IBM has forecasted that the future is bleak. But hey, GE is back with a 20% increase in dividend and a sharebuyback program. GE(GE) Raises Dividend 20%, Extends Share Buyback to 2013. General Electric Co., emerging from the global recession with a hoard of cash, raised its quarterly dividend by 20 percent and will resume stock buybacks sooner than it had predicted. The shares rose.
I will get my 11,400 just you wait and see. The BDI is finally headed back up four days in a row, albeit crawling, but hey, who's complaining?
23 July 2010
Baltic Dry Index (BDI) +25 1826
Markets are up last week and YTD now due to ONLY seven failed stress tested European Banks (if you believe that than you really are an IJIOT!). Just look at this chart. Up down up down and now sitting right below the ever key 200 day moving average, AGAIN. Better get used to it folks. From the illustrious lips of Betty Davis: "tighten your seatbelts folks, we're in for a bumpy ride."
stockcharts.com
*And looks like an overstretched rubber band doesn't it? And what happens to overstretched bands? THEY BREAK....
dshort.com
Newsworthy Notes:
*my personal favorite
Rangel May Finally Get Ousted? How could I be so lucky? He's 80 fucking years old people. Retire already! And he will get a pension and the best health coverage in the world courtesy of you know who who has no pension and no health insurance. God I hate these people. And what is wrong with his constituents? IMPEACH THE BASTARD!!
Rep. Charles Rangel faces battle of political life after House hits him with ethics charges
By Michael Mcauliff
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Rangel, who gave up his chairmanship of the powerful Ways and Means Committee amid a two-year probe into ethics lapses, faces a fight that could force him from office after nearly 40 years. The 80-year-old dean of New York vowed he will answer the charges - and win. "You bet your sweet a--," the Korean War vet said in a feisty interview with reporters who asked if he would defend himself at trial. "If I can testify, I will." And Rangel looked primed for battle, declaring this is the chance he has been wanting for two years. "Now the facts are going to get out and I think that's good," he said. "I don't have any fear at all politically or personally what they come up with....So this is it, it's what I've been waiting for." It came to a head Thursday when the House Committee on Standards and Official Conduct announced its investigative panel found Rangel had in fact committed violations, and immediately created a new panel to hear the charges. That subcommittee will start the process of weighing Rangel's guilt Thursday, the panel said. The panel won't reveal the violations until next week. Sources told the Daily News they are likely among the most serious charges that have been swirled around Rangel, or the rare step of setting a trial process would not have happened. It was last used for in 2002 for an Ohio congressman, James Traficant, who was later convicted of racketeering. "This is like an indictment," said Melanie Sloan, of the Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, which called on Rangel to resign.
*my second personal favorite:
Grassley Calls for Probe of General Motors' Plan to Acquire AmeriCredit. U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley asked the Special Inspector General for TARP to look into the details of General Motors Co.’s plan to buy a subprime auto lender and the Treasury Department’s involvement in the acquisition. GM and Fort Worth, Texas-based AmeriCredit Corp. announced the deal today that is intended to help the automaker reach more customers with damaged credit ratings or who want to lease a new car or truck. The purchase will be made with cash GM has on hand, Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said. “If GM has $3.5 billion in cash to buy a financial institution, it seems like it should have paid back taxpayers first,” Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, said in a statement on his website. “After GM’s experience with GMAC, which left GM seeking a taxpayer bailout, you have to think the company and, in turn, the taxpayers would be better off if GM focused on making cars that people want to buy and stayed clear of repeating its effort to make high-risk car loans.” GM’s former lending arm, now known as Ally Financial Inc., lost $17 billion on subprime mortgages.
EU Banks Survive Stress Test
Only 7 Flunk 'Stress' Trial, Surpassing Expectations but Fueling Skepticism
*my understanding is that these tests did not account for a sovereign default. In light of what is happening to countries like Greece, Spain, Portugal and Hungary, the risk of default is not an aberration. So who stands to lose? Taxpayers! AGAIN.
*Bernanke says we don't understand why the economy is behaving like a bad child.
Bernanke Comment on Uncertainty Unsettles MarketBy CHRISTINE HAUSER
Published: July 21, 2010
Wednesday was a good day on Wall Street until Ben S. Bernanke uttered two words: “unusually uncertain.”
While Mr. Bernanke’s views, delivered during his twice-yearly testimony before Congress, were largely in line with previous statements from the Fed, his testimony nonetheless sent the broad stock market down nearly 1.3 percent.
“The market seemed to focus on that ‘unusually uncertain’ comment a minute or so in and we never recovered,” said Philip J. Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors. “And then it got progressively worse from there.”
Mr. Orlando continued: “Investors are just very nervous right now.”
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 109.43 points, or 1.07 percent, to 10,120.53. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index declined 13.89 points or 1.28 percent, to 1,069.59, and the Nasdaq composite index dropped 35.16 points or 1.58 percent, to 2,187.33.
*Transocean shut off their emergency alarm so the hedgehogs could get their beauty sleep!
BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig did not have alarm fully activated at time of explosion: worker
nydailynews.com
The latest detail to emerge from the investigation into the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill is alarming.
A technician for the Deepwater Horizon said Friday the alarm system for the BP-leased rig was partly disabled at night so workers could sleep without interruption.
The Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 workers and sparking the worst offshore oil disaster in U.S. history.
To date, the government estimates between 94 million and 184 million gallons of oil have spewed into the ocean.
Mike Williams, a technician aboard the rig, told a federal investigative panel that while the alarm was activated to detect fire and toxic gas, the sound and light alarms were turned off.
"They did not want people woke up at 3 a.m. from false alarms," Williams told the panel.
Transocean, the company that owned the rig, said in a statement that workers were free to disable parts of the system to avoid the alarm going off during minor incidents.
"It was not a safety oversight or done as a matter of convenience," Transocean said.
Williams told the panel that if the alarm system was fully activated, it would have alerted workers before the blast.
Without the alarm, workers had to use a loudspeaker system to flee the burning rig.
*Goldmans SEC settled lawsuit is now under investigation. Are you serious?
SEC Watchdog Expands Probe to Include Goldman Sachs Settlement. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s internal watchdog said he will expand his probe into whether politics drove an agency lawsuit against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to include the timing behind a $550 million settlement with the company.
*and why are't US auto prices coming down? In fact, F's profit came from stupid consumers willing to pay high prices for Ford vehicles. Can you imagine? Fix Or Repair Daily. Found on the Road Dead. What's changed? Absolutely nothing. Except maybe now you can sleep in your mortgage size car payment! I also heard China is handing out IPAD's or POD's to get people into showrooms. Now then I might consider a Ford. NOT!
China's Auto Prices May Decline Steadily, NDRC Says. China's vehicle prices may decline steadily in the second half of 2010 because of increasing inventories and pressure by wholesalers to meet sales targets, the country's planning ministry said. Automakers may join dealers in offering discounts in the fourth quarter, Cheng Xiaodong, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, said today in a statement. China's car prices fell 1.18 percent in the first half from a year earlier, according to the agency. "The high prices we saw last year are long gone," said Yu Bing, an analyst at PingAn Securities Co. in Shanghai, who expects a 5 percent price drop for vehicles that cost about 100,000 yuan ($14,750). "Car prices are no doubt coming down." The Chinese government has been subsidizing rural residents' automobile purchases since last year. The country gave out 7.92 billion yuan to rural residents to help them buy motorcycles and automobiles in the first half, according to the planning agency. The government also handed out 2.44 billion yuan to subsidize trade-ins of old vehicles during the period, the agency said.
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