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

You have to read this...

Acres of imported cars parked near port
www.cnn.com...

(AOL Autos) -- A strange and impressive sight currently greets drivers zooming over the Vincent Thomas span bridge across the sprawling California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Thousands of imported cars -- about 245 acres to be precise -- are parked in a huge lot amid the port's heavy industrial machinery that are testament to a glut in car inventories as consumers cut back spending in a slowing economy.

But what do all those cars parked in America's busiest port complex mean for both carmakers and the consumer?

Should a prospective car buyer expect major deals to come their way soon?

And what should they know about a new car that has sat on a lot for too long? We take a look.

Both domestic and international carmakers have seen a precipitous drop in sales in the last couple months and a concurrent rise in their inventories, or stock of unsold cars.

And as dealer lots fill up across the country, increasingly carmakers are finding their supplies are backing up while waiting export to the U.S. and at the entry point to the country.

Both Mercedes and Toyota, the two biggest importers through the Los Angeles area, have requested more acreage for their parked cars and trucks, says Art Wong at the port of Long Beach.

He says that Mercedes and Toyota currently lease temporary space to store their cars before they are shipped to dealers across the nation: Toyota has 160 acres and has requested another 50 acres, while Mercedes leases 20 acres and has requested 15 more.

Wong adds: "Typically the cars here are gone in a week and another shipment comes in, but in the last couple months maybe only a trickle are leaving. Basically when the financial crisis hit in September, within a month or so the cars started to back up."

Much more at Link...

S&P 500 -1.10 808.10 4/1 8:16pm
Fair Value 794.12 3/31 10:02pm
Difference* +13.98

NASDAQ +1.00 1252.00 4/1 6:02pm
Fair Value 1236.33 3/31 10:02pm
Difference* +15.67

Dow Jones -8.00 7710.00 4/1 8:14pm
===
Nikkei 225 8,519.51 8:12PM ET 167.60 (2.01%)
Seoul Composite 1,255.55 8:12PM ET 22.19 (1.80%)
===
Gold $925.20

hmmm...71 Flags...

[edit on 4/1/2009 by Hx3_1963]

Auditor KPMG hit with billion-dollar U.S. lawsuit
www.reuters.com...

MIAMI (Reuters) - Accounting giant KPMG was hit with a billion-dollar lawsuit on Wednesday over claims its "grossly negligent audits" helped trigger the collapse of a top subprime mortgage lender at the start of the U.S. housing crisis.

New Century Financial Corp, the largest independent provider of home loans to people with poor credit, filed for bankruptcy two years ago amid mounting customer defaults.

Its failure rippled across the U.S. mortgage lending industry, sparking a string of other bankruptcies that roiled financial markets as banks booked losses on billions of dollars in mortgage-linked securities at the heart of the current global financial crisis.

The lawsuit, on behalf of a liquidating trust formed by New Century debtors, was filed against both KPMG International KPMG.UL and its U.S. arm, KPMG LLP.

It accuses KPMG of helping cover up "catastrophic" problems at New Century -- including accounting and financial errors -- that led to its collapse.

"As New Century's auditor, KPMG failed its public watchdog duty," the suit says.

KPMG spokesman Dan Ginsburg said he had not seen the suit but issued a statement saying the company had acted "in accordance with professional standards" in its dealings with New Century.

"We will vigorously defend our audit work. Any implication that the collapse of New Century was related to accounting issues ignores the reality of the global credit crisis. This was a business failure, not an accounting issue," the statement said.

More at Link...

Obama Better Than Bush But Still Has No Real Plan to Fix Banks, FT's Wolf Says
finance.yahoo.com...

[edit on 4/1/2009 by Hx3_1963]

reply to post by Hx3_1963


Hmmm.

Might be time to trade my old BMW for a new Mercedes.

Maybe a nice turbodiesel...!

Something I can convert to run on bio-diesel after the "fat" hits the fans for real, whenever that might be. Although I would really prefer one of those new Tesla Model "S" sedans.

Now THERE's a stylish ride fit for the Apocalypse!



