Indices
- Russell 2000 1,029.55 +.25%
- S&P 500 High Beta 26.47 +2.44%
- Value Line Geometric(broad market) n/a
- Russell 1000 Growth 764.49 +1.06%
- Russell 1000 Value 839.55 +.94%
- Morgan Stanley Consumer 1,003.47 +1.14%
- Morgan Stanley Cyclical 1,260.44 +1.97%
- Morgan Stanley Technology 797.92 +3.09%
- Transports 6,371.11 +.78%
- Bloomberg European Bank/Financial Services 100.22 +4.08%
- MSCI Emerging Markets 39.63 +4.26%
- HFRX Equity Hedge 1,113.20 +.66%
- HFRX Equity Market Neutral 933.47 unch.
Sentiment/Internals
- NYSE Cumulative A/D Line 186,295 +1.0%
- Bloomberg New Highs-Lows Index 75 +103
- Bloomberg Crude Oil % Bulls 44.44 +2.78%
- CFTC Oil Net Speculative Position 339,348 -1.68%
- CFTC Oil Total Open Interest 1,856,725 +.08%
- Total Put/Call .88 -21.43%
- OEX Put/Call 1.09 -54.58%
- ISE Sentiment 97.0 +15.48%
- Volatility(VIX) 15.85 -5.71%
- S&P 500 Implied Correlation 50.48 -8.84%
- G7 Currency Volatility (VXY) 9.62 -5.22%
- Emerging Markets Currency Volatility (EM-VXY) 11.39 -2.98%
- Smart Money Flow Index 11,209.09 +.27%
- Money Mkt Mutual Fund Assets $2.644 Trillion +.24%
Futures Spot Prices
- Reformulated Gasoline 285.37 -2.24%
- Bloomberg Base Metals Index 190.58 +.99%
- US No. 1 Heavy Melt Scrap Steel 342.67 USD/Ton +1.22%
- China Iron Ore Spot 134.10 USD/Ton -2.61%
- UBS-Bloomberg Agriculture 1,435.05 +.04%
Economy
- ECRI Weekly Leading Economic Index Growth Rate 3.9% -30 basis points
- Philly Fed ADS Real-Time Business Conditions Index -.0562 +14.33%
- S&P 500 Blended Forward 12 Months Mean EPS Estimate 118.14 +.21%
- Citi US Economic Surprise Index 56.50 +25.7 points
- Citi Emerging Markets Economic Surprise Index -15.0 +2.9 points
- Fed Fund Futures imply 38.0% chance of no change, 62.0% chance of 25 basis point cut on 9/18
- US Dollar Index 82.15 +.14%
- Euro/Yen Carry Return Index 136.20 +.62%
- Yield Curve 248.0 +10 basis points
- 10-Year US Treasury Yield 2.93% +15 basis points
- Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet $3.611 Trillion +.26%
- U.S. Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 22.0 -1.0%
- Illinois Municipal Debt Credit Default Swap 182.0 -1.35%
- Western Europe Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap Index 91.0 +4.0%
- Asia Pacific Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap Index 122.49 -6.50%
- Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt CDS Index 250.0 -1.96%
- Israel Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 146.32 +4.02%
- Egypt Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 713.81 -7.34%
- China Blended Corporate Spread Index 369.0 -16 basis points
- 10-Year TIPS Spread 2.08% -3 basis points
- TED Spread 24.0 +.25 basis point
- 2-Year Swap Spread 15.75 -1.25 basis points
- 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -10.25 -.5 basis point
- N. America Investment Grade Credit Default Swap Index 81.87 -1.75%
- European Financial Sector Credit Default Swap Index 146.05 -2.77%
- Emerging Markets Credit Default Swap Index 330.16 -5.55%
- CMBS AAA Super Senior 10-Year Treasury Spread to Swaps 115.0 unch.
- M1 Money Supply $2.566 Trillion +1.12%
- Commercial Paper Outstanding 1,015.0 -.50%
- 4-Week Moving Average of Jobless Claims 328,500 -2,800
- Continuing Claims Unemployment Rate 2.3% unch.
