Monday, July 22, 2013

Today's Headlines

Posted by Gary .....at 3:10 PM
Bloomberg:
  • China One-Year Swap Rate Rises on Capital Outflow Concerns. China’s one-year interest-rate swap rose to a three-week high on concern capital will head overseas as a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy erodes the creditworthiness of local companies. Yuan positions at Chinese financial institutions accumulated from sales of foreign exchange, an indication of capital inflows, rose 67 billion yuan ($10.9 billion) in May, the least in six months, the People’s Bank of China reported June 14. The nation’s rating firms cut the most bond issuer rankings on record in June, according to Guotai Junan Securities Co., the nation’s third-biggest brokerage. “Concern about capital outflows is rising because of fear of default and increasing non-performing-loan ratios,” said Wee-Khoon Chong, a strategist at Societe Generale SA in Hong Kong. 
  • India 10-Year Bonds Fall After Worst Weekly Decline Since 2009. India’s 10-year bonds fell after posting their biggest weekly loss since 2009 as the nation’s central bank raised two interest rates to steady the currency. “The central bank is clearly aiming to raise short-term rates,” said Arvind Chari, a senior fund manager at Quantum Asset Management Co. in Mumbai. “The market’s expectations of a rate cut have been pushed back significantly.” The yield on the 7.16 percent bonds due May 2023 rose two basis points to 7.96 percent as of 10:30 a.m. in Mumbai, according to the central bank’s trading system. The rate surged 41 basis points last week, the most for a benchmark 10-year government note since December 2009, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
  • EU Bank Sovereign Debt and Capital Holdings to Be Published. The European Union’s top banking regulator will reveal data on the sovereign debt and types of capital held by the bloc’s biggest lenders as it forgoes a stress test for a second year. The European Banking Authority, set up in 2011 to harmonize banking rules, may publish the data as early as October and include additional information on banks’ cross-border investments across the EU.
  • European Stocks Rise for Fourth Day as UBS, Philips Gain. European stocks rose for a fourth day, extending a seven-week high, as companies from UBS AG to Royal Philips (PHIA) Electronics NV reported increased profit. UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, rallied to a two-year high. Philips, the Dutch maker of light bulbs and electric toothbrushes, gained for an eighth day. Portugal’s PSI-20 Index (PSI20) advanced 2.3 percent as President Anibal Cavaco Silva affirmed that he doesn’t want to call early elections. Mobistar (MOBB) SA slumped the most on record after the Belgian mobile-phone company cut profit forecasts and suspended its dividend. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.2 percent to 300.3 at the close of trading, having swung between gains and losses at least 20 times.
  • Gold Futures Advance Most in a Year on U.S. Stimulus Outlook. Gold gained the most in more than a year on speculation that the Federal Reserve will maintain U.S. economic stimulus, boosting the appeal of the precious metal as a store of value. Silver also surged. Gold futures for December delivery rose 3.3 percent to settle at $1,337.30 an ounce at 1:43 p.m. on the Comex in New York, the biggest gain since June 29, 2012. Earlier, the metal reached $1,340.50, the highest for a most-active contract since June 20.
  • Egypt Islamist Calls for U.S. Embassy Siege Amid Unrest. A Muslim Brotherhood leader called on Egyptians to lay siege to the U.S Embassy in Cairo to protest what he said was American support for the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. U.S. diplomats should leave Egypt, Essam El-Erian told Brotherhood supporters today in Cairo’s Nasr City suburb, where they’ve been staging a sit-in since Mursi’s July 3 removal by the army. He said he hoped they wouldn’t be harmed. The U.S., which gives more than $1 billion a year to the Egyptian military, hasn’t labeled its intervention as a coup, though it has called for a quick transition to democracy.
Wall Street Journal:
