Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Bull Radar

Posted by Gary .....at 11:43 AM
Style Outperformer:
  • Large-Cap Value -.63%
Sector Outperformers:
  • 1) Tobacco +.39% 2) Utilities +.19% 3) Biotech +.17%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
  • NTSP, JOY, LZB, SINA, TXRH, CLH, MDRX and JCP
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
  • 1) HL 2) FST 3) ODP 4) CDE 5) VRTX
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
  • 1) ADSK 2) DELL 3) MAR 4) CAT 5) MGM
Charts:
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Wednesday Watch

Posted by Gary .....at 12:30 AM
Evening Headlines 
Bloomberg: 
  • Spanish Banks to Face Continued Funding Challenges, Moody’s Says. Spanish banks will still face funding and liquidity pressures in coming months even though some were able tap bond markets earlier this year, Moody’s Investors Service said. “We still consider that liquidity and funding will continue to constrain banks’ credit profiles over the coming months,” Pepa Mori, a Moody’s senior analyst and author of a report on Spanish banks published today, said in a statement. “While recognizing the decline in the system’s overall financing requirements, Spanish banks continue to display wholesale funding reliance at a time when accessibility to long- term wholesale markets, while improving, has not normalized.”
  • Greeks Hold First General Strike as Samaras Implements Austerity. Greek labor unions are holding their first general strike this year as Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s coalition government implements a new round of austerity measures amid record unemployment. Schools, ferries, trains and government services will be shut today with protests planned in central Athens by the country’s public and private-sector trade unions. Greek civil aviation workers will hold an eight-hour walkout that is set to cause delays and cancellations at the country’s airports. “We are fighting for measures to halt unemployment, for jobs for all, to protect our democratic and workers’s rights,” the Greek General Confederation of Labor, the country’s largest private-sector union, said in an e-mailed statement. 
  • China’s Foreign Direct Investment Declines for Eighth Month. China’s foreign direct investment fell for an eighth month in January, a sign that the recovery in the world’s second-largest economy has yet to revive confidence among overseas companies. Inbound investment dropped 7.3 percent from a year earlier to $9.27 billion, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement today in Beijing.
  • China Army May Be Behind Web Attacks, Security Firm Says. China’s army may be behind a computer-hacking group that has attacked at least 141 companies worldwide since 2006, according to a report by a U.S. security firm. The attacks, mainly directed at U.S. companies, were carried out by a group that is “likely government sponsored” and is similar “in its mission, capabilities, and resources” to a unit of the People’s Liberation Army, Mandiant Corp. said in a report today.
  • China’s Financial Companies Drop for Fifth Day. Chinese financial stocks headed for their steepest five-day drop in more than two years. “Chinese stocks are in a period of correction,” said Wu Kan, a Shanghai-based fund manager at Dazhong Insurance Co., which oversees $285 million. “Drugmakers are a beneficiary in such times because they’re seen as a defensive stock, while news about tightening measures for property would hurt earnings for banks as housing loans may fall.” The CSI 300 Financials Index sank 1.5 percent, heading for its biggest five-day retreat since November 2010.
  • Australian Retail, Office Prices Fall as Rents Decline, NAB Says. Australian retail and office property prices fell in the three months to Dec. 31 as rents declined, a private survey showed. Retail property capital values dropped 1.4 percent in the last quarter of 2012, while industrial property values slipped 1.2 percent and offices weakened 0.6 percent, according to a National Australia Bank Ltd. survey released today. Rents eased in all markets in the period, led by a 2.1 percent decline in retail, NAB said.
  • Detroit May Get State Manager as Fiscal Emergency Shown. A fiscal emergency grips Detroit, according to a report that opens a path to a state takeover of General Motors Co.’s home town, citing deficits that have stymied city officials after a $326.6 million gap last year. “It doesn’t have to be adversarial,” state Treasurer Andy Dillon said yesterday at a news briefing about the report, produced by a six-member review team that included Dillon. “Detroit is fixable and brighter days are ahead.”
  • Herbalife(HLF) Fourth-Quarter Profit Tops Analysts’ Estimates. Herbalife Ltd., the nutrition company at the center of a battle between hedge-fund managers Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn, posted fourth-quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates and raised its earnings forecast for this year as sales rose in Asia. 
  • BofA(BAC) Raises Moynihan’s Compensation 71% to $12 Million in 2012. Bank of America Corp. boosted Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan’s 2012 compensation by more than 70 percent to about $12 million and agreed to increase his base salary for this year. Moynihan received $11.1 million in stock grants for 2012, almost doubling the amount he got the previous year, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. For 2013, the bank increased his base salary to $1.5 million, compared with $950,000 for each of the previous three years, according to a person briefed on the matter.
