So many things about so many things

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Biotech Keeps Rockin, shaza 
Here is my Biotech watchlist based on MOMENTUM and strong sector:Shaza's top stocks to watch

The American Dream Is Now a Myth: Joseph Stiglitz

Once seen as the land of opportunity, the U.S. today is grappling with rising inequality and a political system that benefits the rich at the expense of others, resulting in lower growth and risking the death of the American dream, according to Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

Simon Willms | Stone | Getty Images

“The U.S. worked hard to create the American dream of opportunity. But today, that dream is a myth,” Stiglitz wrote in an opinion piece in the Financial Times Tuesday.
Stiglitz said U.S. inequality is at the highest point in nearly a century and the gap between those with the median income and those at the top is growing.“The U.S. used to think of itself as a middle-class country – but this is no longer true,” he said. “Today, a child’s life chances are more dependent on the income of his or her parents than in Europe, or any other of the advanced industrial countries for which there are data.”

• Slideshow: America's Biggest Wealth Gaps

According to a Census Bureau report, U.S. household income inequality has grown by 18 percent since 1967, although this trend has slowed in recent years. Wealth disparity is also proving to be a hot topic during the 2012 election year, with Democrats arguing that Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s wealth makes him out of touch with ordinary Americans.

Franco Origlia | Getty ImagesJoseph Stiglitz, the Nobel prize-winning economist and former Chief Economist at the World Bank.

According to Stiglitz, regulations, particularly those governing the financial sector are contributing to the disparities.
“Financial regulations allow predatory lending and abusive credit-card practices that transfer money from the bottom to the top. So do bankruptcy laws that provide priority for derivatives,” he said.Stiglitz argues that Americans were increasingly being made to think that higher income inequality was a byproduct of faster growth, but he says that’s a false choice. The U.S. economy grew faster in the decades after the Second World War, when inequalities were lower, than it did after 1980, he said.“Textbooks teach us that we can have a more egalitarian society only if we give up growth or efficiency,” he said. “However, closer analysis shows that we are paying a high price for inequality: it contributes to social, economic and political instability, and to lower growth.”

Western countries with the healthiest economies, such as those in Scandinavia, have the highest degree of equality, Stiglitz noted.

• Slideshow: America's 10 Richest Counties

http://www.cnbc.com//id/47957186

U.S. Import Supremacy Seen Falling To China And Germany B

Germany and China will leapfrog the U.S. to become the world’s largest importers by 2026, according to a study by HSBC Holdings Plc that also forecast a “tipping point” in the balance of trade power in the next five years.The shift means growth in traditionally export-driven countries will come from imports, HSBC said today in its Global Connections report. Imports in China, India and Brazil, which along withRussia make up the BRIC bloc, will begin expanding more than exports over the next five years in a trend that will last through at least 2026, it said.“We will soon see that imports will grow faster than exports in emerging markets,” Alan Keir, HSBC’s London-based global head of commercial banking, said in an e-mailed statement. “This will signify a shift where traditionally export-driven countries will drive developed and emerging market growth as their own trade demands become more powerful.”Emerging economies will underpin global growth this year and next as the euro region’s debt crisis weighs down wealthy nations, the International Monetary Fund said in a June 20 report. While industrialized countries “clearly still represent the largest share of global trade by volume,” growth is easing, particularly in Europe, and emerging nations are outpacing the developed world in terms of speed of trade expansion, HSBC said.

‘Challenging Test’

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-25/u-s-import-supremacy-seen-falling-to-china-and-germany.html

Bank Chiefs Enjoy Double-Digit Pay Rises

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 Top U.S. and European bankers, including JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon and Citigroup’s Vikram Pandit, have enjoyed double-digit annual pay rises averaging almost 12 percent, despite widespread falls in profits and share prices, Financial Times research shows.


I don't see any reason why the banksters should suffer. All they did was create a global depression and they didn't see it coming. Their kids need new shoes and a BMW to show off at Harvard or Princeton.




