December 2011 Blog Posts (9)

James Williams of Matagorda County, Texas recounts a touching true story. Living in a still prejudiced Texas In 1972, his wife had a complication with her pregnancy. No doctors would care for her or deliver their bi-racial child. In fact one of the hospital nurses called the police on James.

Dr. Ron Paul was notified and took her in, delivering their stillborn baby. Because of…

Friday 12/23/11

United States

0830 ET Nov durable goods orders expected +2.2% and +0.4% ex transportation, Oct -0.5% and +1.1% ex transportation.

0830 ET Nov personal spending expected +0.3%, Oct +0.1%. Nov personal income expected +0.2%, Oct +0.4%. Nov PCE deflator expected +2.7% y/y, Oct +2.7% y/y. Nov PCE core expected…

•March 10-year T-notes this morning are down -3 ticks. T-note prices yesterday settled higher after Q3 U.S. GDP was unexpectedly revised lower along with dealer short covering after the Treasury sold $177 billion of government debt over the past 2 weeks: TYH2 +1.0, FVH2 -0.7, EDM2 -1.0. Bullish factors included (1) the unexpected downward revision to Q3 U.S. GDP (+1.8% annualized versus expectations of no change at 2.0% as Q3 personal consumption was revised…

•Global stocks this morning are mostly higher with the Euro Stoxx 50 up +1.00% and Mar S&Ps up +6.60 points at a 2-week high. The dollar and Treasuries are lower on reduced safe-haven demand and commodities gained with crude oil and copper at 1-week highs. U.S. stocks received a boost after House Speaker Boehner said Republicans agreed to a 2-month extension of the U.S. payroll-tax cut. The euro rose against the dollar after the Markit iTraxx SovX Western…

SMF Notes Market Internals 

The Dow increased +4.16 (or +0.03%) closing at 12107.74, the Nasdaq was down 25.76 points (or +3.19%) to finish at 2603.73 and the S&P was up 35.95 (or +2.98%) to finish at 1241.30. Today's movement came from mixed avg. volume (NYSE 824 mln, vs. 965 mln avg; Nasdaq 1810 mln, vs. 1805 mln avg), with advancers outpacing decliners on the NYSE and decliners outpacing advancers on the…

Stocks had looked like they would come rallying back from three straight losses, but the broad market's inability to overcome resistance in the early going prompted many participants to exit their positions. Stocks chopped along for the rest of the session and eventually settled with modest gains.

After watching the stock market descend more than 3% during the course of the past three sessions, buyers were finally…

http://bit.ly/rvtzXC

The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in October to its lowest point of the year after Americans bought fewer foreign cars and imported less oil.

The shrinking trade gap boosted growth over the summer and may do so again in the final three months of the year. But economists worry the trend could reverse next year, especially if Europe's debt crisis worsens.

The Commerce…

-1.5%; Shanghai -0.6%; Hang Seng -2.7%; Sensex -1.7%

The major Asian markets were lower. China closed down (at a 33 month low) but had better than expected inflation figures, as the closely watched CPI figure mostly came in below expectations at +4.2%. Industrial production was weaker than expected. The Bank of Korea revised its 2011 growth outlook downward to 3.8% vs 4.3% prior and 2012 to +3.7 vs +4.6%. Japan…