Bloomberg:
- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the government is moving to withdraw some of its support for financial markets and cautioned that the recovery will have “more than the usual ups and downs.” “As we enter this new phase we must begin winding down some of the extraordinary support we put in place for the financial system,” Geithner said in testimony to the Congressional Oversight Panel that monitors the $700 billion financial-rescue program. “We are now in a position to evolve our strategy as we move from crisis response to recovery, from rescuing the economy to repairing and rebuilding the foundation for future growth.”
- Yields on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage securities declined to the lowest in more than three months, signaling that interest rates on new-home loans will retreat further and bolster the U.S. housing market. Yields on Washington-based Fannie Mae’s current-coupon 30- year fixed-rate mortgage bonds fell 0.11 percentage point to 4.29 percent as of 1:15 p.m. in New York, the lowest since May 26, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The drop tracked a decline in benchmark Treasury yields after stronger-than- forecast demand at the last of three government debt auctions this week. The average rate on a typical 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 5.07 percent in the latest week, McLean, Virginia- based Freddie Mac said today in a statement. That’s down from as high as 5.59 percent in June, and up from the record low of 4.78 percent in April.
- The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission should “act quickly” to adopt rules that would limit speculative trading in energy markets, require over-the- counter contracts to clear through a regulated exchange and impose more reporting requirements, lawmakers said.
- Health insurers said President Barack Obama’s proposal to tax the most expensive benefit plans and create a public alternative to private coverage fails to tackle the causes of escalating medical expenses. The public insurance option ignores the “central issue” of slowing the growth of health-care costs in the country, said Ronald A. Williams, chief executive officer of Aetna Inc., the third-largest U.S. health insurer. Obama “stopped short of addressing health-care reform,” said Kristin Binns, a spokeswoman for WellPoint Inc., the second-largest by sales.
- The Federal Reserve may keep interest rates low for “many years” to help U.S. consumers and companies as they pare back debt, according to economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Sluggish spending as households reduce debt could lop as much as 2 percentage points from U.S. economic growth over the next three years, New York-based economists Peter Berezin and Alex Kelston wrote in a report released late yesterday. While not enough to threaten a long-term recovery, it may require the Fed to offset the weakness by keeping its benchmark rate unchanged through 2010, they said. “It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Fed may need to maintain fairly low interest rates over a period of many years,” wrote Berezin and Kelston. “If you want to bring down leverage, you should keep monetary policy sufficiently accommodative to forestall a collapse in spending and a deflationary spiral.”
- Bank of China Ltd., which led the nation’s $1.1 trillion lending spree in the first half, said ample liquidity has caused “bubbles” in stocks, commodities and real estate. “The potential risk is that a lot of liquidity goes to the asset market,” Vice President Zhu Min said in an interview in Dalian today. “So you see asset bubbles in commodities, stocks and real estate, not only in China, but everywhere.”
- China “strongly opposes” a ruling by the U.S. Commerce Department to impose duties of as much as 31 percent on steel pipes, the Ministry of Commerce said today. The U.S. decision doesn’t comply with rules set by the World Trade Organization, the ministry said on its Web site.
- The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits dropped last week to the lowest level since July, a sign the labor market is deteriorating at a slower pace. Applications fell by 26,000 to 550,000 in the week ended Sept. 5, lower than economists forecast, from a revised 576,000 the week before, Labor Department data showed today in Washington. The total number of people collecting unemployment insurance declined to the lowest level since April. Employment may be starting to stabilize after 20 straight months of job losses, economists said. A return to job growth, meanwhile, is likely months away as companies delay hiring new workers. The latest Bloomberg News monthly survey showed the unemployment rate will reach 10 percent by early next year. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits, which tends to track the jobless rate, fell to 4.6 percent in the week ended Aug. 29 from 4.7 percent the prior week.
- Hostile takeover battles are set for a “sharp resurgence” as financing markets and equity markets recover from the credit crisis, according to Citigroup Inc. “Market conditions may be more conducive to hostile acquisitions today than after past market downturns,” Citigroup analysts including New-York based Carsten Stendevad wrote in a note released today. “In today’s market environment, we find that many firms exhibit the financial attributes of likely targets.”
- The SEC is “rigorously” investigating whether traders are using technology to manipulate markets, the agency’s enforcement and inspections chiefs said today.