The disclosure will stoke concern on both sides of the Atlantic over chief executive pay levels that has already led to several high-profile investor revolts, including at Citi [C  26.40   -0.70  (-2.58%)   ] and at Barclays [BCS  10.75   -1.58  (-12.81%)   ]. It comes as Europe’s leaders debate a cap on bank bonuses.
Stoke concern? By whom? Not the politicians and certainly not the regulatory agencies so this is just bullshit. Cap on bonuses? How are you going to do that? They own the company, majority of stock and they are doing a heckuva job in their opinion. They deserve it.
The analysis of total pay awarded to 15 bank chiefs by Equilar, a U.S. pay research group, shows they received an average 11.9 percent pay rise last year to $12.8 million, the second increase in a row. However, the pace of growth has slowed.
Slowed? Want to tell me slowed and then that they only got 12.8 million on average? Pass some of what you are smoking over to me. Last time I got a raise it was a boot out the door and no benefits.
Bankers such as Brian Moynihan at Bank of America [BAC  7.67    -0.10  (-1.29%)  ], Citigroup’s Mr Pandit and JPMorgan’s [JPM  35.60    -1.18  (-3.21%)   ] Mr Dimon enjoyed the largest gains.
As they should! They are the Osama Bin Laden's (Al Qaeda) of the financial terrorist network.
Mr Dimon, whose reputation as one of the best managers in banking
has been hit by a $2 billion trading loss in a supposedly safe division of JPMorgan, topped the list for the second year in succession with a $23.1 million pay package that was 11 percent higher. More horseshit and Mammoth this story has more that is in your barn. Didn't they just say he lost 2 billion? So the more they lose the more they get paid. I could have lost a lot less and happily been paid 1 million for my trouble.
The analysis by Equilar adds up base salaries, cash bonuses and certain other benefits. It also includes option and stock awards that were granted in 2011, some of which to reward performance in previous years. 
Sure why not? They lost 2 billion of other people money. I think a private jet goes with the perks and a chauffeured limousine.
It shows that fixed salaries continue to rise while variable cash payments are sinking as regulators clamp down on bonuses. But average stock and option awards increased by 22 percent. 
So much for regulation.

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“Regulators try to prevent banks from taking the outsize risks that led to the financial crisis. But the problem is that shareholders still like outsize returns,” said Albert Laverge, head of the global investment banking practice at Egon Zehnder.
Is he trying to tell me they like outsized losses in the 2 billion range?

Mr Pandit’s pay soared to $14.9 million after the $1 salary of the previous two years was ditched. He had pledged constraint until the bank would return to profitability, which it did in 2010.His pay package, which ranks in the middle of the FT survey, sparked an investor revolt at Citigroup’s annual meeting in April that triggered a wider shareholder uprising against executives’ pay levels in Europe and the U.S.
An example like this just leaves me speechless. Pandit's head should be hanging from a pole on Wall Street. Want to read more of this infuriating garbage? Follow the link is below. It leads to the yellow brick road and OZ. Now click your heals three times and say "there's no place like home."http://www.cnbc.com/id/47942126

Health Care For Poor Challenges Republican States After Ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling on President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul forces Republicans in states that opposed the measure to make a difficult choice.Enlarge imageRemote Area Medical (RAM) volunteer dentists during a free clinic held at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in California. Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesIf the states go along with an expansion of the Medicaid program, they get federal money that covers the bulk of the costs. In doing so, they would also have to embrace a portion of a law that they rejected as unconstitutional or too costly.The law was designed to open the state-run program to an estimated 17 million low-income Americans by forcing states to loosen income limits for those who can qualify. The court modified the measure by saying the federal government can’t threaten to withhold existing money from states that don’t fully comply with the Medicaid expansion.“There’s probably a small group, at least initially, who won’t do it,” said Ray Scheppach, the former executive director of the National Governors Association who is now a professor of public policy at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. “It’s part political. It’s part fiscal. There’s pressure on them both ways.”Republicans won control of the majority of states in the 2010 elections, when concern about the expanded role of government under Obama boosted turnout among the party’s voters. Republican state leaders have opposed Obama’s 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and today criticized the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the core of the law, which requires individuals to obtain health insurance.

‘Unaffordable’ Expansion

Republican leaders of states that challenged the health- care law in court -- including Texas, Florida and Virginia -- say they’re not sure they’re going to opt in.Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Republican, called a Medicaid expansion “massive” and “unaffordable.”“We will have a choice on Medicaid, which is good,” Bondi told reporters outside the state Capitol in Tallahassee. “We do have to decide what to do and we have to do it very quickly.”Texas Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Tom Suehs said the state is analyzing the ruling to decide how to proceed.“I’m pleased that it gives states more ability to push back against a forced expansion of Medicaid,” he said in a statement.Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell, the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, told reporters in Richmond that he is considering the ruling and hasn’t made any decisions. He said the expansion of Medicaid, which now consumes about one- fifth of the state budget, will cost the state an added $2.2 billion over the next decade.

General Fund

“That’s going to be a vast expansion in the amount of money going from the general fund,” he said.The Medicaid expansion would cost states $21 billion through 2019, according to the Kasiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, a non-profit group that researches health care. The federal government would contribute $444 billion, the report said.The Medicaid program has put added financial pressure on states after the longest recession since the Great Depression as more residents were thrown out of work. As tax revenuetumbled, states were forced to close more than $500 billion of budget gaps.The law has drawn support from Democratic state leaders, who celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision.“Democratic governors are committed to following the law of the land and working within their states to meet these goals,” Colm O’Comartun, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, said in a statement.

