Bloomberg:
- Ukrainian Deaths Test Truce as Both Sides Report Losses. A cease-fire intended to stem months of bloodshed in eastern Ukraine is being tested as both the government and the pro-Russian separatists its army has been fighting report violations and casualties. While Ukraine’s National Security Council said yesterday that there’s no talk of ending the truce, now in its third day, explosions continued in the evening in the combat zone’s biggest city, Donetsk. Earlier, Mariupol’s city council said a woman died and three people were hurt amid shelling in the Skhidny district. The rebels said Ukrainian troops killed one militant in the village of Makiyivka and several more in another town.
- Obama Plan for Islamic State Depends on Shaky Alliances. President Barack Obama will try to convince a war-weary American public this week that he can build a broad international coalition to defeat Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. “We’re going to need Sunni states to step up, not just Saudi Arabia, our partners like Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey,” Obama said in an interview broadcast today on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” previewing a plan he will present in a speech to the nation on Sept. 10. “They need to be involved. This is their neighborhood,” he said. The complex politics of that neighborhood mean it won’t be an easy sell, said Ramzy Mardini, an analyst with the Atlantic Council, a Washington policy group. “Obama doesn’t seem to get it,” Mardini said by e-mail. “No Arab leader wants to publicly join hands with the ‘Great Satan’ and ‘Crusaders’ in fighting a war in the Middle East.”
- China Begins Crackdown on Spending at State-Owned Companies. Govt to crack down on spending by executives of state-owned companies on golf outings and memberships, receptions and excessive book purchase, according to a report by the Communist Party's discipline commission. Campaign also targets executives who fail to report overseas trips or holding of private passports.
- Fed’s Plosser Says Keeping Rates Low Is ‘Risky Strategy'. Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said the economy has “moved much closer” to the Fed’s goals and keeping rates near zero until achieving them is a “risky strategy.” The central bank can’t be certain whether full employment has been reached, and waiting for the labor market to fully heal before raising the main rate risks a sharper increase in borrowing costs later, Plosser said in a speech today in Amelia Island, Florida. “I would prefer that we start to raise rates sooner rather than later,” Plosser said. “This may allow us to increase rates more gradually as the data improve rather than face the prospect of a more abrupt increase in rates to catch up with market forces, which could be the outcome of a prolonged delay in our willingness to act.”
- Fed Economists: Low Rates Could Undermine Financial Stability. Monetary policy accommodation to help the economy may backfire by creating conditions that could undermine financial stability and cause sharp downturns, according to a report by two top Federal Reserve researchers. Central banks “should consider effects on both financial conditions and financial stability when setting monetary policy,” according to a preliminary paper by Tobias Adrian, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Nellie Liang, director of the Fed’s Office of Financial Stability Policy and Research in Washington. “Accommodative monetary policy eases financial conditions, but may also contribute to the buildup of financial vulnerabilities and hence increase risks to financial stability,” Adrian and Liang write in a paper released Sept. 2.
- Hedge Funds Cut Bullish Gas Bets as Volatility Slides. Hedge fund bulls accelerated their withdrawal from U.S. natural gas markets as volatility and prices declined on abundant supply. Speculators cut their net-long position across four benchmark contracts by 11 percent in the week ended Sept. 2, the most in three weeks, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Bullish wagers have declined for six consecutive months, the most in data compiled by Bloomberg since 2010. Short positions rose to a nine-month high.
- Pound Sinks on Scotland as Japanese Stocks Rise Amid Data. The pound slid to its weakest level since November after a poll showed the campaign for Scottish independence in front for the first time. Treasuries climbed with Tokyo stocks as investors weighed Japanese and U.S. economic data before a report on Chinese trade, and wheat rose. The British currency lost 0.6 percent to $1.6225 by 10:49 a.m. in Tokyo, extending last week’s 1.6 percent drop while FTSE 100 Index futures were little changed in early trade. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) swung between gains and losses as Japan’s Topix index added 0.4 percent.
- CFTC Weighing Broader Commodities Hedge Exemptions Pushed by BP(BP). The main U.S. derivatives regulator is working to address energy and agricultural firms’ concerns that rules meant to curb speculation in commodities could harm their business, according to the agency’s chairman. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, preparing to complete rules for so-called position limits, is debating the scope of exemptions for firms that use swaps to hedge business risks, Timothy Massad said yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Peter Cook. Representatives for companies including Cargill Inc. and BP Plc (BP/) have pressed to broaden exemptions.
- Ukraine Fighting Threatens Peace Deal. Reports Come Two Days After Kiev Agrees to Cease-Fire With Separatists. Fighting in at least two cities in eastern Ukraine called into question a cease-fire that Kiev and pro-Russia rebels agreed upon Friday, even as the pact brought a respite from weeks of deadly violence to many towns in the embattled Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
- New iPhone Faces Risk as Carriers Phase Out Subsidies. Apple's Smartphone Has Grown Thanks to Discounts From Service Providers.
- SEC Preps Mutual Fund Rules. Agency Eyes Greater Disclosure of Portfolio Data, Stress Tests for Asset Managers.
- Obama's Immigration Cynicism. He'll still write a lawless deportation rule—but not until after November. So President Obama says he still plans to unilaterally rewrite immigration law—but not until after the election so he can spare Democrats in Congress from the wrath of voters for doing so. And he wonders why Americans are cynical about politics? White House leakers are saying that Mr. Obama wants to fulfill his June pledge to issue a lawless regulation limiting deportations for millions of illegal immigrants. But he has decided to bow to incumbent Democrats who fear a political backlash that could hand Republicans Senate...
Zero Hedge:
- What's The Point Of Hiding It Any Longer? Compare and contrast. From the Chicago Mercantile Exchange 2012 10-K:
- "Printed" Money For Nothing. (graph)
Business Insider:
YouGov:- Market Bears Are Going Extinct. (graph)
- Respiratory Virus Hospitalizes Hundreds in Missouri. (video) A respiratory virus is sending hundreds of children to hospitals in Missouri and possibly throughout the Midwest and beyond, officials say. The unusually high number of hospitalizations reported now could be "just the tip of the iceberg in terms of severe cases," said Mark Pallansch, a virologist and director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Viral Diseases.
- ‘Yes’ campaign lead at 2 in Scottish Referendum. With 12 days to go until the Scottish independence referendum, the ‘Yes’ campaign has taken a 2 point lead - which means a statistical dead heat at this late stage. The latest survey, conducted for The Sunday Times with less than two weeks to go until voting day, has YES at 51% and NO at 49% – the first lead for the independence camp registered by YouGov, or any polling company, since regular polling on September 18th’s referendum began.
- Asian indices are -.25% to +.25% on average.
- Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 89.50 -.5 basis point.
- Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 62.0 -1.0 basis point.
- FTSE-100 futures +.02%.
- S&P 500 futures -.09%.
- NASDAQ 100 futures -.05%.
Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
- (CPB)/.49
- (PBY)/.15
- (KFY)/.40
3:00 pm EST
- Consumer Credit for July is estimated to fall to $17.0B versus $17.255B in June.
- (UGI) 3-for2
- (CPK) 3-for-2
- (CLR) 2-for-1
- The Chinese Trade Data, German Export Data, Morgan Stanley Healthcare Conference, KeyBanc Basic Materials Conference, Barclays Financial Services Conference, Rodman and Renshaw Investment Conference, (SSYS) analyst day and the (MAR) analyst meeting could also impact trading today.
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