If I could just figure out when exactly, the PTB will finally give up on the charade that "Everything will soon get better" and let the closing gavel drop.


Any ideas?

After the G-20 meetings? In a month? Six? A year?

Or are we doomed to suffer this financial version of a "Death of A Thousand Cuts" until we're forced to eat grass like the peasants in North Korea are rumored to do?

Originally posted by Hx3_1963
Obama Better Than Bush

Brought to you by the International Society of Damning With Faint Praise

In unrelated blogging, we don't have fascism, but rather Quarterback Capitalism

The Obama adminsitration fired the GM head today, and already, some bloggers are having a hissy fit. If you strongly believe against state market interventions, fair enough. But to compare this to 30’s style fascism or socialism is kind of missing the point.

First, it helps to lay out what political economy has been about for the last 150 years or so. In ye olden days, people truly despised the capitalist system. Some folks, like the socialists, just wanted to abolish it and just have the state do everything. The social democrats and the Keynesians wanted to control it and spread the wealth. The fascists also wanted to control it, but mainly as a tool for nationalism and clientelism, rather than redistribution. There were some who loved capitalism, but that’s a story for another day.

But we’ve seen none of the above. There’s no attempt to abolish the system, and no attempt to set up vast new welfare programs, though we’ll likely see piecemeal efforts on health and related issues. Neither is there an attempt to set up a massive patron-client state, in the way the fascists did in the 30s.

Instead, we’ve got “quarterback capitalism.” The idea is pretty simple: don’t challenge the major features of capitalism, but opportunistically fix what you can with buy outs, loans, subsidies, and other ad hoc interventions. Reminds me of the great quarterback Randall Cunningham, who could scramble his way out of any mess. The idea behind Bush-Obama policy is that what ever mess you’ve got, you can probably fix with the right hodgepodge of incentives. The Federal government is the nimble quarterback who can get you out of the squeeze.

With regard to GM, Obama didn’t do what the fascists actually did - which was to make everyone dependent on the state so they could engage in militarism. Basically, the current strategy is to do what one can to save the financial and manufacturing infrstructure of United States, but not in ways the challenge the underlying structure. Better regulations for banks; new management for the auto people; a little help for homeowners. For GM, it was pushing out old management in exchange for money, a typical move in the private sector. Whether this is good is certainly for debate, but it certainly isn’t a return to fascism, socialism, or laissez-faire economics.

Posted for added perspective.

Originally posted by Hx3_1963
It accuses KPMG of helping cover up "catastrophic" problems at New Century -- including accounting and financial errors -- that led to its collapse.

"We will vigorously defend our audit work. Any implication that the collapse of New Century was related to accounting issues ignores the reality of the global credit crisis. This was a business failure, not an accounting issue," the statement said.

I work for a state tax agency. I've seen some of KPMG's accounting and financial handiwork.


I think the "Professional Standards" that guy is refering to relates more to dog grooming, not accounting.


And you'll note that although the charge is that KPMG made accounting and financial errors, the shill states that KPMG "will vigorously defend their Audit work".

Riiiiight!

Wed 4-1-2009
LAYOFF DAILY

W.R. Case and Sons Cutlery -78
Sub-Zero Cuts Again -35
Cardinal Health -1,300
Gottschalks Closing 58 Stores -5,200
Exide Corp. Update -500
City of Vista -15
Alcoa NY Plant -170
Frisbie Memorial Hospital -24
International Paper Closing Mill -160
Stroh Die Casting -12
Sacred Heart University -18
Veoh -80 N.
Kaiser Permanete -700
Salinas Police -6
Gehl Another Round -48
Press and Argus -10
ATK Launch Systems -225
Schering-Plough Closing Plant -240
American Woodmark Closes Plant -600
ArcelorMittal Closes Steel Plant -285
MiMar Food Group Closes Plant -177
Exide Technologies Idles Plant -38
Hydro Aluminum Closing Plant -100
WRCB-TV -6
Shindaiwa Inc. -37
Verizon In Little Rock -18
Thilmany Papers -30
MEMC -200
3M Update -1,200
Evraz Inc. -225

TOTAL - 11,700+

East Michigan Unemployment 17.4%

ADP March Estimate -742,000

ADP Says U.S. Companies Reduced Payrolls by 742,000 (Update2)

By Bob Willis
April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Companies in the U.S. cut an estimated 742,000 workers in March, pointing to no relief in sight for the labor market amid the longest recession in seven decades, a private report based on payroll data showed today.
www.bloomberg.com...

