Waiting for the Oil Godot
Gravy for U.S. Energy Producers
by Byron King, Daily Reckoning
I feel like I'm on crazy pills! For weeks
now, I've been waiting for the price of oil to face a modest pullback.
Point being the current price of crude ($100-plus) is higher than the
simple supply-and-demand fundamentals are leading on. Supply and demand
be damned - the price of crude keeps inching higher!
Stocks Mixed in Quiet Session
Market Close 30 July 2013
With Gary off for the day, the market close summary comes from syndication partner Investing.com:
U.S. stocks closed mixed to higher on Tuesday in quiet
trading as many investors remained on the sidelines ahead of the Federal
Reserve's Wednesday announcement on interest rates and monetary policy.
At the close of U.S. trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished
down 0.01%, the S&P 500 index rose 0.04%, while the Nasdaq Composite
index rose 0.48%.
What We Read Today 30 July 2013
Econintersect: Click Read more >> below graphic to see today's list.
The top of today's reading list asks if
economics is a science or a religion ........ and the last article
discusses unemployment as a headwind for U.S. housing markets.
Survival of the Least Skilled?
by Dirk Ehnts, Econoblog101
Recently I have been thinking whether
intelligence is aimed at finding the truth or aimed at survival. I came
to the conclusion that the latter was right, but that we can use reason
to build a society where the two coincide. Institutions matter.
Samsung Made More Money Than Apple in Q2
by Felix Richter, Statista.com
For
the first time in years, Samsung posted a higher quarterly profit than
Apple last Friday. The company made $6.93 billion in the past three
months as it continued to dominate the smartphone market. Samsung
shipped 72.4 million smartphones from April through June, outselling its
biggest rival Apple more than 2 to 1.
Destructive Tornado Caught on Cell Phone
Mobile
phone footage filmed in Grezzago province of Milan on Monday (July 29)
captures the estimated grade F2-F3 Fujtaa tornado plume that hit the
area. Although no deaths have been reported there were reports of a
dozen injuries.Mobile pho
Leading Index Review: June 2013 Philly Fed Leading Index Continues to Show Growth
Econintersect: A
positive index number projects positive economic growth for the next 6
months. The June 2013 forecast (released today) growth is 1.3. A
positive number indicates growth. A review of all major leading indicators follows.
July 2013 Conference Board Consumer Confidence Retreats Slightly
Written by Doug Short and Steven Hansen
The July 2013 Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index retreated
slightly following three strong showing in a row. The market expected
this index to come in at 81.6 to 83.5 (versus the 80.3 reported).
This index remains in territory associated with past recessions. Note
that this data is considered preliminary, and the cutoff for these
results was 18 July 2013.
Read more >>
A Word from This Newsletter's Sponsor
Gold is Plummeting...Learn the #1 Mistake Trading Gold
Learn secrets every investor MUST know before buying or selling gold.
Discover one IGNORED gold investment producing over-sized results!
30 July 2013: USA Markets Open Up
Gary is off today - and
Econintersect is therefore providing the market open from our syndication partner
Investing.com:
European stocks were higher on Tuesday, supported by the
release of positive data out of German, while investors eyed highly
anticipated policy statements by the Federal Reserve, the Bank of
England and the European Central Bank later in the week.
During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 climbed 0.45%,
France's CAC 40 rose 0.36%, while Germany's DAX 30 gained 0.47%.
Case-Shiller Home Prices Growth Above Expectations in May 2013
Written by Steven Hansen
The non-seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller home price index (20 cities)
for May 2013 (released today) showed the 12th year-over-year gain in
housing prices since the end of the housing stimulus in 2010.
- Non-seasonally adjusted home prices rose 2.4% month-to-month.
Read more >>
Infographic of the Day: How Much Does It Cost to Be Batman?
Batman is
a fictional character, a comic book superhero appearing in comic books.
Originally referred to as "the Bat-Man" and still referred to at times
as "the Batman," the character is additionally known as "the Caped
Crusader, "the Dark Knight," and "the World's Greatest Detective," among
other titles. Bruce Wayne never has to think about his budget, so we
did for him. See how much it costs to be Batman.
