- Euro-Area Unemployment at 12.1% Shows Economic Struggles. Euro-area unemployment held at a record in November as policy makers struggled to bolster the recovery from the currency bloc’s longest recession. The jobless rate remained at 12.1 percent, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. That’s in line with the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 26 economists. After several revisions of previous months’ data, unemployment has been stable at that level since April.
- Did Soros Just Predict a China Crash? George Soros probably shouldn't expect any warm invitations to Beijing -- not with the much-reviled short seller warning of a giant Chinese crash.
- Europe Stocks Remain Little Changed After ADP Jobs Report. European stocks were little changed, near their highest level since May 2008, after a report showed U.S. companies hired more workers than forecast. A gauge of European banks rose for a fourth day as bond yields fell for the region’s most indebted countries. Celesio AG rallied 9.3 percent amid a report that McKesson Corp. may increase its bid for the drug distributor. J Sainsbury Plc lost 2.4 percent after the retailer cut its full-year sales forecast. Kion Group AG slid 2 percent after its biggest shareholder sold a 10.8 percent stake in the forklift maker. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.1 percent to 329.75 at the close of trading in London after the equity benchmark yesterday climbed to its highest level in five years and seven months.
- Gold Declines for Third Day on Dollar Strength, U.S. Jobs Data. Gold futures for February delivery lost 0.7 percent to $1,220.70 an ounce at 10:02 a.m. on the Comex in New York. Prices declined 0.7 percent in the previous two days.
- WTI Oil Falls to Five-Week Low on Products Supply. WTI for February delivery dropped 74 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $92.93 a barrel at 12:30 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It touched $92.81, the lowest level since Dec. 2. Futures traded at $93.54 before the release of the report at 10:30 a.m. in Washington. The volume of all futures traded was 13 percent above the 100-day average.
- Companies in U.S. Added 238,000 Jobs in December, ADP Says. Companies added more workers than projected in December as U.S. employers grew more optimistic about the prospects for demand, a private report based on payrolls showed today. The 238,000 increase in employment was the biggest since November 2012 and followed a revised 229,000 gain in November that was stronger than initially estimated, according to the ADP Research Institute in Roseland, New Jersey. The December tally exceeded the most optimistic forecast in a Bloomberg survey in which the median projection called for a 200,000 advance.
- Treasuries Retreat While U.S. Stocks Fluctuate After Jobs Report. The yield on 10-year Treasury notes rose five basis points to 2.99 percent as of 11:09 a.m. in New York. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slid 0.1 percent to 1,836.17. The dollar appreciated versus 14 of 16 major peers and gold dropped 0.7 percent.
- Calls to Drop 1970s-Era U.S. Oil Export Ban Stir Fight. Almost four decades after the Arab oil embargo, political leaders are beginning to contemplate what was once unthinkable: lifting restrictions on the export of U.S. crude oil. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the top Republican on the Senate’s energy committee, and the American Petroleum Institute held events yesterday to push for an end to the export ban. U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has said it’s time to revisit the policy amid forecasts the U.S. will surpass Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world’s largest oil producer by next year.
- Forest(FRX) Agrees to Acquire Aptalis for $2.9 Billion in Cash. Forest Laboratories Inc. (FRX), maker of the Alzheimer’s drug Namenda, will buy Aptalis Pharma for $2.9 billion, adding treatments for gastrointestinal ailments and cystic fibrosis.
- J.C. Penney(JCP) Sinks After Statement Lacks Sales Data. J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) tumbled after raising doubts about its turnaround by releasing a two-paragraph statement on holiday results that didn’t include sales data it had provided the previous three months. The shares sank 7.6 percent to $7.57 at 12:13 p.m. in New York and earlier fell as much as 9.3 percent for the largest intraday drop since Dec. 5.
- Riverbed(RVBD) Receives $3.08 Billion Takeover Offer From Elliott. Elliott, which along with its affiliates owns about 10.5 percent of Riverbed, offered to pay $19 a share, according to a statement today, a 6.4 percent premium to the stock’s close yesterday.
Wall Street Journal:
- Key Passages in Fed Minutes: Consensus on QE, Focus on Bubbles by Jon Hilsenrath.
- CES 2014: Updates.
- Outbreak of 'nightmare bacteria' in Illinois stirs worry. The largest outbreak to date of one strain of what authorities have called "nightmare bacteria" is adding to concerns about the spread of such drug-resistant bugs. The outbreak, centered on a hospital in a Chicago suburb, has infected 44 people in Illinois over the past year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The bug, known as carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, bears a rare enzyme that breaks down antibiotics. "This is a huge cluster," said Alex Kallen, a medical officer with the CDC and supervisor for the Illinois outbreak investigation, noting that only 97 cases of the infection have been reported to the agency since 2009.