Wall Street Journal:
- Democrats have wanted President Obama to drop some of his cool and fight for their health-care agenda, and last night they weren't disappointed. The President gave away very little on the substance of what Congressional leaders are proposing, even as he offered a rhetorical bow or two to the idea of compromise. The main message of his speech to Congress is that he is doubling down on his health-care bets and counting on the sheer inertia of Democratic and health industry self-interest in Washington to drive a bill into law. The speech was especially notable for its use of one of Mr. Obama's favorite rhetorical devices: Noting in the first instance that his opponents have a good point, and entirely legitimate concerns, only to reject their ideas in toto when it comes to policy. Thus he endorsed the public's concern about the competence of government to manage one-sixth of the economy, only to finish with a soaring oration about the moral necessity of letting government do so.
- Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) Chief Executive Ben Verwaayen said Thursday his company is on track to meet its profit targets through 2011, and declined to comment on a report of an alliance with China's Huawei Technologies Co. Verwaayen, who was speaking to Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Dalian, reiterated the Franco-U.S. telecommunications equipment company plans to break even this year, make a small profit next year and return to stronger profitability in 2011. "We are still on track to meet those targets," he said.
- Staffing levels in corporate accounting and finance departments are expected to stay largely stable through the end of the year, according to a recent survey of chief financial officers.
- A Boeing Co. (BA) executive said Thursday the decline in global air passenger traffic is leveling off as the world begins to come out of a long economic recession.
- Corning Inc.(GLW) expects liquid-crystal-display glass output to be better than its reduced expectations as the disruption caused by an earthquake near a Japanese plant was less serious than anticipated.
MarketWatch.com:
Top tech letter says recovery is real.
The Business Insider:
- Google (GOOG) held a conference call today to remind Wall Street about its search business. Sounds like it was mostly a snooze except for the bit about some new ad formats. We could see those driving per-click revenue up fast. JP Morgan's Imran Khan summarized the call:
NY Times:
- On one proposal for health care reform at least, there is a rare bipartisan consensus: the push to computerize patient records. The goal of moving paper medical records into the digital age has been championed for years by health care policy makers across the political spectrum, from Hillary Rodham Clinton to Newt Gingrich. As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama, too, was an advocate, and the economic crisis opened the door for an ambitious step — $19 billion put into the recovery package to encourage doctors and hospitals to install and use electronic health records. So even as the Obama administration and Congress struggle with broad health policy legislation, the technology industry is pursuing the opportunity in digital health records as never before. Although most of the government money will not start flowing until next year, the companies hoping to get their share include technology giants like General Electric, I.B.M. and the big telecommunications company, Verizon. Also in the hunt are smaller health technology specialists like Athenahealth, eClinicalWorks and Practice Fusion.
paidContent.org:
Already facing a larger-than-usual number of local TV blackouts, the National Football League is offering fans in those markets an option play: delayed full-game videos for free starting at midnight the day of a game and running for 72 hours.
DesMoinsesRegister:
- Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today accused the media of worsening the downturn in the pork industry by calling the H1N1 virus the swine flu. “This is not swine flu. Every time that is said consumers get confused,” Vilsack said on a conference call with news reporters.
TVNewser:
- John Stossel , the longtime ABC News correspondent and co-anchor of "20/20," is leaving ABC to join Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network. TVNewser has learned Stossel will host a weekly, one-hour program for the 2-year-old business channel. He's expected to signed a multi-year deal with Fox which will include regular appearances on Fox News Channel during daytime and primetime. He'll also host four, hour-long specials on Fox News, much like the business/consumer specials he'd hosted for years on ABC.
Washington Post:
- The Obama administration's vision for revamping the nation's financial regulatory system could face significant revisions in the Senate, where proposed reform legislation departs from the White House proposal on several key points, according to staff members, lobbyists and a lawmaker briefed on the plans. A bill taking shape in the Senate Banking Committee could give the Federal Reserve far less authority than the administration sought in the reform proposal it unveiled in June. Senators on both sides of the aisle have expressed a lack of confidence in the Fed in the wake of the financial crisis, challenging everything from the central bank's transparency to its ability to protect consumers. Some lawmakers oppose giving the Fed responsibility for monitoring systemic risk in the economy, as proposed by the administration, favoring instead vesting that authority with a council of regulators. "We really do take what the administration did as advisory. We have our own ideas," said one Democratic staff member familiar with the legislation who was not authorized to speak on the record.