Wall Street Journal: 
  • Rhetoric Turns Harsh as Budget Cuts Loom. With less than two weeks to go before the latest fiscal face-off, rhetoric heated up Tuesday as the political parties exchanged fire over whom to blame if looming spending cuts take effect. With Congress in recess this week, Republican and Democratic leaders sent lawmakers home armed with fact sheets about the $85 billion in across-the-board federal spending cuts due to start March 1, and talking points on how to blame the other side. Meantime, the White House and lawmakers are making no progress toward forging a compromise to avoid the reductions, which are known in Washington as the sequester.
  • Business Loans Flood the Market. Banks Put Their Liquidity to Work, but Added Competition Puts Pressure on Rates and Elevates Risk. Carl DelPrete, chief executive of suburban New York supermarket chain Uncle Giuseppe's Inc., couldn't be happier with the current lending environment. To fund a recent expansion, he got bids from three banks and calls the terms on the $14 million loan "the best we're ever going to see in our lifetime." The episode reflects a renewed willingness by some banks to lend cheaply and on flexible terms. But with banks not far removed from persistent criticism that they were slow to make business loans that would kick-start an economic recovery, a new concern is emerging: Is the pendulum swinging too far the other way?
  • Hearings Possible on 'Whale' Loss. A Senate panel probing J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s "London whale" trading losses is wrapping up its report and considering calling witnesses, including the bank's chief, James Dimon, for public hearings, according to people familiar with the investigation. The Senate hearings, which follow months of private interviews with top bank officials, would likely focus on how much top J.P. Morgan officials knew about mounting losses sustained by its massive bets on complex derivative instruments. Public hearings into the trades could prove embarrassing for J.P. Morgan and Mr. Dimon.
  • Drone Makers Take Aim at U.S. Market. American firms that make drones are aiming their sights on the U.S. market as the next frontier for the controversial technology. With a declining defense budget expected to limit spending on the vehicles, used primarily to monitor and target combatants on foreign battlefields, manufacturers are seeking opportunities on the domestic front, where universities, police departments and border patrol agencies—as well as commercial enterprises— could use unmanned aircraft, known as drones.
  • U.S., China Ties Tested in Cyberspace. Ties between China and the U.S., strained by military rivalries and maritime disputes, may face an even greater test from the newest front in global conflict: cyberspace. U.S. military and homeland security officials quietly have long blamed the Chinese military for the most egregious assaults on U.S. computer networks. Continued hacking and data theft, however, are being met by an increasing willingness by Washington to publicly point the finger at Beijing. Experts say the subtle but significant shift in how the U.S. approaches the face-off carries significant implications for the next steps of U.S.-Chinese diplomacy as the Obama administration sets about engaging a revamped government in Beijing with its second-term national-security lineup.
  • Weak Growth Strikes a Blow to French Deficit Goals. The French government on Tuesday said it won't be able to lower its budget deficit to 3% of annual output this year because of weak growth, dropping a key economic pledge by President François Hollande and raising the pressure on the euro zone's second-largest economy to show it can restore its public finances. Mr. Hollande's government had staked its credibility on the commitment to lower the deficit to 3% of gross domestic product in 2013, and introduced tax increases to bolster public coffers when economic growth was insufficient to ensure the target was met.
  • John Boehner: The President Is Raging Against a Budget Crisis He Created. Obama invented the 'sequester' in the summer of 2011 to avoid facing up to America's spending problem. A week from now, a dramatic new federal policy is set to go into effect that threatens U.S. national security, thousands of jobs and more. In a bit of irony, President Obama stood Tuesday with first responders who could lose their jobs if the policy goes into effect. Most Americans are just hearing about this Washington creation for the first time: the sequester. What they might not realize from Mr. Obama's statements is that it is a product of the president's own failed leadership.
MarketWatch.com: 
  • China waiting for a crisis: Andy Xie. Government must cut spending or wake up to a messy reckoning. Bank loans and money supply rose sharply in January. The timing of the Spring Festival may have distorted the data. Still, there are signs that many local governments with new leaders want to try an old trick, pushing fixed-asset investment (FAI) to create gross domestic product and fiscal revenue. This would turn bank loans into GDP and fiscal revenue. Local governments are already heavily in debt. Pushing FAI would keep them liquid through new loans. It is essentially a pyramid scheme and can go on as long as the banks are willing and able to lend. But constraints have appeared.
