Is the End Near for the EU?
Existential Threats And Decisions Approach
by Cliff Wachtel, FX Empire
As evidence of the EU's failure and potential collapse mounts, the time for existential choices approaches; implications for the EUR are reviewed.
Summary
- Existential Threat #1: Unsustainable Debt Loads That Could Destroy The EU Require A Fully Empowered ECB
- Existential Threat #2: Undercapitalized Banks Present Systemic Risk To EU, Global Banking. This too requires a fully empowered central bank that can act fast with needed cash
- Implications: A United States of Europe is the solution, but apparent lack of political will and popular support for implied loss of member state sovereignty may doom the EU.
Read more >>
Market Commentary: SP500 Closes At 2000, Volume Levels Close To Anemic
Closing Market Commentary For 08-26-2014
The DOW Made a new high but closed below the previous closing high, but above 17000. The SP500 also made a new historic high, but made a new closing high and importantly, closed AT 2000.02. These events are more psychological than anything, but savvy investors pay attention to such menial statistics.
By 4 pm there was a brief and fractional selloff which the BTFDers took advantage of and saved the SP500 from closing below 2000. I can't seem to get into the bullish spirit, market action just doesn't seem right.
What We Read Today 26 August 2014
Econintersect: Every day our editors collect the most interesting things they find from around the internet and present a summary "reading list" which will include very brief summaries (and sometimes longer ones) of why each item has gotten our attention. Suggestions from readers for "reading list" items are gratefully reviewed, although sometimes space limits the number included.
- French President Francois Hollande Dissolves Government After Cabinet Feud (Lori Hinnant and Sylvie Corbet, Huffington Post) Those opposed to austerity have been purged.
Stratfor: Iraq and Syria Follow Lebanon's Precedent
by George Friedman
Lebanon was created out of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. This agreement between Britain and France reshaped the collapsed Ottoman Empire south of Turkey into the states we know today -- Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, and to some extent the Arabian Peninsula as well. For nearly 100 years, Sykes-Picot defined the region. A strong case can be made that the nation-states Sykes-Picot created are now defunct, and that what is occurring in Syria and Iraq represents the emergence of those post-British/French maps that the United States has been trying to maintain since the collapse of Franco-British power.
Read more >>
Investor Relations Firm Executive Charged With Insider Trading Ahead of News Announcements By Clients
by Securities and Exchange Commission
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a director of market intelligence at a Manhattan-based investor relations firm with insider trading ahead of impending news announcements by more than a dozen clients. The charges were filed against Michael Anthony Dupre Lucarelli, who garnered nearly $1 million in illicit profits.
Market Commentary: SP500 And DOW Reach New Highs, Now Trending Down
Midday Market Commentary For 08-26-2014
The SP500 reached a new high of 2005.04 before turning down fractionally around 11:30 am. The same was true for the DOW reaching a new historical high of 17153.80.
By noon the volume was light with a few spurts of red negative selling, but not enough to be overly concerned. One thing to note is that the SP500 and the DOW are having a difficult time moving higher after reaching new highs.
Orions protective backshell installed This Week at NASA
Engineers at Kennedy Space Center have installed the Orion spacecrafts backshell with black protective tiles on the cone shaped sides of NASAs new deep space capsule which are the same type that protected the underside of space shuttles.
Richmond Fed Manufacturing Growth at Multi-Year High in August 2014
Of the four regional Federal Reserve surveys released to date, all show manufacturing expanding in August 2014. A complete summary follows. The market expected this survey index at 4 to 12 (consensus 8.0) versus the 12 actual [note that values above zero represent expansion].
August 2014 Conference Board Consumer Confidence Growth Continues - Above Expectations
Written by Doug Short and Steven Hansen
The August 2014 Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index rose moderately after rising now for the past four months. The market expected this index to come in at 85.0 to 94.0 (consensus 89.5) versus the 92.4 reported.
Read more >>
Market Commentary: Markets Open Flat, Melt Fractionally Higher On Low Volume
Opening Market Commentary For 08-26-2014
Premarkets were up +0.07% after positive US financial data was reported this morning. Markets opened flat and begin melting upwards where the SP500 tested yesterday's new historic high by besting it by +0.18 and then backed off.
By 10 the SP500 was again seriously testing yesterday's highs moving fractionally higher (2002.77), but on very low volume, suggesting HFT algo computer manipulation. Caution.
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Case-Shiller Home Prices June 2014: Price Growth Continues to Slow, Growth Rate Under Expectations
Written by Steven Hansen
The non-seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller home price index (20 cities) for June 2014 (released today) rate of growth again declined sharply but still shows reasonable year-over-year gain in housing prices.