- Average 30-Year Mortgage Rate 4.57% +6 basis points
- Weekly Mortgage Applications 445.0 +1.32%
- Bloomberg Consumer Comfort -32.30 -.6 point
- Weekly Retail Sales +3.90% +20 basis points
- Nationwide Gas $3.58/gallon -.01/gallon
- Baltic Dry Index 1,352 +19.43%
- China (Export) Containerized Freight Index 1,125.44 -.05%
- Oil Tanker Rate(Arabian Gulf to U.S. Gulf Coast) 22.50 +12.5%
- Rail Freight Carloads 259,672 +1.0%
Best Performing Style
Worst Performing Style
Leading Sectors
Lagging Sectors
Weekly High-Volume Stock Gainers (24)
- KDN, CIEN, KFY, BLOX, ETFC, GIII, FNSR, LPX, TXTR, CKEC, STSA, JAH, TKR, VRNT, TBBK, IMKTA, AZZ, OMCL, CNMD, MUR, VVI, AN, ZUMZ and SPN
Weekly High-Volume Stock Losers (14)
- KKD, THG, GEF, CLVS, PANW, KMI, MTDR, ADES, CEVA, ESC, VVUS, MFRM, CONN and FRAN
Weekly Charts
ETFs
Stocks
*5-Day Change
Broad Equity Market Tone:
- Advance/Decline Line: About Even
- Sector Performance: Most Sectors Rising
- Market Leading Stocks: Performing In Line
Equity Investor Angst:
- Volatility(VIX) 15.31 -2.92%
- Euro/Yen Carry Return Index 136.20 -.55%
- Emerging Markets Currency Volatility(VXY) 11.39 -3.72%
- S&P 500 Implied Correlation 49.26 -1.83%
- ISE Sentiment Index 105.0 -10.26%
- Total Put/Call .86 +6.17%
Credit Investor Angst:
- North American Investment Grade CDS Index 81.72 -2.29%
- European Financial Sector CDS Index 146.05 -.65%
- Western Europe Sovereign Debt CDS Index 91.0 unch.
- Emerging Market CDS Index 329.83 -3.99%
- 2-Year Swap Spread 15.75 +.5 bp
- 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -10.25 +.25 bp
Economic Gauges:
- 3-Month T-Bill Yield .02% unch.
- China Import Iron Ore Spot $134.10/Metric Tonne -2.19%
- Citi US Economic Surprise Index 56.50 +3.1 points
- Citi Emerging Markets Economic Surprise Index -15.0 +.8 point
- 10-Year TIPS Spread 2.08 unch.
Overseas Futures:
- Nikkei Futures: Indicating +45 open in Japan
- DAX Futures: Indicating -15 open in Germany
Portfolio:
- Slightly Higher: On gains in my tech/medical sector longs
- Disclosed Trades: Added to my (IWM), (QQQ) hedges, then covered some of them
- Market Exposure: 50% Net Long
Bloomberg:
- Obama Plans Syria Speech as Agreement Eludes U.S. at G-20. President
Barack Obama acknowledged domestic and international resistance to his
call for a military strike against Syria and said he’ll make a more
detailed case for action in an address to the nation next week. Obama
left a summit of leaders from the Group of 20 nations in St. Petersburg,
Russia, without gaining a clear, unified message of support from
allies, even as he said there is “growing recognition” that the world
can’t stand by and let the use of chemical weapons go unanswered.
“Failing to
respond to this breach of this international norm would send a signal to
rogue nations, authoritarian regimes and terrorist organizations, that
they can develop and use weapons of mass destruction and not pay a
consequence,” Obama said during a news conference at the close of the
G-20 summit.
- Russia, Turkey Readying for Syria War as Obama Seeks Support. Russia
and Turkey stepped up preparations for an escalation of the 2 1/2-year
civil war in Syria, in which they’re backing opposing sides. Russia, one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s main international
allies, sent an amphibious assault ship to join its forces off the
Syrian coast in the east Mediterranean, Interfax news agency reported.