CNBC:
  • BHP(BHP) Names New CEO as Profit Slumps. Global miner BHP Billiton appointed the head of its non-ferrous business as its new chief executive on Wednesday to replace Marius Kloppers, as it reported an expected 43 percent drop in half-year profit. Andrew Mackenzie, 56, who joined BHP from rival Rio Tinto in 2008, will move into the top job in May, taking the reins at a time when the company is battling to protect margins by cutting costs amid weaker commodity prices. The announcement came as BHP reported its profit before one-off items tumbled to $5.68 billion for July-December 2012 from $10 billion a year earlier and took $3 billion in writedowns on its aluminium and nickel businesses.
Zero Hedge: 
Business Insider: 
NY Times: 
  • Slide at Dell(DELL) Continues as Earnings and Sales Fall. Dell reported another quarter of declining sales and profits on Tuesday, deepening a downturn that has disenchanted its shareholders and culminated in the slumping personal computer maker’s recent decision to go private in a $24.4 billion deal.
Seeking Alpha:
Reuters: 
  • Joe Biden's tip for self-defense: Get a shotgun. Biden, who is spearheading a push for President Barack Obama's gun control proposals, dispensed this off-the-cuff tip for protecting life and property during an online question-and-answer session on Facebook on Tuesday. The vice president has not one but two shotguns that he says he keeps in a locked cabinet at his house in his home state of Delaware, and he has given his wife, Jill, explicit instructions on how to deal with any would-be intruder.
  • Nabors(NBR) revenue hit by spending cuts, demand recovery slows. Nabors Industries Ltd, the owner of the world's largest onshore-drilling-rig fleet, reported a 44 percent jump in profit, but revenue fell as its major customers curtailed spending amid the worst slowdown in gas-directed drilling in more than a decade. 
  • Michael Kors(KORS) to sell big part of stake as shares soar.  Fashion designer Michael Kors is planning to sell a big chunk of his stake in his namesake fashion house at a time when the company's shares are at an all-time high. Kors will sell 3 million of his Michael Kors Holdings Inc shares as part of a secondary offering of 25 million shares the company announced in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. Kors' ownership in the company will fall to about 4.8 million shares, or 2.4 percent down from 3.9 percent after the sale.
  • Sina(SINA) reports Q4 ad sales at lower end of forecasts. Sina Corp's quarterly advertising revenue grew 7 percent but came in towards the lower end of its own forecasts, as advertisers spent cautiously toward the end of 2012 and new "Weibo" advertising products drew muted sales.
Financial Times:
  • China’s foreign oil output surges. China is on track to produce enough crude oil outside its borders to rival Opec members such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, after its state-owned oil companies spent a record $35bn buying foreign rivals last year.
Telegraph:
The Times:
Shanghai Securities News:
  • The Beijing municipal government will hold meeting Thursday with developers to discuss the property market and possible tightening policies, citing a person from the local housing commission. Tightening may include raising stamp duties and other taxes on transactions, according to the report.
Evening Recommendations 
  • None of note
Night Trading
  • Asian equity indices are -.25% to +.75% on average.
  • Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 108.5 -2.0 basis points.
  • Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 83.0 -1.5 basis points.
  • FTSE-100 futures -.14%.
  • S&P 500 futures +.09%.
  • NASDAQ 100 futures +.19%.
Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
  • (DTE)/.86
  • (OC)/.16
  • (MGM)/-.23
  • (DVN)/.75
  • (TOL)/.10
  • (EV)/.52
  • (CAKE)/.52
  • (WMB)/.25
  • (FLR)/.97
  • (JACK)/.39
  • (SNPS)/.55
  • (DISH)/.50
Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
  • Housing Starts for January are estimated to fall to 920K versus 954K in December.
  • Building Permits for January are estimated to rise to 920K versus 903K in December.
  • The Producer Price Index for January is estimated to rise +.3% versus a -.3% decline in December.
  • The PPI Ex Food & Energy for January is estimated to rise +.2% versus a +.1% gain in December. 
2:00 pm EST 
  • Fed Minutes from Jan 29-30 FOMC meeting.
Upcoming Splits
  • None of note
Other Potential Market Movers
  • The Germany inflation data, BoE minutes, weekly retail sales reports, weekly MBA mortgage applications report, Barclays Industrial Conference and the (TGI) investor day could also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by technology and industrial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly higher and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.