Expanding Medicaid

The law signed by Obama expands Medicaid to cover all Americans earning as much as 133 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $30,657 for a family of four this year, overruling eligibility rules that now vary by state. The federal government would pay 100 percent of the costs of the expansion until 2017. After that, states’ share of the expansion rises to a maximum of 10 percent of the cost.With pressure in Washington to curb the federal government’s budget deficits, state leaders may decide not to expand Medicaid out of concern that Congress could decide to force them to cover more of the costs, said Marjorie Baldwin, a professor of economics at Arizona State University who tracks health care.“Given the current state of state budgets, we could expect some states would decide they can’t do that,” she said.While some states may decide against expanding Medicaid, most will likely choose to do so given that the bulk of the funding will come from the federal government, said I. Glenn Cohen, an assistant professor at Harvard Law School who follows health-care policy.

Political Reasons

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-28/health-care-for-poor-challenges-republican-states-after-ruling.html

Job market suffers with slow growth

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WASHINGTON – The U.S. economy is growing too slowly to pull the job market out of a slump, according to the latest data that suggest June will be another weak month for hiring.Applications for unemployment benefits stayed above a level last week that is generally considered too high to lower the unemployment rate. And the annual growth rate for the January-March quarter was unchanged at a tepid 1.9 percent.The two government reports released Thursday added to the picture of an economy that is faltering for the third straight year after a promising start. Job growth has tumbled, consumers are less confident, and Europe’s financial crisis has dampened demand for U.S. exports.Most economists don’t see growth accelerating much from the first-
quarter pace, although some are hopeful that lower gas prices could help lift consumer spending over the summer.Growth of around 1.9 percent typically generates roughly 90,000 jobs a month. That’s considered too weak to lower the unemployment rate, which was 8.2 percent last month.Slow improvement in the economy threatens President Barack Obama’s re-election hopes. He is likely to face voters with the highest unemployment rate of any president since the Great Depression.The Federal Reserve last week downgraded its outlook for 2012 growth. The Fed now predicts the economy will grow between 1.9 percent and 2.4 percent this year – half a percentage point lower than its forecast in April. And it doesn’t see the unemployment rate falling much lower this year.Hiring isn’t likely to improve in June, based on the level of people applying for unemployment benefits.Weekly applications fell only slightly last week to a seasonally adjusted 386,000, the Labor Department said. Applications have climbed nearly 5 percent in the past two months.When applications are above 375,000, it generally means that hiring isn’t strong enough to rapidly lower the unemployment rate.Economists are predicting that 100,000 jobs were added in June and the unemployment rate did not change, according to a survey by FactSet. The government will issue the June employment report July 6.“Jobless claims are still too high and show that employment growth is slowing and no progress is being made,” said Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets.Employers added an average of only 73,000 jobs a month in April and May after averaging 226,000 a month in the first three months of the year.The report on the first quarter’s economic growth showed that U.S. corporate profits fell, the first quarterly decline since the final three months of 2008.U.S. corporations earned less profit overseas, the report said. That’s likely a result of Europe’s economic woes and slowing growth in countries like China and India. Lower overseas profits could discourage U.S. employers from adding some jobs in the second half of the year.“With global weakness continuing ... corporate profits are likely to remain under pressure, a development that is unlikely to help the employment outlook,” said Jeremy Lawson, an economist at BNP Paribas.The number of people continuing to receive benefits, meanwhile, rose to 5.9 million in the week ended June 9, the latest data available. That’s about 70,000 more than the previous week.Other recent indicators have painted a mixed picture of the economy.A closely watched private survey released this week showed consumer confidence fell in June for the fourth straight month. The Conference Board said worrieshttp://www.nashuatelegraph.com/business/966217-192/job-marketsuffers-with-slow-growth.html

UPDATE 3-Nike profit hit by costs, shares fall

I wish Nike would go to hell in a hand basket, I will never buy their slave labor made shoes for more than 10.00. That guy who runs it personifies what I believe is evil in this world.