The Nikolay Filchenkov, which departed Sevastopol today, is the latest
reinforcement to the fleet. Two destroyers, a missile cruiser and other
vessels were dispatched earlier. In Turkey, one of the most vocal
supporters of the rebels fighting to oust Assad, the army has bolstered
its deployment along the 900-kilometer (559-mile) border, where hilltop
gun emplacements face Syria. The government set up a decontamination
unit to disinfect cars arriving from Syria, on concern they may carry
traces of chemical weapons, and said it may commandeer off-road vehicles
for military use, Hurriyet newspaper said.
- Putin Overwhelms Obama at the Sulky Summit. When Russian President Vladimir Putin came out to welcome world leaders
to this week's G-20 summit at the Constantine Palace in Strelna, a St.
Petersburg suburb, many wondered how it would go between him and U.S.
President Barack Obama. Through most of the first day Putin and Obama avoided each other. The
organizers initially wanted to seat the G20 leaders according to the
Russian alphabetical order of their countries, putting only King
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia between Putin and Obama, but decided at the
last moment to switch to the Latin alphabet. The Russian and U.S.
presidents ended up separated by five people. They didn't exchange a
meaningful word.
- Singh Fails to Convince S&P as Default Risk Surges. (video) India’s default risk is rising the most among emerging markets as Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh’s government bucks a regional trend of budget
tightening, raising the prospect of a junk debt rating as the rupee
plunges. Diana Monteiro reports on Bloomberg Television's "On The Move
Asia."
- European Stocks Climb to Three-Week High.
European stocks rose to a three-week high, completing their biggest
weekly gain since April, as investors bet that any tapering of Federal
Reserve stimulus will be more gradual than previously anticipated. RWE
AG and E.ON SE rallied as a study by a German government adviser fueled
speculation of higher electricity prices. Sonova Holding AG, the world’s
biggest maker of hearing aids, and Enel SpA, Italy’s biggest utility,
each rallied at least 3.5 percent after UBS AG upgraded the shares.
ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG dropped 1.1 percent as Telegraaf Media
Groep NV sold its stake in the German broadcaster. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.5 percent to 306.1 at
the close of trading in London, after swinging between gains and
losses at least 11 times.
- Gold Rises From 2-Week Low as Weak Job Gains Spur Stimulus Bets. Gold rebounded from a two-week low
as weaker-than-forecast gains in U.S. payrolls revived prospects
for an extension of economic stimulus by the Federal Reserve, stoking demand for the metal as a store of value. Gold futures for December delivery gained 0.8 percent to
$1,383.40 an ounce at 9:37 a.m. on the Comex in New York.
Earlier, prices dropped to $1,358.80, the lowest since Aug. 22.
- Crude Climbs to Two-Year High on Syria.
West Texas Intermediate crude rose
to a two-year high as Russian President Vladimir Putin said his nation
will assist Syria if it’s attacked, raising concern that escalating
tension will disrupt Middle East oil exports. WTI for October delivery gained $2.16 to $110.53 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest settlement
since May 3, 2011. Prices advanced 2.7 percent this week. Volume
of all futures was 5.8 percent below 100-day average.
Wall Street Journal:
CNBC:
- World leaders push big companies to pay more taxes. It's
time to make Google(GOOG), Apple(AAPL), and other multinational
companies pay more taxes. That's the message from President Barack Obama and the leaders of the world's leading
economies at a summit ending Friday.
Zero Hedge:
Business Insider:
New York Times:
- Sequoia Capital Pulls Back From South America. Sequoia Capital has decided to manage its activities in South America
from its headquarters in California after its lone partner here, David
Velez, left to start his own venture, people with direct knowledge of
the firm’s plans said. The move, which these people said had been in the works for several
months, shows the difficulty the Silicon Valley venture capital firm has
faced in finding attractive investments in the region, even as
start-ups have proliferated in recent years.
Washington Post:
CNN:
Reuters:
- American Tower(AMT) to buy Global Tower in $4.8 billion deal. American Tower Corp said it would buy privately held MIP Tower Holdings LLC, the parent of telecom tower operator Global Tower Partners, in a $4.8
billion deal to take advantage of the roll-out of 4G wireless network in
the United States.
