—–Original Message—–
From: CNBC Corporate Communications [mailto: all]
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 7:32 AM
To: All
Subject: Exciting Synergy Opportunities With Comcast
Greetings Gang,
By now, I’m sure you’ve all heard that our parent company’s flirtation with Comcast has moved past the necking phase and we’ve now agreed to go all the way. I wanted to reassure all CNBC staffers and on-air personalities that whatever changes may come will be minor and will be made with the sole intention of wringing out cost savings and synergies.
Here are a few preliminary ideas we’ve received from Jeff Zucker as well as Brian Roberts and our new family at Comcast Cable Systems:
- Air times for CNBC’s various programs and segments will no longer be exact. Comcast will now give viewers a 2 to 4 hour window in which to expect a show to come on.
- Some programs, such as Power Lunch, will have their broadcast studios relocated to Transmission Facility Room B in scenic Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Personnel will be transported to and from tapings weekdays via the Comcast corporate shuttle bus.
- All employees, including on-air talent, will be required to complete the mandatory six week Comcast training program which includes a master course on coaxial cable maintenence and set top box repair.
- Jim Cramer will be expressly prohibited from recommending or endorsing the following stocks during the Lightning Round: Time Warner Cable, Dish Networks, DirecTV and Verizon.
Again, these are just some ideas that are being kicked around by our new corporate partner. Please keep all complaints and comments to yourselves for now. They are valuing NBC as a whole at $37 billion, amazingly, so let’s not screw this up.
He came, he saw, and he couldn’t believe his eyes… or ears. It is almost painful to watch David Rosenberg smack the Managing Partner of Seygem Asset Management like the puppet doll the formerly insightful anchor has become. The same goes for the balance of his CNBC colleagues as they proceed to ask highly (ir)relevant question after question.
He came, he saw, and he couldn’t believe his eyes… or ears. It is almost painful to watch David Rosenberg smack the Managing Partner of Seygem Asset Management like the puppet doll the formerly insightful anchor has become. The same goes for the balance of his CNBC colleagues as they proceed to ask highly (ir)relevant question after question.
If street thugs were to hold up a convenience store and drive off with $1 million, it would be national news. But when a venerable Boston bank rips off California’s two largest pension funds for $56 million, it’s business-as-usual — at least to the anchors of CNBC.
State Street Bank — the world’s largest servicer of pensions — systematically ripped off CalPERS and CalSTRS over a period of eight years. It did this by adding a tiny surcharge on foreign currency trades. But this adds up, especially considering that some $35 billion in 42,000 transactions were traded by these funds since 2001.
So when two whistle-blowers filed suit under seal in April 2008, attorneys from my office immediately investigated — examining hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, interviewing witnesses and subpoenaing records.
They found in the course of an 18-month investigation that State Street was contractually obligated to give CalPERS and CalSTRS the "interbank rate" at the precise time of the trade. Instead, State Street consistently charged at or near the highest rate of the day, even if the interbank rate was lower at the time of trade. And traders concealed the fraud by deliberately failing to include time stamp data in its reports, so that the pension funds could not determine the true execution costs.
When the suit was filed, we notified the media and held a press conference — to bring the fraud to light and to deter other financial traders from considering similar action. This is a routine part of prosecuting important corporate fraud cases.
But, in a commentary post today, CNBC anchor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera sneered at California’s effort to recover $200 million in damages and penalties, using a made-up quote from Elliot Spitzer to call it "quaint."
This follows an interview Tuesday that was straight out of the Daily Show. CNBC invited me on to talk about the case, and then Caruso-Cabrera asked why I would come on the air to talk about it.
Her co-anchors seemed to have no problem with the rip-off ("as long as they quoted you a dollar and you paid the dollar, what do you care what they got it for") and questioned the integrity…
It looks like the pure fear that gripped the markets about an hour ago and dropped the Dow by 2% is subsiding. Stocks are still lower but the nosedive has subsided.
The fact that drop came so suddenly and on the back of good economic news was a striking demonstration of just how fragile the stock market is right now. It has been quite a long time since we saw the market respond that powerfully to vague rumors.
Lots of people aren’t even sure what the rumor was. Someone might default. CNBC reported that traders were talking about a "bank default."
But we have bank failures every week. Why was this one sending traders to place sell orders? Well, some were saying that "a west coast bank" was in trouble. On the message boards, which are often populated by day trading trolls hoping to move markets, there was talk that it was Wells Fargo. Commenters on blogs pointed the finger at Citigroup.
Still others said it was a European bank on the verge of failure. One trader told us that this was a misinterpretation. It was, he said, Europeans who were whispering about a US failure. Specifically, the default on a Cerberus fund. That particular version of today’s scare story got so much traction, Cerberus was actually forced to issue a formal denial.
