Markets
Chanos’s short call on Caterpillar looks good after earnings miss – The Tell – MarketWatch
“Caterpillar on Wednesday lowered its full-year 2013 guidance to earnings of $5.50 a share and cut its revenue forecast to $55 billion. The company previously forecast earnings of $6.50 a share on revenue of $56 billion to $58 billion. For 2014, Caterpillar said it expected sales to be flat from 2013, plus or minus 5%.”
United States
U.S. Senator Paul plans ‘hold’ on Yellen’s Fed nomination: CNBC | Reuters
“Republican Senator Rand Paul plans to put a “hold” on the nomination of Janet Yellen to be chair of the Federal Reserve, CNBC reported on Friday, a move that would force supporters to round up 60 votes in the 100 seat Senate to confirm her.
CNBC, citing a source close to the Kentucky lawmaker, said Paul was insisting on a vote on a bill he has sponsored to open up the U.S. central bank’s monetary policy decisions to congressional audit.”
Fed Said to Issue Warning About Lax Loan Underwriting Practices – Bloomberg
“Top banking regulators in the U.S. are recommending lenders strengthen underwriting standards for leveraged corporate loans as borrowing of the high-risk debt approaches levels not seen since before the financial crisis, according to nine people with knowledge of the matter.”
UPS quarterly profit rises, sees strong holiday volumes | Reuters
This is positive for the US economy
U.S. durable goods orders, sentiment suggest politics hurting economy | Reuters
“The data suggests businesses may have scaled back investment plans as a political impasse in Washington threatened to lead the government to miss payments on its obligations, although firms also could be trimming these plans over more general doubts regarding the economy’s strength.”
Wealthy could lose big if Fed stops money flow
“Faber, who publishes The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday that the wealthy could lose up to half their wealth due to tighter monetary policy and an ensuing collapse in asset prices. He didn’t offer a time frame for this to occur.
But he said easy money from central banks—especially quantitative easing—has created global asset bubbles. High-end real estate and other favored assets of the wealthy will be hardest hit. “
“Back in the fall of 2010, Bill Black and I wrote a two part essay for the Huffington Post calling on Washington to go after the Foreclosure Fraudsters. Specifically, we pointed our fingers at the serial fraudsters at Bank of America.
BofA tasked Rebecca Mairone, Default Servicing Executive of Bank of America Home Loans, with writing an article to counter our piece
On Wednesday, after a four-week trial, a jury of four men and six women said Bank of America and former Countrywide executive Rebecca Mairone were liable for one count of civil fraud. Prosecutors accused the bank and Countrywide of stripping safeguards designed to catch mortgage fraud and then peddling the loans to government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac”
Europe
UK economy accelerates to fastest growth since 2010 | Reuters
“Gross domestic product rose by 0.8 percent, faster than the 0.7 percent achieved in the April-June period, Britain’s Office for National Statistics said on Friday.
The quarterly growth and the year-on-year rate of 1.5 percent were in line with forecasts by economists in a Reuters poll. The numbers also made Britain, until recently a laggard among the world’s rich countries, one of its fastest-growing economies with an annualized growth rate of over 3 percent.”
How Europe Can Save Its Banks – Bloomberg
“the ECB’s confidence-building exercise lacks a critical element: The credible commitment of a deep-pocketed authority to recapitalize any banks that are found lacking and can’t raise money on their own. This is what made U.S. stress tests work in the darkest days of 2009, and what has been missing in repeated European efforts to replicate that success.
Without that promise, the ECB’s exercise will be undermined before it even begins. Central-bank officials will know that the discovery of capital shortfalls in countries such as Spain or Italy could spark renewed fears that bailout costs will overwhelm the governments’ fragile finances.”
Asia
BBC News – Small tsunami reaches Japan after earthquake
“Workers at the Fukushima power station had been told to leave waterfront areas for higher ground.
But a Fukushima spokesman later said there was no damage or change in readings at radiation monitoring posts around the plant, according to Reuters news agency.”
Shinzo Abe scores small inflation victory in Japan – FT.com
“A closely watched measure of Japanese deflation stopped worsening for the first time in nearly five years in September, in a small but significant victory for the government’s attempt to end a long era of declining prices and reignite growth.
The so-called “core-core” consumer price index, which economists say gives one of the clearest pictures of underlying inflationary pressure because it excludes volatile prices for fresh food and energy, was unchanged compared to the same month a year earlier. It had been falling since the beginning of 2009.”
Technology
Amazon Reports Q3 Sales Of $17.09B, Up 24%, But Records Second Straight Loss | TechCrunch
“Once Prime members sign up, they tend to stick around: “We’ve seen not only a very strong increase in Prime membership, but we’ve seen very good retention of Prime members. When you look at that in terms of lifetime value, we have a customer base that’s staying with us longer [and] doing more cross-shopping.””
Samsung’s Profit Climbs 26%, Powered by Smartphones, Chips – WSJ.com
“As smartphone margins plateau, Samsung is finding refuge from a cyclical upturn in memory chips. The division’s margins have nearly doubled from a year earlier. The importance of Samsung’s chip unit—comprised of memory and logic chips—is being highlighted as it now accounts for roughly one-fifth of its total operating profit.”
At Ballmer’s Microsoft, Stock Price Defies Sales Growth – Bloomberg
“Total sales at Microsoft are up almost four-fold since CEO Steve Ballmer took over the company in 2000. The company’s stock has plummeted during his tenure, however. He announced his resignation in August 2013.”
$AAPL shares regain highs from early 2013; many Apple analysts’ targets now underwater
“Apple’s stock has returned to highs not seen since the beginning of the year, closing today above the price targets of a number of financial analysts and increasingly challenging the value of vast new buyback plans advocated by celebrity investor Carl Icahn.”
Civil Liberties
“U.S. officials are alerting some foreign intelligence services that documents detailing their secret cooperation with the United States have been obtained by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, according to government officials.
Snowden, U.S. officials said, took tens of thousands of military intelligence documents, some of which contain sensitive material about collection programs against adversaries such as Iran, Russia and China. Some refer to operations that in some cases involve countries not publicly allied with the United States.”