Stock World Weekly

by ilene - January 2nd, 2011 8:18 am

Here’s the latest Stock World Weekly Newsletter, New Year’s Edition.

Feedback welcome — please leave comments, we value your input. - Ilene

Picture credit: William Banzai7

For Stock World Weekly archives, click here.   

Tags: Ben Bernanke, CHINA, debt, deflation, Dollar, Economy, Equities, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis, financial markets, Gold, government, Housing, Mish, Options, Recovery, Stock Market, stocks, the Federal Reserve, unemployment, Wall Street

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LPS Mortgage Monitor: Foreclosure Inventory Rising for 5th Straight Month, Nearly 2.2 Million Loans are 90 days+ Delinquent Not Yet in Foreclosure

by ilene - December 28th, 2010 11:41 pm

Courtesy of Mish 

A press release from LPS’ Mortgage Monitor Report shows Foreclosure Inventory Rising for 5th Straight Month

The November Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) shows that the volume of loans moving to REO continued to drop as moratoria further delayed foreclosure sales. While the 90+ delinquency category has steadily declined, the number of loans moving to seriously delinquent status beyond 90 days far outpaced the number of foreclosure starts. Nearly 2.2 million loans are 90 days or more delinquent but not yet in foreclosure.

Foreclosure inventories also continued to rise for the fifth straight month as delinquent accounts are referred for foreclosure, but the sale of foreclosure properties continued to decline. When compared to January 2008 levels, the foreclosure inventory of Jumbo Prime loans is nearly seven times higher; the inventory of Agency Prime loans is nearly six times higher; and the foreclosure inventory of Option ARM loans is approaching five times the inventory in January 2008.

The report also shows that one-third of loans that are 90 days or more delinquent have not made a payment in a year; however, the number of new problem loans declined nearly 5.4 percent from October, which is opposite of the seasonality trend that typically impacts new delinquencies this time of year. Self-cures for loans one to two months delinquent increased in November to a six-month high.

In the month of November, 261,153 loans were referred to foreclosure, which represents a 0.7% month-over-month decline. The total number of delinquent loans is nearly 2.1 times historical averages – and foreclosure inventory is currently at 7.7 times historical averages.

As reported in LPS’ First Look release, other key results from LPS’ latest Mortgage Monitor report include:

• Total U.S. loan delinquency rate: 9.02 percent
• Total U.S. foreclosure inventory rate: 4.08 percent
• Total U.S. non-current* loan rate: 13.10 percent
• States with most non-current* loans: Florida, Nevada, Mississippi, Georgia, New Jersey
• States with fewest non-current* loans: North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Wyoming, Montana

Charts From The Report

The report is 34 pages long. Inquiring minds may wish to give it a closer look. Here are a few select charts.

click on any chart for sharper image

Delinquent and Foreclosure Rates by Month 

Total Delinquency Percent Excluding Foreclosures

Total Foreclosure Percent By Product

Foreclosure Increase Compared to January 2008

Loan Cures

…

Tags: debt, deflation, Dollar, Economy, foreclosure, Housing Market, inflation, inventory, Lender Processing Services, LPS' Mortgage Monitor Report, Mortgages

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2011 – What’s Coming

by ilene - December 28th, 2010 9:57 pm

Courtesy of Bruce Krasting

Oh boy is 2011 going to be an exciting year! Some things that I think might happen:

• -Volatility is going up across the board. If you have the stomach for the swings that are coming across all markets there is a ton of money to be made; balls and timing are all that are necessary. The markets will create dozens of opportunities to make and lose.
• -There will be 50 days with a swing in the S&P greater than 1%. There will be 10 days where gold swings $50. There will be two days with a drop greater than 100 bucks. Most of the big moves will be down moves. Bonds will not be spared the volatility.
• -Gold will be higher a year from now but off its peak. At some time in the fall, gold will be near 1,800 and the New York Times will do a front-page story that gold is on its way to 2,000. That will be the high point of the year.
• -Copper will continue to rise. This metal will benefit as the poor man’s gold. Why buy an ounce of something for $1,600 when you can have a whole pound of something else for only $5? The logic is compelling only because there is no logic. Increasingly, it will become understood that money does not hold value. Copper will do a better job of storing value then a Treasury Bond.
• -The US bond market is in for a heck of a year. The 30-year will trade at BOTH 3% and 5%. Higher rates will come early in the year, then the deflation trade will come back into vogue.
• -Spain will be the next sovereign debtor that falls prey to the market. This will happen before the end of the 1st Q. The package to bail them out will exceed $500b. This will exhaust the EU resources. There will be very high expectations that contagion will then move to Italy. That will not happen in 2011 (2012?) The European Central Bank will step up to the table (finally) and support the market for Italy. Sometime between March and June Italian bonds will be a great buy.
• -The IMF will contribute $125b to the Spanish bailout. The US portion