- Arsenic levels in rice too low for short-term risk -FDA. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration said on Friday that after testing 1,300 samples
of rice and rice products, it has determined that the amount of
detectable arsenic is too low to cause immediate or short-term negative health effects.
The next step, the agency said, will be to use new tools that provide
greater specificity about different types of arsenic present in foods,
to analyze the effect of long-term
exposure to low levels of arsenic in rice.
- U.S. FDA okays Celgene's(CELG) Abraxane for pancreatic cancer. U.S. regulators on Friday approved use of
Celgene Corp's Abraxane to treat patients with
pancreatic cancer that has spread to other parts of the body,
citing a trial that showed the drug significantly prolonged
survival. The medicine is already approved in the United States to
treat lung cancer and breast cancer. Celgene in January said Abraxane helped patients with
advanced pancreatic cancer live an average of two months longer
than those treated with chemotherapy, according to a late-stage
study. Moreover, a significantly higher percentage of Abraxane
users survived for up to two years.
- Fed's George favors cutting bond buys to $70 bln/month in Sept. The Federal Reserve should
begin reducing monthly bond purchases at a meeting later this
month in order to set monetary policy on a course for "gradual
and predictable" normalization, a top U.S. central banker said
on Friday. Kansas
City Fed President Esther George, a consistent hawk
who has argued for a tapering in bond purchases all year, also
said policymakers should consider enhancing communication over
how quickly the Fed will start raising interest rates, currently
held near zero. "An appropriate next step toward normalizing monetary
policy
could be to reduce the pace of purchases from $85 billion to
something around $70 billion per month," George told a luncheon of
business and community leaders. She also said that remaining Fed
purchases should be split evenly between Treasuries and mortgage-backed
securities. "A decision to reduce the Federal Reserve's monthly asset
purchases would be appropriate at that (Sept. 17-18) meeting, as
would clearer guidance about the path forward. It is time to
begin a gradual - and predictable - normalization of policy,"
she said.
- Baghdad, Big Oil on alert for retaliation to a Syria strike. Baghdad and
foreign oil companies at work in Iraq's giant oilfields are adopting
extra security measures in anticipation of retaliatory attacks if the
United States strikes neighbouring Syria, industry sources said on Friday.
Car bombs and other attacks in recent weeks have led to the deaths of
hundreds of Iraqis as the civil war in neighbouring Syria aggravates
deep-rooted sectarian divisions.
- U.S. Fed can soon begin reducing stimulus, Evans says. The U.S. Federal
Reserve can begin winding down its bond-buying stimulus later
this year, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said on Friday,
adding he was still unsure about whether to start in September. A U.S. employment report earlier on Friday showing
relatively weak job gains but a drop in the jobless rate in
August was just mixed enough to leave uncertain the prospect of
a reduction in the Fed's $85 billion monthly asset purchases. "This is a period where it's even more important to go into
an FOMC meeting with an open mind," said Evans, referring to the
central bank's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee. "There's been cumulative progress on the economy. I can be
persuaded that there has been enough improvement."
Bild:
-
Europe to Decide in November on Third Greek Bailout.
Decision on third bailout package for Greece may be made in November,
citing its sources.
Vendomosti:
- Russia Becomes Europe's Largest Car Sales Market. Russian car
sales exceeded 220,000 in August, excluding light commercial vehicles,
citing local researcher Autostat.
