Friday, November 02, 2012

Today's Headlines

Posted by Gary .....at 3:28 PM
Bloomberg: 
  • Raw Sewage Floods Newark Bay After Sandy Cripples Key Plant. As much as 500 million gallons of raw sewage a day is flowing into Newark Bay after superstorm Sandy disabled the nation’s fifth-largest wastewater treatment plant. Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said it wasn’t clear when the facility, operated by the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission, can resume operations. “We’re advising people to avoid direct contact with the water, and avoid fishing or crabbing or other recreational activities,” Hajna said. Between 300 million and 500 million gallons of untreated sewage is flowing each day into the bay, which feeds Arthur Kill, a tidal estuary, and Raritan Bay en route to the Atlantic Ocean. 
  • Hotels Face Perfect Storm as Evacuees Run Into Marathoners. New York City hotels are struggling with space shortages as runners traveling into town for this weekend’s marathon compete for lodging with locals renting rooms after their homes were damaged by Atlantic storm Sandy. “Those marathon rooms were booked months ago,” said Karen Yam, a desk clerk at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Metropolitan on Lexington Avenue in midtown Manhattan. About 60 to 70 of the property’s 775 rooms will be occupied by people in town for the race, she said. “It’s been very difficult and frustrating to turn people down from downtown and the suburbs.”
  • Tempers Flare Over Gasoline Lines, Power Restoration Pace. Tempers flared over days of power outages and mile-long lines to buy gasoline in New Jersey and New York as utilities faced pressure from state officials and residents to restore service faster. About 1.5 million customers in New Jersey, more than a third of homes and businesses, remained without electricity as of today. Sandy’s destruction has left 13 Jerseyans dead. At least three were related to the use of portable generators, said Mary Goepfert, spokeswoman for the Office of Emergency Management.
  • Orders for U.S. Equipment Stall as Companies Curb Spending. Orders for U.S. equipment such as computers and electrical gear barely rose in September, pointing to a slowdown in business investment that will weigh on growth. Bookings for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a proxy for future spending, rose 0.2 percent after advancing 0.3 percent in August and dropping 5.6 percent in July, Commerce Department data showed today in Washington. 
  • Honda to Nissan Extend China Sales Plunge on Islands Dispute. Honda Motor Co. (7267) and Nissan Motor Co. (7201) joined Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) in reporting a plunge in China deliveries for a second month as Chinese consumers shun their cars even after anti-Japan protests have subsided. Honda’s October sales in the country fell 53.5 percent from a year earlier to 24,115 units, the Tokyo-based company said in an e-mail today. That’s worse than the 41 percent drop in September, when rioters smashed cars and torched dealerships in China during demonstrations against Japan. Nissan said deliveries fell 41 percent last month after reporting a 35 percent decline for September.
  • Rochdale Said to Seek Capital Lifeline After Trading Error. Rochdale Securities LLC, the 37-year- old brokerage that employs bank analyst Dick Bove, is seeking a capital injection after a trading error, said three people with knowledge of the firm’s situation. Executives at Rochdale are telling employees and potential investors that a trader at the firm made an unauthorized purchase of Apple Inc. (AAPL) shares, which has eroded the capital of closely held Rochdale, said one of the people, who declined to be identified because the overtures have been private.
Wall Street Journal: 
  • Live Updates: Hurricane Sandy.
  • Election 2012.
  • Noonan: How Far Obama Has Fallen. From historic figure to beleaguered incumbent in less than four years.
  • Iran Hides Behind Exotic Flags to Help Syria. Iran is shipping oil to Syria by hiding vessels behind front companies and exotic flags to evade international sanctions and aid its isolated ally, according to sanctions experts and people in the shipping industry. Iran sent an oil tanker loaded with refined products from its Persian Gulf port of Bandar Abbas to Syria's Mediterranean terminal at Baniyas last week, according to ship-tracking website Marine Traffic, which follows radio signals emitted by vessels, and a shipping official working at the Syrian oil port.
CNBC: 
NY Times: 
  • Euro Zone Manufacturing Declines. A European economic report Friday confirmed a continuing slowdown in the euro zone’s factories, even as Washington reported data indicating a moderate improvement in the American economy. Euro zone manufacturing declined for a 15th consecutive month in October, according to a survey of purchasing managers by Markit Economics, a research firm. The final Markit purchasing managers’ index fell to 45.4 in October from 46.1 in September.
Reuters:
  • Scope of Sandy's devastation widens, tempers flare. Four days after superstorm Sandy smashed into the U.S. Northeast, rescuers on Friday were still discovering the extent of the death and devastation in New York and the New Jersey shore, and anger mounted over gasoline shortages, power outages and waits for relief supplies. The total killed in one of the biggest storms to hit the United States jumped by a third on Thursday, to 98. In New York City, 40 people have been found dead, half of them in Staten Island, which was overrun by a wall of water on Monday. Among the dead in Staten Island were two brothers, aged 2 and 4, who were swept from their mother's arms after her car stalled in rising flood waters. Their bodies were found near each other in a marshy area on Thursday. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Federal Emergency Management Agency Deputy Administrator Richard Serino planned to visit Staten Island on Friday amid angry claims by some survivors that the borough had been ignored. Scenes of angry storm victims could complicate matters for politicians, from President Barack Obama just four days before the general election, to governors and mayors in the most heavily populated region in the United States.
  • On Staten Island, cries for help replaced by a loss for words. On Hamden Ave, a storm-wrecked street on New York City's Staten Island, everyone was talking about the surge - a wall of water that came tearing down the street on Monday night. As families picked through mud-caked photo albums and couch cushions, and stared at ruined cars scattered across the neighborhood, they talked on Thursday about how a little bit of rain suddenly turned into pools of water. Then swelled and kept swelling until the water flooded the first floor of homes. "We heard this noise and it sounded like a train," said Dawn Rautenstrauch, speaking three days after Sandy, a vicious storm, tore across the East Coast, washing away houses, trees and bridges. "There was a 10-foot wave carrying cars."
  • COLUMN-The consequences of Obama's debt. The large budget deficits and expansion of the national debt under President Barack Obama, unprecedented since World War II, have him set to bequeath an immensely costly legacy. Each of his deficits as a percentage of gross domestic product has been larger than the previous post-World War II record, for which Democrats excoriated President Ronald Reagan. Between the debt already racked up and what Obama's FY13 budget projects, each income-tax-paying family will owe more in Obama debt than a new mortgage on a median-priced home and four years of college costs. Yet more than three years into recovery from the recession, the president has not proposed a program to deal with the massive debt.
  • Copper Falls on US Data, Weak Demand. 
  • Italy car sales fall 12.39 percent in October from a year ago. New car sales in recessionary Italy plunged 12.39 percent in October from the same month a year ago to 116,875 vehicles, Italy's Transport Ministry said on Friday. In September, Italian car sales dropped 25.7 percent. Earlier on Friday, car sales in France and Spaindropped 7.8 percent and 21.7 percent in October, industry groups in those countries said.
Financial Times:
  • The peripheral threat to France. Compétitivité is a big deal in France right now. The country’s loss of competitiveness is a serious issue, especially as its crisis-struck neighbours push on with wage cuts and labour reform.
Telegraph:
Berliner Zeitung:
  • Germany's solar industry lost 30,000 jobs in the "past" months, citing Carsten Koernig, head of the BSW industry lobby. 

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