…

Tags: Banks, Ben Bernanke, debt, deflation, Dollar, ECB, Economy, Equities, Euro, Financial Crisis, government, inflation, mortgage gate, QE2, Stock Market, stocks, the Federal Reserve, Tim Geithner, unemployment, Wall Street, ZIRP

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WILLIAM BLACK: THE EURO COULD COME UNDONE IN 3-4 YEARS

by ilene - December 28th, 2010 3:20 pm

Courtesy of CULLEN ROCHE, The Pragmatic Capitalist 

William Black of UMKC believes the Euro could unravel in the coming 3-4 years as the political tension continues to increase and ultimately creates a divide between the core and periphery.  Black says the economies on the periphery are likely to remain very weak and will lead to civil unrest and political overhaul.  In the end the strains will be too much for the region to overcome.

Black also discusses the imbalances in China and why the Chinese are likely to experience their own crisis in the coming years.  (Video here.)

Source: Bloomberg

Tags: Bailout, Banks, Ben Bernanke, CHINA, civil unrest, debt, Dollar, Economy, Equities, Euro, Politics, Stock Market, stocks, the Federal Reserve, Wall Street, William Black

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After Nearly Two Years Of Searching, TrimTabs Still Can’t Figure Out Who Is Buying Stocks

by ilene - December 23rd, 2010 6:05 pm

Courtesy of Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge 

A year after Charles Biderman’s provocative post first appeared on Zero Hedge, in which he asked just who is doing all the buying of stocks as the money was obviously not coming from retail investors (and came up with one very notable suggestion), today Maria Bartiromo invited the TrimTabs head once again (conveniently in CNBC’s lowest rated show, during Christmas Eve eve, at a time when perhaps 5 people would be watching) in an interview which disclosed that after more than a year of searching, Biderman still has no idea who actually buying. In response to Bartiromo’s question if the retail investor, who left after the flash crash (thank you SEC), Biderman responds what every Zero Hedger has known for 33 weeks: "Retail investors are not coming back to the US. Those investors that are investing are buying global equities and are buying commodities. We are seeing lots money going into commodity ETF funds: gold, silver…" and the even more unpleasant summation: "individuals have been selling, companies are net selling, insider selling and new offerings are swamping any  buyback and any cash M&A activity since QE 2 was announced. Pension funds and hedge funds don’t really have that much cash to invest. So what nobody’s asking is what happens when QE 2 stops: if the only buyer is the Fed, and the Fed stops buying, I don’t know what is going to happen...When I was on your show a year ago I was saying the same thing: we can’t figure out who is doing the buying it has to be the government, and people said I was nuts. Now the government is admitting it is rigging the market." Cue Bartiromo jaw dropping.

As for the simple math of where the money is actually going:

"Money flows come out of income, take home pay of everybody plus money that came from real estate is down about $1 trillion a year. It peaked in the 3rd quarter of 2008, at $7 trillion, that’s take home pay for everybody who pays taxes plus the money that came from real estate. It has now bottomed at $5.9 trillion. We are still down $1.1 trillion in money that people have to spend each year, that 16%. And some of the money that is leaving equity markets we think is going to pay bills."

…

Tags: Banks, debt, Dollar, Economy, Equities, Goldman Sachs, Oil, Stock Market, the Federal Reserve, TrimTabs, Wall Street

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WE ARE NOT REPEATING THE MISTAKES OF JAPAN….YET

by ilene - December 21st, 2010 2:44 pm

Pragcap explains why "WE ARE NOT REPEATING THE MISTAKES OF JAPAN….YET".

Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist 

When confronted with a balance sheet recession the math regarding economic growth gets relatively simple – either the government spends in times of below trend private sector spending or the economy contracts. For several years now I have maintained that we are in a balance sheet recession – an unusual recession caused by excessive private sector debt.  Although this balance sheet recession created the risk of prolonged weakness I have been quick to dismiss the persistent discussions that compare this to anything close to a second great depression - as I showed in 2009 the comparisons were always ridiculous.  The much closer precedent was Japan, where the economy actually expanded throughout their balance sheet recession, but a persistent malaise left a dark cloud over the private sector as they paid down debts.

Over the last year I have consistently expressed concerns that the USA was going to suffer the same fate as Japan, which consistently scared itself into recession due to austerity measures. At the time, most pundits were comparing us to Greece and attempting to scare us into thinking that the USA was bankrupt, on the verge of hyperinflation and general doom. I wrote several negative articles in 2009 & 2010 berating public officials who said the USA was going bankrupt and that the deficit was at risk of quickly turning us into Greece, Weimar or Zimbabwe.  Nothing could have been farther from the truth.  The inflationists, defaultistas and other fear mongerers have been wrong in nearly every aspect of their arguments about the US economy.