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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Stocks Higher into Final Hour on Less Eurozone Debt Angst, Buyout Speculation, Short-Covering, Energy/Retail Sector Strength

Posted by Gary .....at 3:45 PM
Broad Market Tone:
  • Advance/Decline Line: Higher
  • Sector Performance: Mixed
  • Volume: Below Average
  • Market Leading Stocks: Underperforming
Equity Investor Angst:
  • VIX 12.34 -.96%
  • ISE Sentiment Index 111.0 -13.28%
  • Total Put/Call 1.03 +17.05%
  • NYSE Arms .92 -32.75%
Credit Investor Angst:
  • North American Investment Grade CDS Index 85.68 -1.19%
  • European Financial Sector CDS Index 142.72 -1.1%
  • Western Europe Sovereign Debt CDS Index 99.77 -.45%
  • Emerging Market CDS Index 230.50 -.72%
  • 2-Year Swap Spread 15.0 -.25 bp
  • TED Spread 18.75 -.75 bp
  • 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -17.5 -.25 bp
Economic Gauges:
  • 3-Month T-Bill Yield .10% unch.
  • Yield Curve 175.0 +1 bp
  • China Import Iron Ore Spot $158.0/Metric Tonne+.51%
  • Citi US Economic Surprise Index -2.50 -.5 point
  • 10-Year TIPS Spread 2.57 +2 bps
Overseas Futures:
  • Nikkei Futures: Indicating +68 open in Japan
  • DAX Futures: Indicating -3 open in Germany
Portfolio: 
  • Slightly Higher: On gains in my tech/retail sector longs
  • Disclosed Trades: Covered some of my (IWM)/(QQQ) hedges
  • Market Exposure: Moved to 50% Net Long
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Today's Headlines

Posted by Gary .....at 3:13 PM
Bloomberg:
  • Monti Fights for Relevance as Italy Voters Eye Entertainers. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, an economics professor who has never won an election, says he’s aware of his handicap in a campaign dominated by entertainers. “It would be easy to do better than me as far as empathy goes,” Monti said Feb. 6 in an interview televised on La7. 
  • Ford(F) Leads Drop as European Auto Sales Decline to Record. European Union car sales fell to the lowest level for a January, with Ford Motor Co. and PSA Peugeot Citroen posting the biggest drops, as economic contractions in the southern part of the region widened to Germany and France. Registrations dropped 8.7 percent to 885,159 vehicles last month from 969,219 cars a year earlier, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or ACEA, said today in a statement. The figure was the lowest start to the year since the group began tracking sales in 1990, it said.
  • India Slowdown ‘Deepening and Widening,’ Credit Suisse Says. Earnings forecasts for the biggest Indian companies are declining again as profits grow at the slowest pace since the financial crisis, according to Credit Suisse Group AG. Consensus earnings-per-share estimates for the 50 companies on the CNX Nifty Index are dropping, after rising in January, Credit Suisse analysts Neelkanth Mishra and Ravi Shankar wrote in a report dated yesterday. Forecasts for earnings growth may drop to 7-8 percent for the fiscal year ending March 31 as wages and borrowing costs rise faster than revenue, they wrote. Projections for 2014 profits may drop as much as 10 percent, the report said. 
  • Brazilian Retail Sales Unexpectedly Contracted in December. Brazil’s retail sales unexpectedly contracted in December, the first monthly drop since May, prompting traders to pare bets that the central bank will raise rates in the first half of this year. The volume of sales declined 0.5 percent, after increasing 0.3 percent in November, the national statistics agency said today in Rio de Janeiro. The median estimate from 31 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for sales to gain 0.8 percent, and the lowest forecast was for a 0.2 percent rise.
  • Obama Golf With Woods in Florida Risks Muddling Economic Message. President Barack Obama’s three-day Florida golf getaway featuring a round with Tiger Woods opened him to criticism of tone-deafness for playing when he’s at a budget impasse with Congress that threatens automatic spending cuts in less than two weeks. After spending the President’s Day holiday weekend playing Floridian, a private golf course and club in Palm City, Florida, Obama returned to Washington last night. He faces a March 1 deadline to reach a deal with Congress to avert the $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts, which threaten to crimp the U.S. economic recovery. Joining Woods as Obama’s playing partners were businessmen and backer Jim Crane, who owns the course as well as the Houston Astros baseball team, Anthony Chase, former deputy chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and Milton Carroll, chairman of Centerpoint Energy Inc. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Obama’s Chicago friend Eric Whitaker and presidential aide Marvin Nicholson also joined Obama on the course, according to White House spokesman Josh Earnest. Such a fantasy golf weekend is out of reach for most Americans and presents a contrast to Obama’s inaugural and State of the Union speeches, which focused on economic inequality in the U.S., according to Paul Light, a professor of public service and governance at New York University. “It’s off-tone” Light said “It makes him seem like more of a Washington insider than the strong advocate of the middle class that he wants to be.”