Read more >>
Durable Goods Gets Huge Boost From New Aircraft Orders in July 2014
Written by Steven Hansen
The headlines say the durable goods new orders improved massively in July. Our analysis agrees - but if you exclude civilian aircraft, durable goods were down month-over-month. Note that theFederal Reserve's Durable Goods Industrial Production Index also improved.
Read more >>
Labor Day Survey Shows Labor Harder to Find
MORE THAN THREE-QUARTERS ATTEST TO GROWING TALENT SHORTAGE
by Challenger Gray and Christmas
While some metropolitan areas are still struggling to create jobs, a growing number of cities and employers are beginning to face the one downside of continued economic expansion: labor shortages. For long-time job seekers still struggling to find employment, the idea of labor shortages may seem laughable, but in a new survey 77 percent of human resource executives polled said their companies were having difficulty filling open positions due to a shortage of available talent.
The 3 Biggest Problems of the 'Dollar Standard'
by Richard Duncan, Daily Reckoning
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards Withdrew, And the hearts of the Meanest were humbled and began to believeIt was true That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make FourAnd the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.-Rudyard Kipling, 1919
Why Tesla Stock (Nasdaq: TSLA) Will Double in the Next 12 Months
Money Morning Article of the Week
by Keith Fitz-Gerald, Money Morning
I believe Tesla Motors Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) stock will double within the next 12 months.
Bold? You bet. I know it's not a popular opinion. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the disdain for TSLA's bull run is only surpassed by the herd's disdain for the overall bull market itself.
For every quarter since at least Q1/2013, any sign of strength by this company has been met with jeers from some pretty powerful detractors.
Stellar Econ Data Last Week
by EconMatters, EconMatters.com
Fed Dominated Week
This past week was dominated by Jackson Hole, the Fed minutes, and the fact that many traders were on a beach working on their tans during this last slow period before things get in full swing after Labor Day. Missed in all of this was a week where every single econ report came in at the high end of the forecast, or outright beat expectations.
U.S. Seasonal Updates: A Forecast Akin to Skateboarding on Quicksand
Econintersect Climate and Weather Update, 25 August 2014
Written by Sig Silber
The U.S. Seasonal Updates have been issued by NOAA on August 21. The "Outlook" maps are almost unchanged but the level of unease expressed in the discussion of the maps is palpable.
You can now see the confusion in the 6 - 14 day outlook which bears little resemblance to the monthly outlook for September issued just last Thursday. It appears however that the situation may get clarified within one more month. We shall see.
Europe's Lousy Bank Loans Expose the 'Recovery' Myth
by William K. Black, New Economic Perspectives
One of the great lies of the financial industry is that it is the engine of Main Street's growth. Giving the finance industry an enormous share of total business profits was supposed to super charge Main Street's growth. It has never delivered on this promise. The truth is the opposite. The efficiency condition for a middleman like finance is that its size and profits should be minimized. Finance's fraud epidemics blew up the world economy and devastated Main Street. Finance is a parasite that saps Main Street. The latest example of this comes in a New York Times article about European bank's bad loans.
Is Iceland's Next Volcanic Eruption Aabout to Happen?
by Dave McGarvie, The Conversation
The Iceland Meteorological Office has increased the risk of an eruption at Baretharbunga (or Bardarbunga) volcano, after hundreds of earthquakes were reported over the weekend. The risk level has been set to orange, which is the fourth-highest on a five-level scale.
Here we asked Dave McGarvie, a volcanologist at The Open University, to explain what we need to know.
Gasoline Prices Fall Almost 2 Cents A Gallon
Gas Prices: Week Ending 25 August 2014
Econintersect: Average gasoline prices fell an average of 1.7 cents nationwide this past week following the previous week's 3.3 fall from the week before. However, since 06 January 2014, gas prices have risen 12.1 cents a gallon.
Average prices by region and a breakdown by grade follow after "Read more >>".
At the end of the article is a Gas Buddy graphic with access to local gasoline prices anywhere in the country.
ECB's Draghi Calls on Euro Area to Prime Fiscal Pumps
Monetary Policy Week in Review: 18-22 August 2014
by Peter Nielsen, Central Bank News
The split in global monetary policy between the world's major central banks was thrown into sharp relief last week as it once again became clear that U.S. and U.K. monetary policy will soon be tightened while the European Central Bank (ECB) launched an impassioned plea for euro area governments to step up to the plate and use fiscal policy to boost faltering demand.
U.S. Military Suicides Have Overtaken Combat Deaths
from Felix Richter, Statista.com
by Niall McCarthy
U.S. military combat deaths have been declining since the end of the war in Iraq, along with a slowdown in the pace of operations in Afghanistan.
Infographic of the Day: Anatomy of Songs
What popular music is made of, find out in this short and funny infographic.