US government default was never on the table, the bond vigilantes were not just taking a nap and now, with the passage of the most recent stimulus bill it’s likely that we’ve (at least temporarily) sidestepped the economic decline that was likely to accompany a decline in government spending.  Richard Koo, however, believes we are repeating the mistakes of our past.  In a recent strategy note he said:

“The situation in Europe is no different from that in the US. I therefore have to conclude that the western nations have learned nothing from Japan’s lessons and are likely to repeat its mistakes.”

I have to disagree here.  The most important factor impacting economic growth in the prior year…

Tags: "balance sheet recession, austerity measures, Banks, CHINA, debt, deficit, Dollar, Economy, Equities, Financial Crisis, government, inflation, japan, private sector, Recession, Stock Market

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ETF News Update:Korea, Ireland, and Quiet on The Western Front (SPY, DIA, UUP, TLT)

by ilene - December 20th, 2010 7:44 pm

Courtesy of John Nyaradi

Sabres were rattling on the Korean Penninsula today while Europe’s troubles percolated on the back burner and U.S. markets meandered in lighter than average pre-Christmas volume.

South Korea conducted its drills in spite of dire North Korean warnings but the ripples of the conflict spread across the region as the Shanghai Composite (SSEC) dropped -1.4%, bringing its decline from early November perilously close to the -10% marker for an official “correction.”

On the other side of the world, Europe continued struggling with its debt problems as Moody’s downgraded Anglo Irish Bank to junk status and Portugal and Greece continue attracting the negative attention of the ratings agencies.  In France, the cost of insuring debt rose to record highs while the Euro declined over concerns of the ongoing banking stress in the Union.

At home, all was quiet on the Western Front as the dollar (UUP) gained, the long bond(TLT)  declined and the Dow (DIA) slipped into the red while the S&P 500 (SPY) remaisn near two year highs.

On the technical side of market analysis, we remain in a sideways consolidation, unable to break higher while finding solid support just below current levels.  Momentum continues to wane and the action in China could have bearish implications as the Shanghai Composite is being seen by more and more analysts as a leading indicator as that country’s global economic clout continues to grow.

At Wall Street Sector Selector, we remain in the “Yellow Flag” mode, expecting choppy to lower prices ahead.

Disclosure: Wall Street Sector Selector trades a wide variety of widely traded exchange traded funds and positions can change at any time.

Click here to learn more about John’s book and for a free membership to Wall Street Sector Selector

Tags: bonds, CHINA, debt, DIA, Economy, Europe, SPY, Stock Market, stocks, TLT

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Fiscally Irresponsible Friday – Proles Swallow $858Bn in Debt for $ 613 and Some Magic Beans

by Phil - December 17th, 2010 8:18 am

 
Good job Congress!

Way to bend of and take it from your new Republican Masters!  Not since Jack sold his cow for some magic beans has a deal like this been made by our "leadership" where families earning between $35,000 and $64,000 go $7,800 further into debt to get a $613 tax break while families earning between $5M and $10M get $38,590 and families earning $50M to $100M get $380,590 and families (or Corporations, of course) earning $500M to $1Bn get $3,859,000 or about 12,590 times more than the average middle class family but, then again, they deserve it because – they are that much better than you are!  

Face it, unless you are in an income category where your tax benefit has 5 digits, you are what George Orwell (who worked in England’s Ministry of Propaganda) called a "Prole."  In "1984" the Proles (proletariat) were the vast majority of the populace, the working class of Oceana.  Though the proles are the majority, they are unimportant. The Party explicitly teaches that the Proles are "natural inferiors who must be kept in subjection, like animals".  As one of the Party Leaders observes: "the relative freedom of working-class people is merely a symptom of the contempt in which they are held".  

It is not only the Party which regards the Proles as unimportant: the arch-enemy, Goldstein, dismisses them too, referring to the divisions of High, Middle and Low people, in which the Low are essentially destined to remain powerless. This attitude has much in common with the one Huxley shows in Brave New World—the lower castes are mindless enough to be satisfied with little, and can be relied on not to be troublesome.  