  • Euro-Zone's Debt Load Swells. Government Debt as Proportion of Economy Rises to 92.2%. The figures are a signal that the euro zone's strategy of spending cuts and tax increases aimed at curbing debts isn't yet having the desired effect, in part because of falls in economic output across the bloc. A recession lasting 18 straight months, which critics say has been the result in large part of austerity measures, has caused tax revenues to wither and benefits payments to rise, forcing governments to borrow more. Figures Monday from the EU's official statistics agency, Eurostat, showed that the government debt of euro-zone countries grew to represent 92.2% of their combined gross domestic product at the end of March, from 90.6% at the end of December and 89.9% at the end of September. That represents a significant step up in the bloc's accumulation of debt. The figures showed continued rises in the government debt levels of euro-zone countries at the heart of the fiscal crisis. Irish government debt rose to 125.1% of GDP, some 7.7 percentage points higher than three months earlier, the figures showed. Spain's debt rose 4.0 percentage points to 88.2% of GDP and Portugal's rose 3.5 percentage points to 127.2%. Greek government debt rose 3.7 percentage points to 160.5% of GDP. Only two of the 17 euro-zone countries, Germany and Estonia, reported falling levels of debt as a proportion of their economy.
Fox News:
MarketWatch: 
CNBC: 
  • Doctors are skeptical and confused about Obamacare, survey finds. The doctor is . . . skeptical about the Affordable Care Act. And clueless, too. A new survey shows that an overwhelming percentage of physicians don't believe that their states' new health insurance exchanges will meet the Oct. 1 deadline for those key Obamacare marketplaces to begin enrolling the uninsured. Just 11 percent of doctors believe those exchanges will be open for business that day. But those doctors, by a wide margin, also said they are "not at all familiar" with how a number of important aspects of those exchanges and plans offered on them will work—aspects that will directly affect their bottom lines. More than 65 percent of them gave that answer to all but one of the questions asking their familiarity with plan benefits levels, contracted rates with insurers, patient coverage terms and the claims process.
  • Pump prices jump 12 cents, AAA sees further rise. American motorists are bracing for further increases in gas pump prices this summer after average national prices rose 12 cents in the past week alone. AAA says drivers are experiencing "sticker shock" as increased summer demand, unrest in Egypt and production disruptions in the U.S. and other countries push up the price of crude oil and gasoline. The national average price for regular unleaded gasoline was $3.67 a gallon on Friday. 
  • Investors are moving out of housing, here's why. They swarmed the distressed housing market, buying thousands of foreclosed properties and pushing prices higher faster than anyone expected. Now investors are pulling back, dissuaded by the higher prices they themselves brought about.
Zero Hedge:
Business Insider:
c/net: 
Finextra:
Reuters: 
  • EBay(EBAY) expands same-day delivery in local battle with Amazon(AMZN). EBay Inc unveiled a big expansion of its eBay Now same-day delivery service on Monday as the company battles with rival Amazon.com Inc for dominance of the emerging online local commerce market. EBay Now, which delivers products from stores including Target, Walgreen and Best Buy in as little as an hour, was launched last year in San Francisco and San Jose, California and Manhattan, New York.
89.3 KPCC:
Telegraph:
El Mundo:
  • Spain Opinion Poll Shows PP Support Plunging. Support for Spain's ruling People's Party plunges, citing opinion poll. Electoral support for PP fell to 30.7%, 13.9 pps below support level gained to win Nov. 2011 general elections, citing poll by Sigma Dos; PP had 35.4% support in May. Support for Socialists reached 27.8% in July vs 28.8% in 2011 elections; Izquierda Unida party has 14.3% support. 60.2% of those polled had a bad or very bad opinion of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, citing poll.
Echoing fears that European policymakers remain in a state of cognitive dissonance – recognizing the need for root-and-branch overhaul of peripheral banks, but backtracking on joint liability plans – Christopher Flowers, the legendary FIG investor who now runs the £2.3 billion ($3.5 billion) private equity group JC Flowers, sounded the alarm over the negative sovereign-bank feedback loop. In a shot across the bows of market bulls, who cite the return of capital flows to weaker eurozone states, Flowers issued a stark warning: "There is a scenario where we have a Lehman-type event: we wake up some Thursday and a big country is in trouble. "And the ECB will have to decide to support banks x, y, z. And then the ECB will, in fact, decide to own bank x, y, z.
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Efimerida ton Syndakton:
  • Opposition Syriza Party Leads New Democracy, Greek Poll Shows. Syriza with 23.5% support, up rom 22.5% the month before. New Democracy at 21.5%, down from 23% in June. Nationalist Golden Dawn party in third place with 14.5%.
Epoch Times: 

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