Style Underperformer:
Sector Underperformers:
- 1) Computer Services -.30% 2) Semis -.14% 3) Banks -.13%
Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
- MFRM, CONN, BPL, ESC, ADES, LAYN, ANDE, UTIW, SWHC, CLVS, DORM, TITN, CYNO, INXN, POWR, COO, Z, RL, BPOP, SCSS, TLK, RGR, JKS, NLNK and APEI
Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
- 1) RMTI 2) PAY 3) CIE 4) XHB 5) PRU
Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:
- 1) JEC 2) TSO 3) LNKD 4) CONN 5) MNKD
Charts:
Style Outperformer:
Sector Outperformers:
- 1) REITs +2.04% 2) Homebuilders +1.71% 3) Gold & Silver +1.36%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
- MHR, OAS, AMT, AMBA, BLOX, ZUMZ, KONG, PAY, TKR, YELP, ETFC, FNSR and USG
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
- 1) ZQK 2) WY 3) KOG 4) PAY 5) FNSR
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
- 1) HD 2) SFD 3) ETFC 4) HCP 5) F
Charts:
Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Obama Seeks Support for Syria Strikes as Timeline Grows. A
week after he surprised his
national security advisers by deciding to seek authorization
from Congress, President Barack Obama’s path to military strikes against
Syria isn’t getting any smoother. The outrage that Obama and Secretary
of State John Kerry expressed over an Aug. 21 nerve gas attack they
blamed on the Syrian regime, an action that crossed the president’s “red
line,” hasn’t brought a groundswell of support from lawmakers and the
U.S. public. Few international allies have said they’re ready to join in
air strikes, and Russia and China say they are
unswayed by the U.S. assertions blaming Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
for the attack that killed more than 1,400 people, many
of them women and children, near Damascus.
- India’s Middle Class Hit Hard as Rupee Pushes Up Prices.
Mumbai taxi driver Saiyad Ahmed Ali has cut back on fruit and fish,
from about twice weekly to once a month these days as prices surge.
He’ll tell you the culprit: India’s weakening currency. “The rupee’s value has been falling, gas is getting more
expensive and fewer people want to take cabs,” said Ali, who
has seen his daily income fall by about a third, to less than
400 rupees ($6.05) after the costs of running his taxi. “Life
here in the big city has become more difficult.” A 17 percent plunge in the rupee this year has driven up
the cost of imports such as petroleum and chemicals used in
packaging. As a result, companies have raised prices for
consumer staples like cooking oil and soap to compensate for
imported raw-material and transport costs.
- Singh Fails to
Convince S&P as Default Risk Surges: India Credit. India's default
risk is rising the most among emerging markets as Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh's government bucks a regional trend of budget tightening,
raising the prospect of a junk debt rating as the rupee plunges. The
cost to insure debt of State Bank of India, considered a proxy for the
sovereign, surged 157 basis points in three months, according to CMA
Credit-default swaps protecting government bonds climbed 108 basis
points for Indonesia and 80 for Turkey.
- China to Finish Local Government Debt Audit Ahead of Key Meeting.
China will this month complete an audit of local-government debt to
assess risks to its financial system, ahead of a Communist Party meeting
in November to set economic policy, a government official said. China’s
finance ministry will wrap up its first full audit in more than two
years in September and release the results to in October, Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said yesterday at a briefing during the Group of 20 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.
- Asian Stocks Snap Six-Day Rise Ahead of U.S. Jobs Report.
Asian stocks dropped, snapping a six-day advance and paring the
regional benchmark index’s biggest weekly gain since July, as investors
await the monthly American jobs report. Sumitomo Realty &
Development Co. sank 2 percent as Japanese developers retreated ahead of
a decision this weekend on whether Tokyo will host the 2020 Olympics.
SoftBank Corp. (9984) fell 2.2 percent after competitor NTT DoCoMo Inc.,
Japan’s largest mobile-phone carrier, was said to be near an agreement
to offer Apple Inc.’s iPhone. BBMG Corp., a cement company, rose 3.2
percent in Hong Kong after announcing a share sale. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.1 percent to 133.08 as
of 11:41 a.m. in Hong Kong, on course to rise 2.3 percent this
week for the biggest advance since the week through July 12.
- Rebar Declines to One-Month Low on Iron Ore Price, Mill Output. Steel reinforcement-bar futures in
Shanghai fell to the lowest in a month as a drop in iron ore prices and rising output from mills encouraged selling. Rebar for January delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange
fell as much as 0.6 percent to 3,711 yuan ($606) a metric ton,
the lowest level for a most-active contract since Aug. 7.
Futures traded at 3,722 yuan at 10:46 a.m. local time and have
declined 0.8 percent this week.
- Rubber Drops, Paring Weekly Rally, as Yen Rebound Reduces Appeal.