You’re not going to be any trouble are you?  Enjoy your $613, little people.  That’s what, about a month’s worth of gasoline and cable TV?  Congratulations on your voting acumen – you certainly have gotten the Government that you deserve!  I apologize because I had mischaracterized the tax cuts as being fairer to the Middle Class last week, when I said it was only an outrage.  I thought that families earning $50,000 would be getting $900, not $613, but it turns out that 12,590 times $287 is another $3,613,330 that could be given to a Billionaire and they NEED that money to buy stuff that might create a job while you would only…

Tags: CSCO, debt, deficit, GE, GLW, JNJ, KO, MCD, PCLN, SPWRA, Tax cuts, TBT, WFR, WMT

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Post Mortem for the World’s Reserve Currency

by ilene - December 15th, 2010 2:34 pm

This is a thoughtful analysis by Mike Whitney showing what a financial mess we’re in – the proverbial rock and a hard place scenario. – Ilene 

Post Mortem for the World’s Reserve Currency

Courtesy of MIKE WHITNEY, originally published at CounterPunch and Global Research

Paul Volcker is worried about the future of the dollar and for good reason. The Fed has initiated a program (Quantitative Easing) that presages an end to Bretton Woods 2 and replaces it with different system altogether. Naturally, that’s made trading partners pretty nervous. Despite the unfairness of the present system--where export-dependent countries recycle capital to US markets to sustain demand—most nations would rather stick with the "devil they know", then venture into the unknown.  But US allies weren’t consulted on the matter.  The Fed unilaterally decided that the only way to fight deflation and high unemployment in the US, was by weakening the dollar and making US exports more competitive. Hence QE2.

But that means that the US will be battling for the same export market as everyone else, which will inevitably shrink global demand for goods and services.  This is a major change in the Fed’s policy and there’s a good chance it will backfire. Here’s the deal: If US markets no longer provide sufficient demand for foreign exports, then there will be less incentive to trade in dollars. Thus, QE poses a real threat to the dollar’s position as the world’s reserve currency.   

Here’s what Volcker said:  “The growing sense around much of the world is that we have lost both relative economic strength and more important, we have lost a coherent successful governing model to be emulated by the rest of the world. Instead, we’re faced with broken financial markets, underperformance of our economy and a fractious political climate…..The  question is whether the exceptional role of the dollar can be maintained." 

This is a good summary of the problems facing the dollar. Notice that Volcker did not invoke the doomsday scenario that one hears so often on the Internet, that China, which has more than $1 trillion in US Treasuries and dollar-backed assets, will one day pull the plug on the USA and send the dollar plunging.  While that’s technically possible, it’s not going to happen. China has no intention of crashing the dollar and thrusting its own economy into a long-term slump.  In fact, China has…

Tags: Bailout, Banks, Ben Bernanke, CHINA, debt, deflation, DIA, Dollar, Economy, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis, government, Obama, Politics, Recession, Recovery, Stock Market, stocks, the Federal Reserve, unemployment, Wall Street

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Charting America’s Transformation To A Part-Time Worker Society, Following 6 Straight Months Of Full Time Job Declines

by ilene - December 13th, 2010 7:46 pm

Tyler Durden reports on "Charting America’s Transformation To A Part-Time Worker Society, Following 6 Straight Months Of Full Time Job Declines."

It is surprising that over the past several years very little has been said in the popular media about the fact that America is slowly (but surely) transforming from a full-time to part-time employed society. And while much has been said about the temporary and now past impact of census hiring, and government jobs on the workforce, there are still few mentions in mainstream media that since the depression started in December 2007, America has lost 10.5 million full time jobs, offset by a 2.8 million increase in part time jobs. Two recent mentions of this extremely troubling phenomenon were those by David Stockman, who characterized the recent unjustified economic (and naturally market) euphoria in terms that could have come straight from David Rosenberg‘s mouth, and, more recently, Van Hoisington. And since the Teleprompter in Chief has now made it a monthly pilgirmage to extol the NFP number no matter how manipulated by Birth-Death and seasonal adjustments, perhaps next time someone can ask him why the US not only lost 478k seasonally adjusted full time workers in November but has lost full time jobs for 6 months in a row, for a total of 1.6 million job losses! And since it is now clear that Americans only watch cartoons when it comes to financial reporting, and, at worst, demand a chart, here is, straight from the BLS’ table A-9, the historical change of the US labor force.

And here is the sequential change in both full and part-time jobs. Note that after peaking in April and May, full time jobs have declined for 6 straight months:

In a nutshell: in December 2007 there were 121.7 million full time jobs, while 24.8 million Americans were part-time workers for economic reasons; fast forward to November 2010 where we find that 111.1 million employees are now full time, while the rank of the part-times have increased to 27.6 million. And it is not rocket science, that converting a population to part-time workers has a disastrous impact on wealth. As Stockman presented previously, discussing part-time employment "with an average wage of $20,000 a year, that is not a breadwinning job, you can’t support a family on that, you can’t save on that. Those jobs will not…

Tags: debt, Economy, full-time workers, Jobs, part time workers, unemployment

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