Regardless of the substance or accuracy of the rumor, the takeaway here is that we’re once again back to rumors trumping news to move markets. The fear trade is back on.
It looks like the rumor that killed the rally today was that some Cerberus funds were on the verge of default.
And now Cerberus Capital Management LP has been forced to formally comment on the rumor. Most companies loathe commenting on rumors. Hedge funds all the more so.
The rumor was apparently gaining traction among traders in London and Frankfurt this morning.
"There is absolutely no truth to the speculation," said Tim Price, a Cerberus managing director and spokesman for the firm, told Reuters.
Losses on private equity investments in Chrysler and GMAC seem to have prompted investors pull a reported $4.77 billion from two Cerberus hedge funds. That amounts to 19 percent of Cerberus’ total $24.3 billion in assets.
Doug "Dougie" Kass of Seabreeze Partners Management, on CNBC, with Larry Kudlow (H/t Barry Ritholtz) . Doug believes the stock market’s topped for the year. Economy’s "sort of like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears" - very cute kids, ugly as adults, neither likely to have much of a comeback. - Ilene
As of 10 minutes ago, Larry Kudlow would like you to believe that Q2 earnings are so much better than Q1. That is a flat out lie. The chart below, straight out of Bloomberg which we demand all readers with a BBERG terminal replicate using SPX Index EA <go>, demonstrates that Q2 earnings are now in fact worse than Q1. While in Q1 the YoY EPS drop was -31.49%, as of right now the drop is -32.41%. And the drop in revenues is much worse.
Larry Kudlow, please put this chart up on your show and advise people you are misrepresenting the truth.
And while Earnings are bad, here is the revenue comparison: the quarterly drop is in fact accelerating!
And here is the projected earnings growth rate over the next two quarters, needed to justify the rosy perspective on the economy: the bottom line: over 110% in projected EPS growth in 6 months. A jobless, revenueless doubling in earnings!
And this is what Larry Kudlow, Wall Street and Corporate America would like you to believe is achievable in order to justify an S&P at 1,000 and billions in Wall Street bonus payments. The Kool Aid is served in the ranch toward the back.
We have a new section at Phil’s Stock World, it’s called Chart School.
We will be featuring Technical Charters and Analysis from some of the top people on the web. If you are interested in contributing or know someone you think would be a good contributor, contact Ilene@ our .com address (I don’t want her getting spam by putting her email in a post!) and let her know who you think would make a good addition to our roster. We’re looking not just for nice charts, but also for people who are skilled in explaining them. A good chart person needs to be a little bit of an artist, which is why I’m not one - my drawing skills make my daughters laugh, and not in a good way!
Like all good art, charts are subject to interpretation and different people will see different things, and come to different conclusions - from looking at exactly the same thing. That’s why I like to look at lots of different charts and try to check my bias at the door and let art speak for itself. Here’s a few that caught my eye this morning, starting with this interesting S&P chart by Ichimoku, who uses the SPX Price/TRIX daily divergence to catch a possible correction brewing just ahead of us (something I agree with for fundamental and technical reasons):
Interetsing stuff! Of course, I will caution members (as I had to when everyone was getting "Head and Shoulders" fever) that these are unprecedented market moves and "normal" charting techniques will often fail you here. We have record amounts of cash on the sidelines in proportion to the size of the market, which itself is trading on low volumes, which means it doesn’t take very much to override a bearish chart. It also would not take much of a panic to wash out the relatively small number of people who buy into the market every day.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s comments, just 20M out of 1.3Bn of IBM’s shares were exchanged yesterday at prices that averaged $112.50 per share yet that $2.25Bn worth of rangey trading upped IBM’s total market cap by $6.5Bn. Should the other 98.5% of the shareholders decide they’d like to get the $115 closing price for their shares, they may find the "value" isn’t quite what the chart says at the moment. This is nothing against IBM, they are worth about $115 - as long as…
Recently, my email has been full of all sorts of Cramer-Spam, with stories about all these great stock picks he made. Here’s a sample of bullet points from emails from "Jim Cramer (members@e.mail-thestreet.com)":
Model Portfolio Outperforms S&P 500: 134.79% Total Average Return*
On January 20th, I bought Goldman Sachs at $60. When it hit $85 on January 28th, I trimmed my shares, locking in a 41% gain
I bought GE at $8.78 when everyone thought it was going bankrupt — and now it’s up 50%.
My subscribers were right on hand as I bought NKE for $44 on March 19th, watched the stock skyrocket, and pocketed my profits on June 2nd for a return of 34%.