Rubber futures declined in Tokyo as the Japanese currency rebounded
against the dollar, reducing the appeal of yen-based contracts, and as
concern grew that the Syrian conflict may harm the global economic
recovery. Rubber for delivery in February lost as much as 1 percent
to 280.8 yen a kilogram ($2,814 a metric ton) before trading at
282.1 yen on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange.
- Haunted Greeks Sell Real Estate EBay-Style to Evict Debt Specter. A legend that has swirled around the dilapidated mansion on Smolenski
Street in Athens is that the ghost of the previous owner deters
prospective buyers by moaning: “The house is mine.” The Greek government refuses to be spooked. The protected two-story mansion
and tower, replete with palm trees in the overgrown gardens, will be
sold on Sept. 17 to the highest bidder in an EBay-style Internet
auction. Greece
is trying to dispel criticism it’s not doing enough to sell real estate
pledged as part of its 240 billion-euro ($315 billion) rescue. “It’s
literally haunting the Greek budget,” Andreas Taprantzis, executive
director for real estate at the Hellenic Republic Asset Development
Fund, said in an interview. It “generates zero income, not even taxes,”
he said.
- Obama Seen Delaying Fed Nomination Until Syria Issue Resolved. President Barack Obama will likely
wait to announce his nominee to lead the U.S. Federal Reserve
until after Congress votes on military action in Syria and
probably until the immediate outcome of a strike is clear,
according to several people close to the White House. “Syria right now has kind of paralyzed the town,” said
David Plouffe, a former senior Obama adviser. “They’ll wait
until the dust clears.”
- Apple(AAPL) Said to Near Deal With Japan’s DoCoMo to Sell IPhone. Apple
Inc. (AAPL), the world’s most-valuable company, is near a final
agreement to offer its iPhone through the largest mobile carrier in
Japan, NTT DoCoMo Inc. (9437), according to people familiar with the situation.
DoCoMo may begin offering the iPhone later this year, said the people,
who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Apple
will debut new iPhones at a Sept. 10 event at its headquarters in
Cupertino, California, a person
familiar with the matter has said.
Wall Street Journal:
- Iran Plots Revenge, U.S. Says. Officials Say Intercepted Message to Militants Orders Reprisals in Iraq if Syria Hit. The U.S. has intercepted an order from Iran to militants in Iraq to
attack the U.S. Embassy and other American interests in Baghdad in the
event of a strike on Syria, officials said, amid an expanding array of
reprisal threats across the region.
Military officials have been trying to
predict the range of possible responses from Syria, Iran and their
allies. U.S. officials said they are on alert for Iran's fleet of small,
fast boats in the Persian Gulf, where American warships are positioned.
U.S. officials also fear Hezbollah could attack the U.S. Embassy in
Beirut. While the U.S. has moved military resources in the region for a
possible strike, it has other assets in the area that would be ready to
respond to any reprisals by Syria, Iran or its allies.
- EU Struggles to Save Iran Sanctions. Britain, France and Germany are struggling to craft measures to stop
successful legal challenges to sanctions against Iran from undermining
the West's efforts to combat Tehran's nuclear program. On Friday, a European Union court will issue decisions on a raft of
cases brought by Iranian banks and other firms that say they were
unfairly placed on the 28-nation bloc's sanctions list. Legal experts
say at least some of the challenges are likely to succeed. The U.S. is pressing for a clear resolution soon—as are some European
firms that, diplomats say, fear they could fall foul of U.S. law and
face penalties if they conduct business with delisted Iranian firms.
- Financial Crisis Anniversary: For Corporations and Investors, Debt Makes a Comeback. Five
years after excessive debt propelled a housing-market collapse into a
financial crisis and recession, similar bets are being placed across the
U.S. The crisis ignited on Sept. 15, 2008, when investment bank
Lehman Brothers collapsed under a mountain of highly leveraged mortgage
debt. Despite a government bailout of financial firms that totaled
hundreds of billions of dollars, 8.8 million jobs and $19.2 trillion in
household wealth were lost. The conventional wisdom has been that
Americans learned an important lesson—that you shouldn't take a loan just because one is available. Banks, companies and consumers aggressively dialed back borrowing in what was dubbed "the great deleveraging." But some
experts say the deleveraging is over and releveraging is well under
way, with corporate borrowers taking new loans hand over fist from
investors hungry for higher returns.