  • Copper Falls Most in Four Months on U.S., China Housing. Copper futures in New York fell the most in four months as a drop in U.S. homebuilder confidence and speculation that China will move to cool property purchases damped demand prospects for the metal used in pipes and wiring. “Any sign that China may be limiting its real-estate market is certainly concerning from a demand perspective,” David Meger, the director of metal trading at Vision Financial Markets in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “The builder-confidence report is one more slight negative for the market.” Copper futures for May delivery dropped 2.3 percent to $3.668 a pound at 11:44 a.m. on the Comex in New York.
  • Ore-Ship Rates Fall Most in Two Months as Chinese Demand Slumps. Charter rates for Capesize ships, the biggest carriers of iron ore, fell the most in two months as demand declined for the steel-making raw material from China, the world’s biggest buyer of the commodity. Daily hire costs for Capesizes declined 7.7 percent to $5,875, figures from the London-based Baltic Exchange showed today. That’s the biggest collapse since Dec. 19, according to the exchange. Capesizes are the largest vessels tracked by the Baltic Dry Index, a broader measure of costs to transport minerals and grains by sea, which lost 1.2 percent to 738, the lowest level since Jan. 8. Chinese port inventories fell to 66.9 million tons on Feb. 1, the lowest since January 2010, according to researcher Beijing Antaike Information Development Co.
  • Gasoline Pump Prices Soaring on Refinery Repairs, Oil Rally. U.S. consumers facing the highest gasoline pump prices ever for February may see further increases as global crude oil futures climb and breakdowns and seasonal maintenance at refineries reduce fuel supplies. Gasoline futures have surged 11 percent this year, making the fuel the top performing commodity in the Standard & Poor’s GSCI index. Prices at the pump are up 14 percent this year and have risen 33 straight days, according to AAA data. Brent crude in London, the pricing basis for gasoline imports and for oil used by coastal refiners, advanced to a nine-month high Feb. 8.
  • Saudi Oil Output Falls to 19-Month Low as Exports Decline. Saudi Arabia’s crude oil output fell in December to a 19-month low as shipments from OPEC's biggest producer dropped for a third month and domestic consumption decreased, the Joint Organisations Data Initiative said. The kingdom exported 7.06 million barrels of crude a day in December, the least since September 2011, JODI reported, citing statistics the government submitted to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Exports were 1.3 percent lower than the previous month. Production dropped 4.8 percent in the month to 9.03 million barrels a day.
  • Wal-Mart(WMT) E-Mails Seen Showing Tax Drag Mounting on Retailers. The payroll tax increases and delayed tax returns that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) executives blamed in internal e-mails for weak February sales may be poised to hurt other retailers as well. Wal-Mart had the worst monthly sales start in seven years, according to internal e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News and reported Feb. 15. Jerry Murray, Wal-Mart’s vice president of finance and logistics, in a Feb. 12 e-mail called the retailer’s February month-to-date sales “a total disaster.” “It’s not Wal-Mart specific,” David Strasser, an analyst for Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in New York, said in a telephone interview yesterday.
  • Carbon Plunges as EU Delays Vote on Fast-Track Market Fix. Carbon prices plunged after the European Parliament’s environment committee postponed a decision on whether to seek fast-track approval of a proposal to tackle a record surplus of emission allowances. The panel backed in a non-binding vote a compromise plan to reduce the supply of European Union carbon permits, though it delayed for about a week a separate decision on authorizing its chairman to start talks with member states on the proposal. EU carbon futures for December fell as much as 20 percent.
  • Gold Drops for Fourth Session as Investors Await Fed Minutes. Gold declined for a fourth session as investors weighed whether the Federal Reserve will signal tomorrow in the minutes of its Jan. 29-30 meeting when it plans to end the third round of stimulus measures. 
  • ARM(ARMH) Turns Up Pressure on Intel(INTC) as Even Cutlery Gets Smart. ARM Holdings Plc, which has sprinted ahead of Intel Corp. in the market for mobile chips, poses a threat to its rival in another burgeoning business: semiconductors for machines ranging from cars to cutlery.
