenspan writes "I believe that recent risk spreads suggest that markets require perhaps 13 or 14% capital (up from 10%) before US banks are likely to lend freely again. Thus, before we probe too deeply into what type of new regulatory structure is appropriate, we have to find ways to restore our now-broken system of financial intermediation. Restoring the US banking system is a key requirement of global rebalancing. The US Treasury's purchase of $250 bln of preferred stock of US commercial banks under the troubled asset relief programme (subsequent to the Lehman Brothers default) was measurably successful in reducing the risk of US bank insolvency. But, starting in mid-January 2009, without further investments from the US Treasury, the improvement has stalled. The restoration of normal bank lending by banks will require a very large capital infusion from private or public sources. Analysis of the US consolidated bank balance sheet suggests a potential loss of at least $1,000 bln out of the more than $12,000 bln of US commercial bank assets at original book value. Through the end of 2008, approximately $500 bln had been written off, leaving an additional $500 bln yet to be recognized. But funding the latter $500 bln will not be enough to foster normal lending if investors in the liabilities of banks require, as I suspect, an additional 3-4 percentage points of cushion in their equity capital-to-asset ratios. The overall need appears to be north of $850 bln. Some is being replenished by increased bank cash flow. A turnround of global equity prices could deliver a far larger part of those needs. Still, a deep hole must be filled, probably with sovereign US Treasury credits. It is too soon to evaluate the US Treasury's most recent public-private initiatives. Hopefully, they will succeed in removing much of the heavy burden of illiquid bank assets."
Source Article

Trade is contracting again, at a rate unmatched in the post-war period. This week the World Trade Organisation (WTO) predicted that the volume of global merchandise trade would shrink by 9% this year. This will be the first fall in trade flows since 1982. Between 1990 and 2006 trade volumes grew by more than 6% a year, easily outstripping the growth rate of world output, which was about 3% (see chart 1). Now the global economic machine has gone into reverse: output is declining and trade is tumbling at a faster pace. The turmoil has shaken commerce in goods of all sorts, bought and sold by rich and poor countries alike.

More here

more blind leading the blind...

[url=http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aLhW6WphVhAk&refer=home]Obama Seeks JPMorgan, Goldman, Citigroup Support on Bank Plan[/url ]

[edit on 3/27/09 by redhatty]

Got Coffee???
===
S&P 500 -9.40 817.90 3/27 8:02am
Fair Value 829.18 3/26 10:29pm
Difference* -11.28

NASDAQ -13.00 1260.00 3/27 7:58am
Fair Value 1281.05 3/26 10:29pm
Difference* -21.05

Dow Jones -79.00 7770.00 3/27 8:01am
===
FTSE 100 3,910.06 8:02AM ET -15.14 (-0.39%)
CAC 40 2,862.08 8:18AM ET -29.99 (-1.04%)
DAX 4,206.38 8:03AM ET -52.99 (-1.24%)
===
Gold $924.20
===
EURO $1.3324
GBP $1.4311
JPY $.9756
===
Consumer spending fades in February
Disposable incomes fall 0.4% as wages drop 0.4%
U.S. consumer spending rises 0.2 percent
www.marketwatch.com... h

German warning pressures euro
Dollar gains ground; GDP fall hits British pound
www.marketwatch.com...

Johnson Controls to cut more jobs, close 10 plants
www.reuters.com...


[edit on 3/27/2009 by Hx3_1963]