- Apple(AAPL) Tests iPhone Screens as Large as Six Inches. As Apple Inc. prepares to unveil both a new high-end iPhone and a cheaper version for the first time next week, it is already working
on something bigger. The electronics giant has begun evaluating a plan to offer iPhones with screens
ranging from 4.8 inches to as high as 6 inches, people familiar with the matter
say. That would be a sizable leap from the 4-inch screen of the iPhone 5
released last year, and, at the upper end, would be one of the largest on the
market.
- Navigating ObamaCare Outrage. How dare anyone ask anything about the law's implementation. With ObamaCare scheduled to launch on October 1, Democrats seem more
than a little anxious about their ability to execute. That's the only
fathomable explanation for their nervous breakdown over a routine House
inquiry. The Affordable Care Act is paying for "navigators," or non-government
groups that received federal dollars in August to help people figure
out and enroll for subsidies. That such a program even exists explains a
lot about the complexity of the new entitlement.
Fox News:
- Tale of Two St. Petes: As Obama visits Russia, US voters dubious on Syria strike. While President Obama was in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Thursday,
trying to sway skittish allies to back a military strike on Syria,
thousands of miles away in St. Petersburg, Fla., residents were leaving
little doubt that Obama has a lot of work to do if he's to gain their
support for military action. Lawmakers in and around the coastal city say their constituents are
almost uniformly opposed, or at least cautious, on a strike. Rep. Kathy
Castor, D-Fla., who represents the city, wrote to Obama saying her
neighbors are "extremely wary of military action." Republican Rep. Rich Nugent, who represents a nearby district, told
FoxNews.com his office has gotten 1,800 calls and emails opposing action
in Syria, and only 17 in favor. "You usually don't see any kind of split like that," Nugent said. The
overriding concern, he said, is that America could get drawn deeper
into the fight.
CNBC:
Zero Hedge:
Business Insider:
New York Times:
- Pentagon Is Ordered to Expand Potential Targets in Syria With a Focus on Forces. President
Obama has directed the Pentagon to develop an expanded list of
potential targets in Syria in response to intelligence suggesting that
the government of President Bashar al-Assad has been moving troops and
equipment used to employ chemical weapons
while Congress debates whether to authorize military action.
Washington Post:
- Turnover at Federal Reserve adds uncertainty to interest rate and QE3 promises. The Federal Reserve is facing significant turnover among top
officials at a time when it is trying to craft a long-term strategy for winding down its support for the nation’s economy.
The looming departure of Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke when his term
ends in January has garnered the most attention on Wall Street and in
Washington. But as much as half of the central bank’s
powerful policy-setting committee could also leave next year — making it
the biggest transition at the Fed since before the recession.
Reuters:
Financial Times:
- Europe urges China to cede business control. European
business representatives have accused Chinese regulators of unfairly
targeting foreign companies in a series of recent corruption and
monopoly investigations. Davide Cucino, president of the 1,700-member EU
Chamber of Commerce in China, on Thursday called for “a vast ceding of
political control over the
business environment” in China, saying that market forces would only be
strengthened if the government stepped back from its “over-dominant
role”.
Evening Recommendations
CSFB:
- Upgraded (KEY) to Outperform, target $14.
Night Trading
- Asian equity indices are -.50% to +.25% on average.
- Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 155.0 + basis point.
- Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 125.75 -3.0 basis points.
- NASDAQ 100 futures -.03%.
Morning Preview Links
Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- The Change in Non-Farm Payrolls for August is estimated to rise to 180K versus 162K in July.
- The Unemployment Rate for August is estimated at 7.4% versus 7.4% in July.
- Average Hourly Earnings for August are estimated to rise +.2% versus a -.1% decline in July.
Upcoming Splits
Other Potential Market Movers
- The
Fed's George speaking, Fed's Evans speaking and the German Industrial/Trade data could also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by industrial and commodity shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly higher and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing modestly lower. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.