Whiting Door Files WARN Notice
www.wivb.com...

March sees drop in job cuts

CHICAGO, ILL. C
April 1, 2009 4:38am

The number of planned job cuts announced by major United States-based employers declined for the second consecutive month in March, falling 19.3 percent to 150,411 from 186,350 in February, according to a report Wednesday by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

The March figure was the lowest since October 2008, when 112,884 planned job cuts were announced. It comes on the heels of a 23-percent decline recorded in February.

This marks the first two-month decrease in job cuts since February-March 2007.

Despite the downward trend, job cuts are still well above the pace of a year ago, Challenger says. Last month’s total was 181 percent higher than March 2008, when job cuts hit the lowest level of the year (53,579).

Overall, first-quarter job cuts of 578,510 are 188 percent higher than the 200,656 job cuts announced in the first three months of 2008.

The first quarter was the largest one-quarter total since 585,188 job cuts were announced in the fourth quarter of 2001. Over the last six months, employers have announced 1,039,413 job cuts. Since the beginning of 2008, more than 1.8 million job cuts have been announced.

www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com...

[edit on 1-4-2009 by spinkyboo]

OUCH...

Babcock & Brown's Troubles Down Under Hit U.S. Apt. Market
www.costar.com...


Babcock and Brown Ltd., an international investment firm based in Sydney, Australia that owns or controls at least 100 U.S. apartment complexes with more than 20,000 units, was placed in voluntary administration this month, an action similar to U.S. bankruptcy protection.

The investment giant is facing a number of challenges including high financial leverage, aggressive growth and a complex corporate structure and is now paying the consequence of declining investment values and fee income, constrained access to capital markets, heightened refinancing risk and greater risk of financial covenant breaches, according to Moody's Investors Services.

The Babcock & Brown action has also resulted in Standard & Poor's Ratings Services placing the ratings of four commercial mortgage-backed securities on CreditWatch with negative implications. The CMBS deals that could be impacted are Credit Suisse Commercial Mortgage Trust's Series 2006-C2, 2006-C3, 2006-C4 and 2006-C5.

Standard & Poor's preliminary analysis of the Babcock & Brown's loans indicates an average valuation decline in the properties of 32% since 2006.

The Babcock & Brown CMBS loans are backed by 64 multifamily properties totaling 18,812 units.

The properties are located throughout the U.S. with concentrations in Texas (58.9% of all units), Virginia (10.1%), South Carolina (9.4%) and Georgia (6.1%). The remaining properties are located in Nevada, Florida, Alabama, Missouri, North Carolina and Maryland.

More at Link...

Originally posted by redhatty
Speaking of UE numbers...

U.S. private sector axes 742,000 jobs in March: report

I am so glad you put this up -
I had it ready to go - and got sidetracked -
taking care of someone
who isn't feeling so well.
Crazy numbers - huh?!



[edit on 2-4-2009 by spinkyboo]

S&P 500 +14.90 824.10 4/2 3:51am
Fair Value 807.28 4/1 10:11pm
Difference* +16.82

NASDAQ +20.50 1271.50 4/2 3:46am
Fair Value 1251.68 4/1 10:11pm
Difference* +19.82