* Fiscal Q4 EPS $1.17 vs Wall St $1.37 view
* Q4 sales up 12 percent but margins decline
* Futures orders up 7 percent, down from Q3
* Shares down 12.9 percent
By Nivedita Bhattacharjee
June 28 (Reuters) - Nike Inc missed quarterly profit estimates for the first time in at least two years as higher spending and increased costs of materials used in its shoes and T-shirts hurt margins, while demand eased in international markets.
The results sent shares of the world's largest sportswear maker down nearly 13 percent in extended trading on Thursday.
Orders of Nike branded shoes and clothes scheduled for delivery from June through November, a closely-watched metric of demand known as "futures orders" rose 7 percent. That is less than half of the rise of futures orders in the fiscal third quarter.
In the fourth quarter that ended May 31, futures orders rose only 5 percent in Greater China, down from a 24 percent increase a year earlier, a sign that even the popular Nike "swoosh" is not immune to slowing global economic growth.
Analysts and investors have been worried about a cooling in demand as footwear trends typically last about two to three years. Nike has been hot in the running shoe market for almost two and a half years now, said Morningstar analyst Paul Swinand.
The company earned $549 million, or $1.17 cents a share, in its fourth quarter, compared with $594 million, or $1.24 a share, a year ago.Analysts, on average, had been expecting the company to earn $1.37 share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue rose 12 percent to $6.5 billion.
Gross margins fell 1.5 percentage points in the fourth quarter and have been declining for more than a year.
"While we had expected some gross margins decline and some increase in spending with the Olympics and soccer championships, both are higher than expected," said Swinand.
Swinand also said the drop in the share price could be a chance for investors to buy shares of the company, as he did not think the company has any flaws in execution.
Matt Arnold, consumer discretionary analyst for Edward Jones, saw improvement ahead for Nike.
"Margins will eventually become better and they have already taken pricing actions, so in general we think it is a matter of time. Nike is a strong brand with a lot going right for it," said Arnold.
Nike's finance chief, Don Blair, said higher input costs were the primary reason for the profit drop in the quarter. Higher prices and lower air freight expenses helped mitigate the rising materials costs.http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/business/966217-192/job-marketsuffers-with-slow-growth.html

RIM Plunged Amid Loss, Job Cuts And BlackBerry Delay

Rim stands on the edge of a cliff and should just get ready to jump. I see crackberry loyalists switching to the iPhone. Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) plunged as much as 22 percent in late trading yesterday after posting a loss and delaying the next BlackBerry operating system, increasing pressure on the company to find an acquirer.RIM reported a first-quarter loss yesterday of 37 cents a share, excluding some items, more than five times bigger than what analysts had predicted. Sales tumbled 43 percent to $2.8 billion, missing a prediction of $3.05 billion, and the company said it would cut 5,000 jobs.The Waterloo, Ontario-based smartphone maker had been waiting for a release of the BlackBerry 10 in the fall to decide on its strategic options, betting that the success of the product would let it avoid a sale, according to two people familiar with the situation. With no new lineup this year -- and the next version of Apple (AAPL) Inc.’s better-selling iPhone looming -- RIM may have to seek a buyer now.“They either sell, break up the company or die,” said Matt Thornton, an analyst at Avian Securities LLC in Boston who has a neutral rating on RIM. “It is just a question of when.”Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins said in May that RIM had hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and RBC Capital Markets to help evaluate its strategic options, though he said a sale wasn’t the company’s goal. RIM would prefer to find a partner or license its operating system. Heins reiterated that notion yesterday, saying he was “convinced” that RIM has a future as a maker of hardware and software.

Not Ready

RIM declined to comment on takeover speculation. It should be "Research in commotion."“RIM will comment on any detail from its strategic review when it’s ready,” said Heidi Davidson, a company spokeswoman.RIM shares tumbled as low as $7.14 in late trading yesterday after closing at $9.13. The stockhad already fallen almost 95 percent from its peak in mid-2008, cutting the business’s market value to $4.79 billion.The company has struggled to keep pace with Apple’s iPhone and devices based on Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android platform, spurring customers to flee the BlackBerry platform. The new BB10 software -- the linchpin of its comeback plan -- now won’t arrive until the first quarter of next year, RIM said yesterday. That’s more than a year later than originally planned.“The delay increases the likelihood of a sale,” said Michael Walkley, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity Inc. in Minneapolis. “Even if BB10 launched in the fall against iPhone 5, it would be very, very tough to get consumers to try it out.”http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-28/rim-reports-loss-as-it-cuts-jobs-delays-blackberry-10-release.html

So What's the Bank of England up to?

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Bank of England unleases third round of stimulusJuly 5, 2012 - 9:09PMRead laterThe Bank of England launched a third round of monetary stimulus on Thursday, announcing it would restart its printing presses and buy 50 billion pounds ($76 billion) of asset purchases with newly created money to help the economy out of recession.

The move was widely expected after BoE Governor Mervyn King said last month the economic outlook had deteriorated since the BoE called a halt to its second round of asset purchases - also known as quantitative easing - in May.