Stratfor: Identifying China's Successors
By George Friedman, Founder and Chairman, Stratfor
China has become a metaphor. It represents a certain phase of economic
development, which is driven by low wages, foreign appetite for
investment and a chaotic and disorderly development, magnificent in
scale but deeply flawed in many ways. Its magnificence spawned the
flaws, and the flaws helped create the magnificence.
Read more >>
Japan Industrial Production Collapsed in June, Trade Improved
Econintersect:
What surges in May can sag in June. That is the story of IP (Industrial
Production) for Japan. June 2013 IP for Japan fell 3.3%
month-over-month, following a jump of 1.8% for May and +0.95% for April.
June saw the largest decline in more than two years. On a
year-over-year basis June was the thirteenth consecutive decline. Over
the last 13 months the year-over-year decline has averaged more than 5%,
slightly more than the 4.8% decline in June.
The Next Chair of the Federal Reserve Must Be A Regulator
by Robert E. Prasch
This article was posted in New Economic Perspective 25 July 2013.
If
we go by the rumors circulating in the financial press, the Obama
Administration is on the verge of selecting a proven failure - Lawrence
Summers - to be the next Chair of the Federal Reserve System. This is
the man, let us recall, whose greatest success in office was to work for
the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999 and the nudge along the passage of
the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (
which forbade any agency from regulating Credit Default Swaps).
These profoundly mistaken decisions provided the nation's largest and
most irresponsible financial institutions with the bulk of
the permission they needed to leverage up their balance sheets, hide the
risks inherent in the mortgage-backed securities they were pushing onto
unsuspecting investors, all while enabling them to become Too Big To
Fail (
and, as no less than the Attorney General of the United States has affirmed, Too Big To Prosecute).
Treasury Offerings Disrupt Market
A Rocky Start For Liquidity, Then Smooth Sailing For Markets in August (Professional Edition Free Excerpt)
by Lee Adler, Wall Street Examiner
The
end of month Treasury supply dump totaling $55 billion settling on
Wednesday coincides with the period where the Fed does the least buying
in support of the market. That sets up the potential for rocky markets
this week. But after that supply will be light, and the Fed will still
be pumping, particularly at mid month. August should therefore again be a
positive month for liquidity flows into stocks, and Treasuries could
see improved flows as well.Click here to download complete report in pdf
format (Professional Edition Subscribers)
- Free excerpt below. -
Week Ending 29July, 2013: 3.6 Cent Gasoline Price Fall
Gasoline
prices fell an average of 4.5cents cents nationwide this past week from
last weeks rise of 4.5 cents from the week before - with the largest
fall in the Midwest (PADD2) (-8.5).
Average prices by region and a breakdown by grade follow after the "Read More".
Central Banks Change Direction
Monetary Policy Week in Review (Jul 22-26, 2013): Global Rate Trend Shows Signs of Shift as 3 Banks Tighten, 1 Cuts
by Peter Nielsen, Central Bank News
The
trend in global monetary policy took another small step toward
tightening this week as Turkey raised its overnight lending rate, India
tightened liquidity and New Zealand warned it may have to raise rates,
putting it on course to become the first central bank in a developed
market to increase policy rates since early 2011.
But while a handful of central banks are
reacting to pressure on currencies and inflation, the overall global
trend is still toward lower policy rates due to 'choppy' global growth (to borrow a phrase from the Bank of Canada) with one central bank cutting its rates this week and nine keeping rates on hold.
Hungary continued its year-long rate
cutting spree, reducing its policy rate for the 12th time in a row,
raising the number of rate cuts worldwide through the first 30 weeks of
this year to 69 compared with 14 rate increases among the 90 central
banks covered by Central Bank News.
EU and US Slash Greenhouse Gas Emissions
by Felix Richter, Statista.com
The
latest figures released by the European Union have revealed that
greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to fall steadily. Between 2010
and 2011, emissions fell from 4.7 to 4.5 million tons - a decline of 3.3
percent. This represents the lowest level of greenhouse gas emissions
in reports stretching back to 1990.
The impressive reduction has been primarily attributed 2011's mild
winter in comparison to 2010, which resulted in lower heating demands.
Nevertheless, the EU is making excellent progress towards meeting its
emission targets.