  • Martin Zweig, Author Who Predicted ’87 Stock Crash, Dies.
  • Humana(HUM) Falls in Early Trading on Medicare Advantage Rates. Humana Inc., the second-biggest private Medicare insurer, declined as much as 11 percent after saying the U.S. government’s preliminary Medicare Advantage payment rates were less than the company expected. Humana fell 9.3 percent to $70.77 at 9:43 a.m. New York time after hitting $69.78 for its biggest intraday drop since November.
  • Boeing(BA) Strike Threat Looms After Dreamliner-Grounding Tumult. Boeing Co., already struggling with the grounding of its 787 Dreamliner, is facing a possible strike by union engineers, threatening even more upheaval as it tries to fix the plane and resume deliveries to customers. Voting ends tonight for 23,000 engineers and technical workers considering whether to authorize a walkout in their dispute over retirement benefits.
Wall Street Journal: 
MarketWatch:
  • Armstrong World(AWI) fourth-quarter profit down 1.2%. Armstrong World Industries Inc.'s AWI -2.53% fourth-quarter earnings edged down 1.2% as the flooring and building products maker's revenue slipped and tax expenses rose, though margins improved. For 2013, the company forecast earnings of $2.30 to $2.60 a share on revenue of $2.7 billion to $2.8 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected $2.89 and $2.72 billion, respectively. For the first quarter, Armstrong predicted revenue of $600 million to $650 million, compared with Wall Street forecasts of $642 million. Armstrong has struggled amid a slow recovery in the construction market. The company, which produces ceilings, floors and cabinets, remained profitable over the past year as cost savings and pricing strategies helped overcome volume declines.
Fox News: 
  • Obama pins blame on Republicans for looming cuts, as fiscal hawk warns of 'failed presidency'. President Obama pinned the blame on Republicans Tuesday for looming spending cuts that may be triggered by what was originally a White House proposal -- while a former leader of the president's deficit commission said it's Obama who's on the path to a "failed presidency" if he can't tackle the debt. The president spoke Tuesday at the White House, urging Congress to come up with a short-term fix to cancel sweeping cuts to defense and other programs set to hit March 1. 
CNBC: 
Zero Hedge: 
Business Insider: 
Reuters:
Telegraph:
Shanghai Daily:
  • 2nd-Home Buyers May Pay More. CHINA may impose tighter housing policies by raising the borrowing costs for second-home buyers, sources told Shanghai Daily yesterday. The government is expected to unveil more policies to rein in property speculation before or after the National People's Congress annual session in March. One of the measures being studied is to increase the borrowing costs for homebuyers, a bank source told Shanghai Daily. Yang Hongxu, vice director at E-house China R&D Institute, a major property services provider and research organization in the country, said on Weibo yesterday that second-home buyers may need to put down 70 percent of the property price as initial payment, with interest rates 30 percent above the benchmark rates. Second-home buyers now have to make an initial payment of 60 percent of the property price, which was raised from 40 percent in 2011. The interest rates they pay are marked up by 10 percent over the benchmark ones.
1 comments

Bear Radar

Posted by Gary .....at 1:37 PM
Style Underperformer:
  • Large-Cap Growth +.16%
Sector Underperformers:
  • 1) Gaming -2.01% 2) HMOs -1.83% 3) Homebuilders -1.53%
Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
  • HUM, GPI, YNDX, DAKT, PERY, EC, ADNC, AIXG, SAND, ULTA, AWI, NOW, BCOR, IPGP, SNFCA, MPEL, NGD, LVS, CPA, BP, CIB, MNST, EQIX, VOD, SBGI, EHTH, MWV, ALJ, IMOS, RAX, UNH, CI, MORN, GPC, QLIK, RP, ELLI, ALSN, ALXN and PCYC
Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
  • 1) FE 2) MON 3) UNH 4) AKS 5) HNZ
Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:
  • 1) OII 2) IPI 3) HUM 4) OCN 5) APA
Charts:
0 comments

Bull Radar

Posted by Gary .....at 11:18 AM
Style Outperformer:
  • Large-Cap Value +.57%
Sector Outperformers:
  • 1) Retail +1.08% 2) Airlines +1.06% 3) Drugs +.69%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
  • SPWR, FSLR, OMX, MX, SPLS, WWW, SEE, BRKR, CTL, QCOR, ROC and CY
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
  • 1) PPHM 2) ODP 3) GNC 4) SRPT 5) HUM
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
  • 1) GILD 2) HAL 3) MDT 4) GPC 5) ITW
Charts:
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