The BoE has bought 325 billion pounds of government bonds to date, and the purchases announced on Thursday take this total to 375 billion.Although Greek elections last month avoided a worst-case outcome of a government vehemently opposed to the country's bailout, the eurozone debt crisis continues to fester and is increasingly weighing on the global economy.

The European Central Bank is widely expected to cut interest rates when it announces its policy decision at 1145 GMT, although the BoE kept its interest rate on hold at 0.5 per cent, where it has been since March 2009.Britain's economy has been in recession according to official data since late last year, and private-sector data is also showing a slowdown.

Inflation has fallen more than expected to 2.8 per cent, easing some of the concerns that caused the BoE to halt stimulus in May, though it is still well above its 2 per cent target.The QE stimulus follows joint measures announced by the government and BoE last month to improve the flow of credit to businesses, and to ensure banks do not suffer from a lack of ready cash if the eurozone crisis deepens.

The BoE says its purchases of government bonds help the economy by encouraging other investors to buy riskier assets instead, making it easier for large companies to raise funds through bond or share issues. Critics argue the BoE needs to do more to boost the flow of credit to smaller companies.Read http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/bank-of-england-unleases-third-round-of-stimulus-20120705-21k8r.html

Service Industries In U.S. Probably Expanded At Slower Pace

Isn't this great news? More low paying service job are slowing as well. Guess that rule me out at Walmart and Burger King.Service industries in the U.S. probably grew in June at a slower pace, a sign the world’s largest economy is struggling to maintain momentum, economists said before a report today.The Institute for Supply Management’s index of non- manufacturing businesses, covering about 90 percent of the economy, fell to 53 from 53.7 in May, according to the median forecast of 63 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Readings above 50 signal expansion. Initial jobless claims last week stayed close to the highest level of 2012, other data may show.
Play VideoJuly 3 (Bloomberg) -- James Glassman, senior economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co., talks about the U.S. labor market and economy and the outlook for Federal Reserve monetary policy. Glassman speaks with Tom Keene, Sara Eisen and Scarlet Fu on Bloomberg Television's "Surveillance." (Source: Bloomberg)Companies from Family Dollar Stores Inc. (FDO) to FedEx Corp. (FDX) are seeing waning demand, underscoring concern about Europe’s debt crisis, cooling global markets and an absence of U.S. fiscal policy clarity that’s also hurting manufacturing. Limited hiring and income growth indicate households will be reluctant to step up purchases, which account for about 70 percent of the economy.“The outlook for consumer spending stays pretty soft,” said Ellen Zentner, a senior economist at Nomura Securities International Inc. in New York. “There is slow to no wage growth. Economic growth is still frustratingly slow.”http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-05/service-industries-in-u-s-probably-expanded-at-slower-pace.html

China’s New Rules May Curb Credit Growth, CBRC Official Says

China can make any rule it wants as they won't keep them anyway.China plans to retain a cap on loans at 75 percent of deposits and may add further requirements that constrain credit growth under draft rules, a senior official at the banking regulator said.The liquidity-risk management regulations may be more stringent than the loan-to-deposit ratio set by the nation’s commercial bank laws, the China Banking Regulatory Commission official said, asking not to be named because the discussions aren’t public. The comments refute a report in the Economic Information Daily, which said today that the ratio won’t be included in the new rules and may be scrapped.Enlarge imageThe company logo for the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC) is seen outside a branch in Beijing, China. Photographer: Nelson Ching/BloombergEnlarge imageThe China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) seal is seen outside their offices in Beijing. Photographer: Nelson Ching/BloombergShares of banks fell in Shanghai on concern that the limits may curtail loan growth. The regulator is imposing controls to reduce the risk of defaults as policy makers cut interest ratesand lower lenders’ reserve requirements to arrest a slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy.“The loan-to-deposit ratio has proved to be the most effective tool in reining in lending and preventing liquidity risks at Chinese banks,” said Luo Yi, a Shenzhen-based analyst at China Merchants Securities Co. “The government won’t let it go easily. All it needs to do is to not tightly enforce the ratio when the regulator really wants to ease credit.”Industrial Bank Co. (601166) slid 1 percent to 13.01 yuan and China Citic Bank Corp. fell 0.5 percent to 4.02 yuan, leading declines among lenders in Shanghai trading. The reaction inHong Kong was mixed, with shares of Bank of China Ltd. falling 1 percent to HK$2.91 while Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (1398) Ltd. rose 0.2 percent to HK$4.29.

Slower Growth

Economic growth has slowed for five straight quarters, with gross domestic product expanding 8.1 percent in the three months ended March 31. That’s the weakest in almost three years. The central bank in June cut interest rates for the first time since 2008, and the government is accelerating approvals for investment projects.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-05/china-s-draft-rules-may-curb-credit-growth-cbrc-official-says.html

Anyone feeling hopeful?