- Obama administration under pressure to turn attention back to Iraq. As Al Qaeda-aligned insurgents make unprecedented post-war gains in Iraq, U.S. military officials and others in the Obama administration are keeping their distance -- despite mounting calls to ratchet up involvement amid fears the country is teetering on the brink of civil war. Administration officials are now trying to find some middle ground, which so far includes sending additional shipments of Hellfire missiles to Baghdad, as well as surveillance drones. Lawmakers, though, claim it's clear the administration could be doing more.
- Fed tapered as it saw QE benefits slip over time. Federal Reserve officials agreed in December to start to wind down their asset-purchase program as most believed that the benefits of the controversial policy were eroding over time, according to minutes from their last meeting released Wednesday.
- US moves closer to letting banks into pot business. (video) Recreational marijuana is legal in Colorado and Washington, and medicinal marijuana laws exist in 20 states. New York soon will become No. 21 on that list. But federal law currently prohibits banks and credit card companies from processing pot business transactions. That may all be about to change.
- Consumers say they're shelling out more for health insurance. Feeling lighter in the wallet and unhappier about Obamacare? You're not alone. Support for the Affordable Care Act has plummeted since late last summer, and people with employer-based health insurance say they increasingly are paying more for out-of-pocket medical expenses, a new Bankrate.com survey released Wednesday revealed.
- Approval Of EU Leadership Plunges To Record Low In Spain, Greece. (graph)
- Retail Sales Point To Continuing "Struggle Through" Economy. (graph)
- Holiday Shopper Traffic Tumbles 14.6% As Online Sales Miss Expectations.
- Yahoo Virus Converts Millions Of Computers Into Bitcoin Mining Slaves.
- 10 Year Auction Prices Over 3.00% For First Time Since May 2011. (graph)
- The Fed Is Concerned About Small Cap Forward Multiples And Covenant Lite Loans?
- Police Say Man With 48 Bombs Also Had Top Secret Clearance, Guns, A Vest, And Blueprints.
- Democrats' Odds Of Retaking The House Take Another Brutal Hit.
- The Death Of Casual Dining In One Chart.
- This One Paragraph Shows How This Could Just Be The Start Of Chris Christie's Problems.
- Here Are The 4 Big Stories That Will Dominate China's Volatile Financial Markets In 2014.
Reuters:
- Alibaba division bans bitcoin after China crackdown as IPO looms. China's biggest online marketplace, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's Taobao, will ban the sale of bitcoins on the heels of a government crackdown against the virtual currency to plug a potential gap in its tight controls on capital flows.
- 2014’s top 10 political risks by Ian Bremmer.
- Brazil posts biggest dollar outflow in over a decade. Brazil recorded a net foreign exchange outflow of $12.3 billion in 2013, the first negative result since the global financial crisis in 2008, and the worst deficit since investors panicked over the election of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2002, central bank data showed on Wednesday.
- High liquidity mustn't create bubbles, Schaeuble says. Policymakers must closely watch ultra-high liquidity provided by the world's big central banks to ensure no new asset bubbles form, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Wednesday, reiterating a long-standing warning. "We must keep a watch on liquidity levels to ensure new bubbles aren't being created," Schaeuble said at a news conference with visiting U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. "We share a responsibility to do everything to prevent new crises and new bubbles from emerging," he said, adding however that politicians should not tell central banks how to do their jobs.
- Reversals in Hard-Won Iraqi City Vex Veterans. The image of two charred American bodies hanging from a bridge as a jubilant crowd pelted them with shoes seared the name Fallujah into the American psyche. The brutal house-to-house battle to tame the Iraqi insurgent stronghold cemented its place in U.S. military history. So it is no surprise that the city's recent fall to al-Qaida-linked forces has touched a nerve for the service members who fought and bled there. Some call the news "disheartening," saying it revives painful memories of their sacrifice.
- Italian joblessness hits record as it seeks higher foreign investment. Italian joblessness hits a fresh high, underlining challenge for the country’s fragile coalition in convincing the international markets it is on the path to recovery.
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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- Japan's Ruling LDP Scraps No-War Pledge in 2014 Draft. The draft deletes a phrase vowing devotion to a peaceful state, while adding language honoring the war dead in the section on visiting the Yasukuni shrine.
- Canon FY Op Profit About 320b Yen, Below Forecast. Misses co. forecast of 360b yen. Mean analyst est. 359.6b yen.
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