Korea's Debt Mountain
by Jayati Ghosh, Triplecrisis.com
Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea, is now one of the 'happening' cities of Asia. Psy's 'Gangnam style' (the pop music video that has gone viral online with more than 6 billion hits)
that somewhat randomly celebrates the posh modern district of Gangnam
is only one of various ways in which the city is supposed to reflect the
new cool. There is growing recognition that this city is both vibrant
and livable, with its vertiginous high-rise buildings coexisting with
clean streets, fine new museums and spots that combine the natural
beauty of its forested hills with carefully preserved (or reconstructed) palaces of the Joseon dynasty.
What We Read Today 31 July 2013
Econintersect: Click Read more >> below graphic to see today's list.
The top of today's reading list is
about Daniel Tarullo, a Fed governor never mentioned as a replacement
for Ben Bernanke ........ and the last article is about further
discussion of misrepresentations about and by Reinhart and Rogoff.
Roller Coaster Casino Market Cleans Some Investors Clocks
Closing Market Commentary For 07-31-2013
The FOMC minutes was a dull reading and
not saying very much but the markets reacted in a full blown buy for
several minutes, but by 2:15 it was all downhill. But wait, it gets even
better. In just 5 minutes the markets were back exactly where they were
BEFORE the minutes release. Can you spell HFT algo computers at work?
There will be a stink over this and then after a day or so everyone will
forget about it as usual.
By 4 pm the markets had sunk to another miserable low taking with it all the sheeples that bought in. Unbelievable!
31 July 2013 FOMC Meeting Statement: Little New, Nothing Changed
Econintersect:
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) - the board of directors of
the Federal Reserve - meeting concluded today and issued their meeting
statement believing the economy went from moderate to modest expansion
(good better or bad better or ??), and only word engineering their
previous statement (see table comparing the previous meeting statement
to today's).
Averages Slide Significantly On Low Volume
Midday Market Commentary For 07-31-2013
What rumor was started at 10:26? The
averages jumped 0.30% in a matter of minutes where the DOW was up 0.70%
at one point and the other indices followed suit. The DOW set a new
record high along with the SP500, but then started melting downward
totally confusing anyone trying to make sense of this mess.
By 1 pm it appears the averages are going
to melt below yesterday's closing numbers before the session ends.
Volume has fallen off to abysmal levels.
India's Silent War
A
40-year war that has claimed thousands of lives but been largely
ignored outside of India. It has been raging in the jungles of central
and eastern India. It is one of the world's largest armed conflicts with
the Adivasis.
Markets Open Up But Cautious Of FOMC Meeting
Opening Market Commentary For 07-31-2013
Premarkets were up until the morning
financials started coming in. ADP employment was up, but the GPD second
quarter was down and that brought the SP500 futures down -0,01% and
sending the USD sky rocketing upwards.
But you needed not to panic as the
futures made an abrupt 180 and were back up where they were up +0.50% by
9 am. However the USD didn't fall back (bearish) and investors are now
worried what the Feds will say at the FOMC meeting today.
At the opening bell the averages were in
the green and melting upwards with the large caps in the +0.30% and the
small caps in the +0.50%. Volume remains low so watch your large block
trades if you are brave enough to dip your toes into this market.
July 2013 Chicago Purchasing Managers Barometer Improves Slightly
Econintersect: The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index improved after last month's largest drop in almost five years.
Nonfinancial Leverage NFCI Marginally Deteriorates Slightly w/e 26 July 2013
The Nonfinancial leverage subindex of the National Financial Conditions Index increased slightly (less good) this week but still remains well inside of economic expansion territory. Econintersect focuses on non-financial tools to monitor the economy.
This index remains on a
"less good" trend line, and is believed to be a good forward indicator a
recession is coming. A value above zero is a recession warning.
A Word from This Newsletter's Sponsor
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A new investment video reveals the
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Watch it now, before the skeptics on Wall Street wise up and start
looking for their piece of the action.