Hopeful signs emerge for struggling jobs market

More BS about the hopelessness of the job market. Want to work in a cube answering 75 pleading customers tell you why they cannot pay their bills this month as a temp for 10.00/hour?

(Reuters) - U.S. private employers stepped up hiring in June and the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits last week fell by the most in two months, hopeful signs for the struggling labor market.
Employers outside government added 176,000 new workers to their payrolls last month, the ADP National Employment Report showed on Thursday, after increasing 136,000 in May.
The government will release its closely watched employment report for June on Friday. While ADP has a poor track record of predicting nonfarm payrolls, it was a welcome sign for the labor market.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 374,000, the Labor Department said. The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, fell 1,500 to 385,750.
"Jobless claims are a move in the right direction. The drop, combined with the ADP report earlier, suggests the jobs market is not as weak as recent data has suggested," said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington.
Nonfarm payrolls are expected to have increased 90,000 in June, according to a Reuters survey, after May's 69,000 gain.
The unemployment rate is seen steady at 8.2 percent after rising in May for the first time since August.
Job growth has weakened in recent months amid a cloud of uncertainty, spawned by the European debt crisis and fears of tax increases at home next year.
The struggling labor market prompted the Federal Reserve last month to ease monetary policy further by extending a program to re-weight bonds it already holds toward longer maturities to hold down borrowing costs.
"The Federal Reserve needs to see sustained improvement, like the claims moving back down toward 300,000 and a steady decline in the unemployment rate," said John Canally, an economist at LPL Financial in Boston.
"If we get a couple of more bad jobs reports, (Fed policymakers) will come in with more stimulus. Today's reports suggest they might hold off, but they will want to see more data before they decide."
New applications for unemployment benefits remain in a tight range, and the four-week average is still elevated, suggesting any improvement in the jobs market will only be gradual.
A Labor Department official said there was nothing unusual in the state-level data and only Alaska had been estimated.
The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid climbed 4,000 to 3.31 million in the week ended June 23.
The number of people on extended benefits fell 12,113 to 47,425 in the week ended June 16, the latest week for which data is available, as more states lost eligibility for extended benefits for the long-term unemployed.
Now only four states offer extended benefits.

Great so all you deadbeats use that last check for a tent and look for a park to pitch it in and a coleman stove for cooking and maybe a lantern and read books by lantern or candlelight just like Abe Lincoln. We've come a long way baby!http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/05/us-usa-economy-jobless-idUSBRE8640K120120705

Small cap leading...

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http://stockbee.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/small-cap-leading.html

Small cap leading....

After a few months of correction, the market is in a possible new uptrend. The small caps are leading the bounce back. They were the first to show downturn in January 2012.


The breadth based timing model :Stockbee Market Monitor has signaled a breadth trend change. In last 12 years the model has nailed every major turns. It helps you avoid the down moves and gets back in to the market at beginning of a rally.


The Stockbee Market Phase model is indicating possible first stage of an upmove after breadth reaching extreme zones.



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The Stockbee Lemonade Strategy for 401k is a conservative strategy for investing in 401k using breadth based timing model and momentum to select mutual funds has given buy signal this week and is now fully invested in Top ranked funds by STI42.  The model has generated 34% returns on an average in last 12 years and is up 10% as of now for this year.

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In Europe, Looking for Patient Bond Buyers

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LONDON — As Europe slouches toward a monetary union that aims to force euro area governments to cede control over their banks and budgets, a crucial question remains unanswered: how to persuade investors to buy, and hold for the long term, the bonds of at-risk economies like Italy and Spain.

Multimedia

Interactive Feature

Tracking Europe's Debt Crisis

Related

• Germany Cedes Some Ground in Steps to Bolster Euro (June 30, 2012)

• Today's Economist: What Must Be Done Now to Save the Euro?(June 29, 2012)

• Markets Cheer Europe’s Bailout Plan (June 30, 2012)