RealMoney recommended China Green Agriculture (CGA) when its shares were trading at $5. The stock closed at $8.09 and subscribers who followed our advice netted a 61.8% gain
RealMoney advised subscribers to buy shares in Darling International (DAR) when the stock was trading at $4.54 a share. The stock then closed at $6.60. Once again, RealMoney nailed the market with a 46% return.
P.S. I can only extend this offer to you for 48 hours so please do not delay…. you have absolutely nothing to lose when you take us up on our $129.95 offer
Notice his example picks have an average return well above anyone’s hurdle rate, with returns of 30% to 134.79% (love than .79). It’s funny when people sell penis enlargement pills online for $50 because its silly and not a lot of money, but as John Stewart noted, the stock market isn’t a game. This is disgraceful and CNBC should be aware this makes them part of his scam. It simply isn’t plausible that 30%+ returns are representative, and they know that, and suredly would say they didn’t mean every return is this high, but it’s like lottery ads saying ‘anyone can win’—true enough, but highly misleading.
The following is from my book on stock recommendations, where I note that in contrast to standard asset pricing theory, ALL stock recommendations promise above average returns. In theory, half of all stocks should be recommended with below-average returns because they have good ‘risk adjusted’ returns, but this doesn’t happen. That this never happens highlights a profound mischaracterization of risk-taking by standard asset pricing theory. People only take risk to outperform, never to achieve a lower return with greater safety (excluding cash-like asset holdings, such as…
"They are literally stealing a hundred million dollars a day. Goldman Sachs is stealing every day on the floor of the exchange. They should be in the Hague, they should be taken on financial terrorism charges. They should all be thrown in jail"
Washington is patting itself on the back for having orchestrated an amazing economic recovery. But Washington lawmakers are a delusional bunch of boneheads, say Marc Faber and Mike "Mish" Shedlock, editor of the Gloom, Boom, and Doom Report and investment advisor at ...
The chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia Stephen Roach blasts China skeptics, "The idea that [China] is an overheated economy is very much overblown," in this Bloomberg TV interview. Roach, who despite his global skepticism, continues to see China as a source of growth despite the numerous flashing warning signs. One area of ongoing concern - protectionism "As we go toward the mid-term elections in the US, the protectionist drumbeat is something to take seriously." When looking purely at China, Roach notes that "the dynamic needs to shift from the export sector to 1.3 billion Chinese consumers. They need to build a safety net, they have to come up with new sources of job creation, and they have to provide stimulus to their rural population which numbers roughly 850 million people. Since 2000 between 15 and 20 million rural citizens have moved into urban settings, that's lik...
Small Caps and Tech continued their good form. Technicals continue to support the move higher for Small Caps (Russell 2000) with new highs for the MACD and +DI line. The Russell 2000 would have to give up 25 points (or 4%) just to test breakout support at 650.
The prior underperformance of the semiconductors was undone with today's 2% gain.
Pivotfarm.com provides Support & Resistance, Fibonacci, Volume Analysis, Market Profile, Moving Average and Pivot Information for day traders. These data sheets are designed to help day traders gain an edge in the market, providing all the most important information a trader needs in one clear and concise data sheet. Today's levels can be found by clicking here
You can now have the Support and Resistance levels emailed to you via our Newsletter every morning please sign up at pivotfarm.com
All information on this website is for educational purposes only and is not intended to provide financial advise. Any sta...
AIG - American International Group, Inc. – The insurer’s shares experienced a fantastic 56.7% run up from its low point in the current month of $24.54 on March 3, 2010, up to yesterday’s intraday high of $38.45. During the current session, AIG surrendered a small portion of its recent share price gains, slipping slightly lower by 1.40% to stand at $34.62 in afternoon trading. Extreme-bullish positioning in long-dated options caught our attention today as one investor established a call spread in the January 2011 contract. The optimistic trader purchased 5,500 calls at the January 2011 $50 strike for a premium of $3.65 apiece, and sold the same number of calls at the higher January 2011 $75 strike for $1.30 each. The net cost of the transaction, an...
The recent uptick in stocks has not been met with much enthusiasm by corporate insiders. In fact, pessimism rules the day in the land of insider buying and selling trends. For the week ending February 26th insiders sold a total of $1.88...
Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
(blogroll, archives,
more).
Contact Ilene to learn about our affiliate and
content sharing
programs.
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Yahoo
Facebook
Twitter
Courtesy of 
Courtesy of 
We have a new section at Phil’s Stock World, it’s called 
As I mentioned 
Courtesy of 
German
Spanish
French
Italian
Portuguese
Japanese
Korean
Russian
Chinese
Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
(