Vanity Fair:
- 100 to Blame: The Community Reinvestment Act, Corporate Skyboxes, and More.
Bond Buyer:
- Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm released a two-year budget proposal that would raise taxes to generate $1 billion of extra revenue, cut expenditure by $2 billion and take up $2 billion of federal stimulus funds.
Wealth Bulletin:
- Assets held in exchange-traded funds hit a new all-time high at the end of August, according to new figures, prompting one of the industry's most respected figures to revisit an earlier prediction that they will account for $1 trillion (€688bn) of assets by the end of the year.
Rassmussen:
- Views of the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats remain largely unchanged since late July. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey conducted Tuesday and Wednesday nights finds that 44% favor the plan while 53% are opposed. These numbers are little different than those in late August.
Politico:
- House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was telling reporters Tuesday night that a health care bill might survive without a public option when Nancy Pelosi bounded to the microphones to cut him off. “In order to pass a bill in the House, it must have a public option,” the speaker said. Pelosi’s message wasn’t lost on anyone who heard it: In this House, I’m the boss. Pelosi and Hoyer, longtime rivals and often effective allies, have chafed against each other during the tense, tiring negotiations over health care reform, with Pelosi voicing the concerns of progressives and Hoyer publicly adopting a more conciliatory tone in his role as ambassador to the fiscally conservative Blue Dogs.
Bookseller.com:
- Authors have seen their advances drop over the past year, with some facing cuts of as much as 50% on new book deals. But deals for bestselling authors are "bigger than ever".
ConnPost.com:
- Hedge funds -- Southwest Connecticut's native industry -- are beginning to hire again as the economy and the stock market show glimpses of recovery, according to Sandy Gross, founder and managing partner of Pinetum Partners LLC. "It's been picking up in the last month," she said, adding that she expects the job market in the hedge fund industry to improve slowly next year before doing well in 2011. "I think the worst is over, but I think it's going to lag a little longer."
USA Today:
- Almost three-quarters (73%) of American colleges and universities are reporting cases of influenza-like illnesses among students, with the highest rates in the Southeast and Midwest, the American College Health Association says.
Reuters:
- Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart said on Thursday the U.S. economic recovery has started and made a plea for central bank independence to assure global markets the U.S. will pursue responsible monetary policies. "Overall, the U.S. economy is improving but still fragile," Lockhart told the World Affairs Council of Jacksonville. "Stabilization is proceeding, and the first stages of recovery are under way."
- U.S. Treasury debt prices jumped on Thursday, with the 30-year bond gaining two points in price after robust demand at a $12 billion reopening of a prior 30-year bond issue. There have been lingering concerns the burgeoning federal budget gap will hurt the United States' long-term creditworthiness and foreign appetite for Treasuries. New borrowing will approach $2 trillion this fiscal year. But the final of this week's auctions signaled there is persistent demand for U.S. government debt.
Financial Times:
Motorola on Thursday unveiled its first Google(GOOG) Android-powered smartphone – a touch screen device designed to compete with Apple’s iPhone that will target consumers who use social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter extensively. The new 3G and Wi-Fi enabled handset – called the Motorola Cliq in the US and the Motorola Dext elsewhere – is the first of a raft of new devices aimed at reviving the struggling US mobile maker’s fortunes.
Il Sole 24 Ore:
- Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman who’s an adviser to President Obama, said that his country’s government should end its role in the auto industry as soon as possible.
Digitimes:
- The supply of CMOS image sensors (CIS) from OmniVision(OVTI) will remain tight in September as well as in the fourth quarter of 2009 as demand from OEM notebook makers and terminal device makers is stronger than expected, according to industry sources. OmniVision has recently notified some customers that it may not be able to meet their demand for October, the sources indicated. Supply from its rival Aptina is also tight, especially for the 1.3-megapixel product A380, the sources added.
Haaretz.com:
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to Moscow on Monday was part of quiet diplomacy between Russia and Israel over Russia's plan to supply S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran, Haaretz has learned. A senior government source in Jerusalem confirmed yesterday that Netanyahu was in Russia for talks on security issues, particularly the sale of Russian weapons to Iran. The missiles could help Iran protect its nuclear facilities from attack.
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