Both countries have debt and deficit levels that are no worse, and in some cases better, than those of Britain, Japan and the United States. But because they cannot devalue their currencies and must instead impose growth-sapping economic measures to regain competitiveness, their bonds have traded as if their economies are near insolvent. Meanwhile, the securities of debt-racked Britain, for example, are snapped up with abandon.It is a paradox that lies at the heart of the European debt crisis. On Friday at its most recent summit meeting, Brussels took a halting first step to addressing this issue on a permanent basis. Euro zone leaders proposed that Europe’s current and future rescue facilities might buy Italian and Spanish bonds as long as these countries fulfilled Germany’s austerity demands and met debt and deficit targets. The market, expecting more waffling, jumped and the yields on 10-year Spanish and Italian bonds dropped sharply as investors celebrated the prospect that Europe might become a buyer of last resort of its beaten-down bonds.Still, Friday’s euphoria notwithstanding, economists and market participants remain doubtful that the bond market fears can be permanently assuaged until the European Central Bank intervenes with the force and conviction shown by its peers in the United States and Britain.Paul De Grauwe, a Belgian economist at the London School of Economics, says he believes that the latest step will not be enough. Mr. De Grauwe has written extensively on how the cycle of fear and panic in the bond markets is pushing countries that may not need a bailout to ask for one.The euro zone’s temporary bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, which has only 248 billion euros at its disposal and must first raise the money on the bond market, does not have the firepower to convince skittish investors that Europe is serious, he said. Italy and Spain alone have a total of nearly 2.5 trillion euros in sovereign bonds outstanding.Mr. De Grauwe proposes instead, that the European Central Bank announce that it will be an aggressive buyer of Spanish or Italian bonds until the spread — or the difference between the yields on these bonds and benchmark German bonds — reaches a certain level, say 300 basis points, compared with the recent level of 500 basis points and above.“You would then have a floor on bond prices and it would be attractive for investors to buy Spanish bonds again,” said Mr. De Grauwe.His most recent paper claims that the Spanish and Italian bond rout has been driven more by the psychology of fear than hard and true economic numbers.“The E.F.S.F. does not have the credibility given its resources,” Mr. De Grauwe said. “What you need are the unlimited resources of a central bank.”Such a forceful approach has been resisted by Germany, the bank’s largest shareholder, on the basis that countries would not proceed with necessary reforms. It is also true that the E.C.B. has intervened in the markets before and is said to own close to 150 billion euros of weak euro zone country bonds.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/business/global/return-of-long-term-bond-buyers-seen-as-crucial-to-europe.html

Xi Jinping Millionaire Relations Reveal Fortunes Of Elite

By Bloomberg News - Jun 29, 2012 3:32 AM ET

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Xi Jinping, the man in line to be China’s next president, warned officials on a 2004 anti-graft conference call: “Rein in your spouses, children, relatives, friends and staff, and vow not to use power for personal gain.”As Xi climbed the Communist Party ranks, his extended family expanded their business interests to include minerals, real estate and mobile-phone equipment, according to public documents compiled by Bloomberg.Enlarge imageXi Jinping, vice president of China, visits the China Shipping terminal at the Port of Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. Source: BloombergEnlarge imageThe Belleview Drive property is viewed along with other residential buildings in Repulse Bay, Hong Kong. Source: BloombergEnlarge imageThe Belleview Drive property, bottom second right, is viewed along with other residential buildings in Repulse Bay, Hong Kong. Source: BloombergEnlarge imageThe entrance to the Belleview Drive property is seen in Repulse Bay, Hong Kong. Source: BloombergEnlarge imageA screen grab from the website www.1921.org.cn shows Xi Zhongxun's family photograph taken in 2000. Front, from left: daughter Xi Qianping, wife Qi Xin, grandson Mingzheng, Xi Zhongxun, daughter Qi Qiaoqiao. Second row, from left: grandson Zannong, son-in-law Wu Long, daughter Qi An'an, son Xi Jinping, son Xi Yuanping, son-in-law Deng Jiagui, grandson Dongdong. Source: www.1921.org.cn via BloombergEnlarge imageQi Qiaoqiao leads Tsinghua University EMBA students in a drum performance on Sept 18, 2010. Source: ImaginechinaEnlarge imageHiu Ng, center, attends the Boao Forum for Asia Conference 2011, 'Young Leaders Roundtable: Charting Growth - Include the Excluded', in Hainan, China, on April 14, 2011. Source: ImaginechinaEnlarge imageDaniel Foa, founder of 51Sim, right, and Chinese actress Li Bingbing at the Sustainable Innovation Student Competition in Beijing, China, on Nov. 2, 2009. Source: ImaginechinaEnlarge imageA screen grab shows the website of New Postcom Equipment Co. Source: www.newpostcom.com via BloombergEnlarge imageA screen grab shows the website of Hiconics Drive Technology Co. Source: www.hiconics.com via BloombergThose interests include investments in companies with total assets of $376 million; an 18 percent indirect stake in a rare- earths company with $1.73 billion in assets; and a $20.2 million holding in a publicly traded technology company. The figures don’t account for liabilities and thus don’t reflect the family’s net worth.No assets were traced to Xi, who turns 59 this month; his wife Peng Liyuan, 49, a famous People’s Liberation Army singer; or their daughter, the documents show. There is no indication Xi intervened to advance his relatives’ business transactions, or of any wrongdoing by Xi or his extended family.While the investments are obscured from public view by multiple holding companies, government restrictions on access to company documents and in some cases online censorship, they are identified in thousands of pages of regulatory filings.The trail also leads to a hillside villa overlooking the South China Sea in Hong Kong, with an estimated value of $31.5 million. The doorbell ringer dangles from its wires, and neighbors say the house has been empty for years. The family owns at least six other Hong Kong properties with a combined estimated value of $24.1 million.

