U.S. Stocks Fall on Budget Impasse as Confidence Drops

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Someone forgot to tell them if we missed a bull market, it's supposed to go up. The only upside I see to the market is printed dollars given to the banks who inflated the market by gambling. Nothing can justify AAPL at the price it is at. Apple has done more to hurt the economy by shipping manufacturing to China than it has to help. Still everyone wants an iPad or iPhone. What do the banks have to lose if they can always go back to the FRB for more funny money? QB

U.S. stocks fell, adding to a three- day drop for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, amid an impasse on federal budget talks and as consumer confidence declined more than forecast.


Marvell Technology Group Ltd. fell 2.6 percent after being downgraded by JMP Securities LLC. BCD Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. (BCDS) almost doubled after Diodes Inc. agreed to buy the company for $151 million.The S&P 500 dropped 0.7 percent to 1,410.14 at 10:31 a.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 83.34 points, or 0.6 percent, to 13,031.25 today. Trading in S&P 500 companies was 25 percent below the 30-day average at this time of day.“The markets remain held hostage to the perceived negotiations in Washington regarding the fiscal cliff,” Jim Russell, the Cincinnati-based chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, which oversees about $113 billion, said in a telephone interview. “It’s our take that there are talks going on and that they’re substantive but time is growing short.”Stocks extended losses as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reidsaid “nothing’s happening” in budget talks in Washington and it looks like the nation is heading for the so-called fiscal cliff.The S&P 500 has slipped 1 percent this week as talks between President Barack Obama and Congressional lawmakers dragged on beyond the Christmas holiday. The gauge has still rallied 13 percent this year, its largest annual gain since 2009.

Interim Deal

Obama is pushing U.S. lawmakers to agree on an interim deal to avert more than $600 billion of automatic tax increases and spending cuts, known as the fiscal cliff, that will otherwise come into effect next month. Republican House leaders will hold a conference with party members today to discuss the next steps in budget negotiations, according to an aide who asked for anonymity to discuss the issue.Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wrote in a letter to Congress yesterday that the federal debt limit will be reached on Dec. 31 and his department will begin using “extraordinary measures” to finance $200 billion in deficits in early 2013.Equities fell after data showed confidence among U.S. consumers declined more than forecast in December as the budget debate in Washington soured Americans’ outlook for the economy. The Conference Board’s index of sentiment fell to 65.1 from a revised 71.5 reading the prior month, figures from the New York- based private research group showed today. The gauge was projected to fall to 70, according to the Bloomberg survey median.

Home Sales

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-27/u-s-stock-futures-are-little-changed-amid-budget-talks.html