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KEY ECONOMIC REPORTS DUE TODAY
CNN/MONEY: U.S. stocks were poised to open lower Thursday as investors await some key readings on inflation and employment. Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were down slightly. . . . The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is expected to have risen 0.1% in February after climbing 0.2% the month before . . . The government is also expected to report that the number of Americans filing initial claims for jobless benefits fell last week to 455,000 from 462,000 the week before. After the market opens, the Conference Board will release its February report on leading economic indicators . . . READ MORE
WHITE HOUSE PROJECTS
HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT
FOR 'EXTENDED PERIOD'
BLOOMBERG: U.S. employers won’t hire enough workers this year to lower the jobless rate much below the level of 9.7 percent reached in February, three Obama administration economic officials said . . . The proportion of Americans who can’t find work is likely to “remain elevated for an extended period,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, White House budget director Peter Orszag and Christina Romer, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said in a joint statement. The officials said unemployment may even rise “slightly” over the next few months as discouraged workers start job-hunting again. “We do not expect further declines in unemployment this year,” the officials said in testimony prepared for the House Appropriations Committee . . . READ MORE CONGRESS SEEKS HEARING
INTO LEHMAN BANKRUPTCY
REUTERS: A House panel will hold a hearing exploring regulatory failures leading up to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, after a court-appointed examiner report found elaborate accounting tricks that helped to hide the investment bank's insolvency . . . The 2,200-page Lehman report, prepared by a court-appointed examiner, found that the investment banking firm used a gimmick, known as "Repo 105," for the sole purpose of manipulating its books, contributing to its demise . . . READ MORE
GREECE SEEKS EUROPE'S HELP
IN RESOLVING DEBT PROBLEM
BLOOMBERG: Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou asked European allies to help him lower the country’s borrowing costs, saying he wasn’t asking European taxpayers or the International Monetary Fund for a bailout . . . The risk premium on Greek 10-year bonds has more than doubled since the beginning of November on concern about the country’s ability to finance a biggest deficit of 12.7 percent of gross domestic product, the EU’s largest. Greece still needs to raise about 10 billion euros ($14 billion) to fund bond redemptions in April and May and Papandreou has said that current markets rates are unsustainable . . . READ MORE
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
A.M. MARKET UPDATE: 01.24.10
INVESTORS EXPECT REBOUND
LAST WEEK'S SELL-OFF 'OVERDONE'?
WALL STREET JOURNAL: U.S. stock futures were pointing to a rebound on Monday, after last week's bruising close which some say was overdone and as a heavy week of political, economic and corporate events lines up for investors . . . U.S. stocks fell sharply on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffering . . . its biggest one-day drop since October 30. Those losses came as earnings from American Express, Google and others fell short of investors' lofty expectations and as the market continued to fret over U.S. bank restrictions proposed by President Barack Obama and monetary tightening from China . . . READ MORE
SENATE RE-CONFIRMATION FOR
BERNANKE APPEARS MORE LIKELY
THE STREET: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke appears to have edged closer to a second term. Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, told NBC's "Meet the Press," on Sunday he expects Bernanke to be confirmed . . . Bernanke's confirmation for a second, four-year term was thrown into doubt late last week as some key Democrats said he wouldn't be getting their vote. The uncertainty over Bernanke helped lead to a slide of 552 points last week in the Dow Jones industrial Average . . . READ MORE
CURRENCY: DOLLAR DOWN ON FED NEWS
REUTERS: The dollar slipped against the euro and higher-yielding currencies on Monday . . . Reports that embattled Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was edging closer to winning confirmation to serve a second term also calmed markets, tarnishing the dollar's safe-haven appeal . . . READ MORE
POLL: MOST OPPOSE STIMULUS
CNN: A majority of Americans oppose the economic stimulus program, according to a new national poll. Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Sunday say they oppose the stimulus package, with 42 percent supporting it . . . READ MORE
BOND SALES FUND STIMULUS DEBT
CNN/MONEY: Rising domestic demand for U.S. debt allowed the government to sell more than $1.7 trillion of Treasurys during fiscal 2009. Those sales paid for billions of dollars of stimulus spending . . . The big question is whether the feds can pull off that trick again in 2010. The government can't count on the Federal Reserve to soak up $300 billion of Treasurys, as it did last year in a bid to ease the stressed credit markets . . . READ MORE
COMMENTARY/BLOOMBERG NEWS
CAN THE FED HEAR ITSELF?
CAROLINE BAUM: “In the current environment of historically low short-term interest rates, it is important for institutions to have robust processes for measuring and, where necessary, mitigating their exposure to potential increases in interest rates,” sayeth the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Federal Reserve and other regulators in a Jan. 8 Interagency Advisory Bulletin . . . Are regulators reading their own memo? Rising interest rates introduce a new kind of balance-sheet risk for the Fed. With $1.2 trillion of variable-rate liabilities and $2 trillion of fixed-rate assets, when rates rise, the Fed’s net interest margin shrinks. What would happen if it disappeared? . . . READ MORE
WALL STREET JOURNAL: U.S. stock futures were pointing to a rebound on Monday, after last week's bruising close which some say was overdone and as a heavy week of political, economic and corporate events lines up for investors . . . U.S. stocks fell sharply on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffering . . . its biggest one-day drop since October 30. Those losses came as earnings from American Express, Google and others fell short of investors' lofty expectations and as the market continued to fret over U.S. bank restrictions proposed by President Barack Obama and monetary tightening from China . . . READ MORE
SENATE RE-CONFIRMATION FOR
BERNANKE APPEARS MORE LIKELY
THE STREET: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke appears to have edged closer to a second term. Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, told NBC's "Meet the Press," on Sunday he expects Bernanke to be confirmed . . . Bernanke's confirmation for a second, four-year term was thrown into doubt late last week as some key Democrats said he wouldn't be getting their vote. The uncertainty over Bernanke helped lead to a slide of 552 points last week in the Dow Jones industrial Average . . . READ MORE
CURRENCY: DOLLAR DOWN ON FED NEWS
REUTERS: The dollar slipped against the euro and higher-yielding currencies on Monday . . . Reports that embattled Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was edging closer to winning confirmation to serve a second term also calmed markets, tarnishing the dollar's safe-haven appeal . . . READ MORE
POLL: MOST OPPOSE STIMULUS
CNN: A majority of Americans oppose the economic stimulus program, according to a new national poll. Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Sunday say they oppose the stimulus package, with 42 percent supporting it . . . READ MORE
BOND SALES FUND STIMULUS DEBT
CNN/MONEY: Rising domestic demand for U.S. debt allowed the government to sell more than $1.7 trillion of Treasurys during fiscal 2009. Those sales paid for billions of dollars of stimulus spending . . . The big question is whether the feds can pull off that trick again in 2010. The government can't count on the Federal Reserve to soak up $300 billion of Treasurys, as it did last year in a bid to ease the stressed credit markets . . . READ MORE
COMMENTARY/BLOOMBERG NEWS
CAN THE FED HEAR ITSELF?
CAROLINE BAUM: “In the current environment of historically low short-term interest rates, it is important for institutions to have robust processes for measuring and, where necessary, mitigating their exposure to potential increases in interest rates,” sayeth the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Federal Reserve and other regulators in a Jan. 8 Interagency Advisory Bulletin . . . Are regulators reading their own memo? Rising interest rates introduce a new kind of balance-sheet risk for the Fed. With $1.2 trillion of variable-rate liabilities and $2 trillion of fixed-rate assets, when rates rise, the Fed’s net interest margin shrinks. What would happen if it disappeared? . . . READ MORE
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