Dow Jones +128.00 7846.00 4/2 3:46am
===
Gold $920.85
===
Russia 718.40 32.89 4.80% 11:35
London 4065.95 110.34 2.79% 08:36
Paris 2916.76 77.15 2.72% 09:31
Frankfurt 4247.95 116.88 2.83% 09:31
Turkey 26622.22 678.65 2.62% 10:46
Hungary 11540.40 379.37 3.40% 09:31
Austria 1767.80 56.25 3.29% 09:22
Poland 24968.60 822.91 3.41% 09:22
Czech 782.70 27.50 3.64% 09:16
Sweden 683.22 3.71 0.55% 09:37
Finland 4717.01 104.78 2.27% 10:36
Norway 209.30 4.31 2.10% 09:22
Greece 1678.72 -5.65 -0.34% 04/01
Italy 13257.00 283.00 2.18% 09:17
Luxembourg 896.55 13.19 1.49% 04/01
Netherlands 227.16 6.46 2.93% 09:22
Iceland 212.05 -5.39 -2.48% 04/01
Denmark 240.00 2.30 0.97% 09:37
Switzerland 5113.62 98.72 1.97% 09:22
Spain 855.58 19.91 2.38% 09:20
Portugal 2097.17 15.34 0.74% 04/01
Ireland 2340.91 55.14 2.41% 08:22
Israel 744.47 17.45 2.40% 09:16
Egypt 402.12 1.47 0.37% 04/02
S. Africa 19522.49 712.14 3.79% 09:22
Morocco 21730.29 -6.33 -0.03% 04/01
Jordan 2692.73 -13.50 -0.50% 10:22
UAE Dubai 1550.35 -13.84 -0.89% 11:21
===
New Zealand 2585.80 16.56 0.65% 17:31
Australia 3622.20 95.00 2.69% 16:47
Nikkei 225 8719.78 367.87 4.41% 16:00
TOPIX 826.69 32.87 4.14% 15:00
TSE 2nd Sec 1847.01 19.46 1.06% 15:00
JASDAQ 41.08 0.36 0.88% 15:00
Korea 1276.97 43.61 3.54% 15:02
Taiwan 5473.78 159.33 3.00% 13:46
Taiwan OTC 82.84 1.20 1.47% 13:46
Shanghai 2425.29 17.27 0.72% 15:15
Shanghai A 2545.67 18.36 0.73% 15:15
Shanghai B 160.03 -2.26 -1.39% 15:15
Shenzhen A 847.62 6.67 0.79% 15:00
Shenzhen B 356.85 3.90 1.10% 15:00
SHSZ 300 2576.40 28.18 1.11% 15:01
Shenzhen comp 9300.92 144.91 1.58% 15:00
Hong Kong 14435.69 916.15 6.78% 15:35
HK CN Ent 8549.62 471.94 5.84% 15:35
HK Aff Crp 3167.96 108.36 3.54% 15:35
Singapore 1781.20 78.94 4.64% 15:35
SGX China 54.96 2.98 5.73% 15:50
Vietnam 297.30 7.78 2.69% 11:02
Thailand 439.66 9.57 2.23% 14:30
Philippines 1982.88 15.60 0.79% 12:11
Malaysia 899.60 15.42 1.74% 15:50
Indonesia 1483.24 21.49 1.47% 14:50
India 10402.44 500.45 5.05% 13:20
Pakistan 5112.22 130.33 2.62% 11:30

[edit on 4/2/2009 by Hx3_1963]

reply to post by spinkyboo

The March figure was the lowest since October 2008, when 112,884 planned job cuts were announced. It comes on the heels of a 23-percent decline recorded in February

What a stupid article. "Planned cuts". The "planned cuts" for the entire first quarter where 500kish .. in Feb and March alone, all in the First Quarter, 1.3 MILLION jobs where lost.

Who the # cares about "planned" cuts, I prefer the total package -- planned and unplanned.

April Fooled: NASCAR Hoax Causes Web Frenzy

All Car and Driver magazine tried to do was drive a little levity into the auto industry bailout with a prank. The serious publication ran a joke story that announced that Obama had ordered Chevrolet and Dodge out of NASCAR if they wanted to keep their federal funds. For a brief web-fueled moment, NASCAR fans had to imagine a future of cheering on Japanese cars. Or worse, French ones. The horror.

Immediately, the Internet went crazy, with searches on "obama nascar" accelerating in Search and zooming across Twitter. Although the story was clearly marked a hoax, Car and Driver eventually pulled the fake story and apologized for going "too far."