Advance Estimate 2Q2013 GDP Is 1.7%* (*new GDP baseline)
Written by Doug Short and Steven Hansen
The advance estimate of first quarter 2013 Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew a
positive 1.7% - up from a completely revised GDP database (discussed herein).
- The market expected the advance estimate 2Q2013 GDP at -0.7% to +1.1%. 1Q2013 GDP has been revised down from 1.8% to 1.1%.
Read more >>
July 2013 ADP Jobs 200,000, A Second Good Jobs Report in a Row
Written by Steven Hansen
ADP reported July 2013 non-farm private jobs growth at 200,000.
- The three month average of jobs gains improved - the rate of growth is accelerating. This is the second month of improvement after a 14 month "less good" trend.
Read more >>
Surgical Imaging: New Tech Investment Opportunities
Article of the Week from About Small Cap Stocks
by Allen Caron
Surgical imaging has long been a
challenge for surgeons. Until about four years ago, patients undergoing
surgery needed to be scanned post-procedure to ensure that the surgery
was successful. However, intraoperative computed tomography (iCT)
procedures now provide surgeons with a way to ensure successful
surgeries before the patient has even left the operating room.
Image courtesy of IMRIS.com; click to enlarge.
Quantifying QE
QE - Why $85 Billion per Month? Why Not $170 or $42 -1/2 Billion?
by Paul Kasriel, The Econtrarian
Author's warning: If
you should choose to read this commentary, I recommend that you have
ready a pot of coffee or your chosen type of cognitive stimulant. The
commentary is lengthy and geeky.
Am I the only one who wondered how the
Federal Reserve arrived at a figure of $85 billion as the amount of
longer-maturity securities it planned to purchase per month in its third
round of quantitative easing (QE)? Why not double that amount? Why not
half that amount? How will the Fed know when it is time to 'taper' its securities purchases? How will the Fed know by how much to taper? Inquiring minds want to know.
Market Capitalization and GDP
Chart of the Week
by John O'Donnell
This week the Chart of the Week
video discusses the ratio of market capitalization (total market value
of all stocks). In this discussion we look at the apparent stock bubble
of the past 20 years and the apparent trend toward reversion to the mean
for the last century of stock prices.
[Watch the video after the Read more >> jump.]
BMW Enters the Electric Car Market
Econintersect:
BMW has announced an electric car coming to market. based on
modification of their 3 series design. The i3 is a 5-door hatchback
design, has a base price of $42,000 and will be available for delivery
in November in Europe and 2Q 2014 in the U.S. Based on the name it might
seem that the i3 might be a modification of the BMW 3 series design,
but the connection is not obvious in information released.
Click on picture for 43 image file from BMW.
Investing.com: Technical Analysis 30 July 2013
Investing.com Technical Analysis (as of Tue, 30 July 2013 05:00pm EDT)
by Investing.com Staff, Investing.com
Below, technical overviews and analysis for key stock indices, commodities and
currency
pairs, based on market activity at the end of the 20 July 2013 U.S.
session. This information is a comprehensive summary derived from simple
and exponential moving averages along with key technical indicators
shown for specific time intervals.
Profit from a Slower Growing China
Most Everything You've Heard about China's Currency is Dead Wrong (and that Means Money for Us) - Money Morning Article of the Week
by Robert Hsu, Money Morning
Nearly everything you've heard about
China's currency, the yuan, is dead wrong. It's not undervalued and it's
not undercutting the U.S. dollar as the financial press and politicians
like to point out. I'll show you why.
You likely heard that China recently
reported it had grown just 7.5 percent in the second quarter of 2013,
the lowest level in over three years.
What you likely don't know is, more than
half of that growth came from wasteful infrastructure and property
investments, such as the new largest building in the world.
Fatal Train Crashes Are Rarer in the US than in the EU
by Felix Richter, Statista.com
It
has proven a deadly week for the European rail network. In the wake of
last Tuesday's tragic derailment near Santiago de Compostela in Spain
which claimed 79 lives, two regional trains collided at
Granges-pres-Marnand in Switzerland yesterday. The driver was killed and
24 passengers were injured.