What is "too far" in view of Obama recommending Chrysler to hook up with the losers in Turin, Italy?

Have you driven a Fiat lately?
Yes, I have. From an auto mechanic to another auto mechanic.

The Fool's Day was boring. No one came up with a story that would make the market crash for a day. That's because it's hard to find a good joke these days -- all the financial and economy news is a joke.

~hocus pocus~



[edit on 4/2/2009 by stander]

reply to post by stander


You didn't see the joke? We lost a historically record number of jobs this month and the market REBOUNDED. If that doesn't scream April Fools I don't know what does.

Originally posted by Rockpuck
reply to post by stander

 

You didn't see the joke? We lost a historically record number of jobs this month and the market REBOUNDED. If that doesn't scream April Fools I don't know what does.

That's what I said -- all the news is a joke, and the traders regarded the historically record number of jobs lost as such. Up you go Dow . . .

Today people are on crack once again...

NIKKEI + 4.4%
Hang Seng +7.4% + 1000 points!

PEOPLE ARE CRAZY.

Will the DOW do a +500 points? Probably.

Originally posted by spinkyboo
East Michigan Unemployment 17.4%

Eeek! At what point do ATSers make the call, and declare a Class 1-2 Economic Situation-X in East Michigan?

And those are probably U-3 numbers, and not U-6 numbers. If so, that puts U-6 at ~35%.

As for the futures:

Dow 7,835.00 117.00 1.52
S&P 500 822.10 12.90 1.59
NASDAQ 100 1,273.25 22.25 1.78
S&P/TSX 60 540.80 14.80 2.81
Mexico Bolsa 19,998.00 156.00 0.79
Brazil Bovespa 42,129.00 1,066.00 2.60

per Bloomberg, at 7:45 am.

[edit on 2-4-2009 by theWCH]

Originally posted by Vitchilo
Today people are on crack once again...

NIKKEI + 4.4%
Hang Seng +7.4% + 1000 points!

PEOPLE ARE CRAZY.

Will the DOW do a +500 points? Probably.

There are other influences that push the market figures up:

I figure things this way: the Dow closes above 8k on April 1.

Who do you think will prevail? My figuring or some market strategy based on the realistic apprisal of the current economic conditions? I want the Dow figures up and that's it.
Why?
Because I want it that way -- I like high numbers.

669,000 jobless claims.

Worse numbers since 1982... that will give us a rally!

One thing I've learned since I started trading is that people are trading on emotions, nothing else.

Historically, the first 3 days of a new quarter are up in the markets.

This time we have a new Rumor to buy, that the FASB will relax the mark to market rules. Well, make that the news - just over the wires...

*FASB VOTES DURING BOARD MEETING TO RELAX FAIR-VALUE ACCOUNTING
*FASB GIVES BANKS `SIGNIFICANT' JUDGMENT IN VALUING THEIR ASSETS
*FASB VOTE GIVES BANKS MORE FLEXIBILITY IN FAIR-VALUE ACCOUNTING
*FASB VOTES TO RELAX FAIR-VALUE AFTER PRESSURE FROM LAWMAKERS
FASB agrees to remove presumption in mark-to-market accounting r
* FASB agrees the objective of mark-to-market accounting is still what
would be received in an orderly transaction in the current inactive
market.

* FASB says an 'orderly' transaction does not include forced
liquidation or distressed sale.

* FASB agrees to remove presumption in mark-to-market accounting rule
that all transactions in an inactive market are distressed unless
proven otherwise.

There will be some significant gains today in the financials

today's TICKER: The Scamming Continues (AIG, Fan/Fred, PPIP, etc)


[edit on 4/2/09 by redhatty]

reply to post by redhatty


That's a + for the banks shares or ? Is it a real step towards recovery? What do you all think?

Originally posted by Vitchilo
reply to post by redhatty

 

That's a + for the banks shares or ? Is it a real step towards recovery? What do you all think?

The recovery of what? Markets? Maybe, for now.
But citizens? Hard.

Is it really so easy to claim victory regardless of the "fallen".