Standing Committee

Xi has risen through the party over the past three decades, holding leadership positions in several provinces and joining the ruling Politburo Standing Committee in 2007. Along the way, he built a reputation for clean government.He led an anti-graft campaign in the rich coastal province of Zhejiang, where he issued the “rein in” warning to officials in 2004, according to a People’s Daily publication. In Shanghai, he was brought in as party chief after a 3.7 billion- yuan ($582 million) scandal.A 2009 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing cited an acquaintance of Xi’s saying he wasn’t corrupt or driven by money. Xi was “repulsed by the all-encompassing commercialization of Chinese society, with its attendant nouveau riche, official corruption, loss of values, dignity, and self- respect,” the cable disclosed by Wikileaks said, citing the friend. Wikileaks publishes secret government documents online.A U.S. government spokesman declined to comment on the document.

Carving Economy

Increasing resentment over China’s most powerful families carving up the spoils of economic growth poses a challenge for the Communist Party. The income gap in urban China has widened more than in any other country in Asia over the past 20 years, according to the International Monetary Fund.“The average Chinese person gets angry when he hears about deals where people make hundreds of millions, or even billions of dollars, by trading on political influence,” said Barry Naughton, professor of Chinese economy at the University of California, San Diego, who wasn’t referring to the Xi family specifically.Scrutiny of officials’ wealth is intensifying before a once-in-a-decade transition of power later this year, when Xi and the next generation of leaders are set to be promoted. The ouster in March of Bo Xilai as party chief of China’s biggest municipality in an alleged graft and murder scandal fueled public anger over cronyism and corruption. It also spurred demands that top officials disclose their wealth in editorials in two Chinese financial publications and from microbloggers. Bo’s family accumulated at least $136 million in assets, Bloomberg News reported in April.

Revolutionary Leader

Xi and his siblings are the children of the late Xi Zhongxun, a revolutionary fighter who helped Mao Zedong win control of China in 1949 with a pledge to end centuries of inequality and abuse of power for personal gain. That makes them “princelings,” scions of top officials and party figures whose lineages can help them wield influence in politics and business.Most of the extended Xi family’s assets traced by Bloomberg were owned by Xi’s older sister,Qi Qiaoqiao, 63; her husband Deng Jiagui, 61; and Qi’s daughter Zhang Yannan, 33, according to public records compiled by Bloomberg.Deng held an indirect 18 percent stake as recently as June 8 in Jiangxi Rare Earth & Rare Metals Tungsten Group Corp. Prices of the minerals used in wind turbines and U.S. smart bombs have surged as China tightened supply.

Yuanwei Group

Qi and Deng’s share of the assets of Shenzhen Yuanwei Investment Co., a real-estate and diversified holding company, totaled 1.83 billion yuan ($288 million), a December 2011 filing shows. Other companies in the Yuanwei group wholly owned by the couple have combined assets of at least 539.3 million yuan ($84.8 million).A 3.17 million-yuan investment by Zhang in Beijing-based Hiconics Drive Technology Co. (300048) has increased 40-fold since 2009 to 128.4 million yuan ($20.2 million) as of yesterday’s close in Shenzhen.Deng, reached on his mobile phone, said he was retired. When asked about his wife, Zhang and their businesses across the country, he said: “It’s not convenient for me to talk to you about this too much.” Attempts to reach Qi and Zhang directly or through their companies by phone and fax, as well as visits to addresses found on filings, were unsuccessful.

New Postcom

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-29/xi-jinping-millionaire-relations-reveal-fortunes-of-elite.html

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Gold Traders Extend Bullish Call On European Debt Crisis

Gold traders are bullish for a sixth week on speculation that Europe’s debt crisis will boost demand from investors seeking to protect their wealth and drive prices higher after moving to within 1 percentage of a bear market.Sixteen analysts surveyed by Bloomberg said they expect a rally next week and 10 were bearish. Another five were neutral. Investors added almost $2 billion to holdings in gold-backedexchange-traded products this month, the most since November, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Hedge funds and other speculators have increased bets on a rally for four consecutive weeks, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show.Enlarge imageOne thousand gram gold bars. Photographer: Kerem Uzel/BloombergSpain formally asked for a bailout for its banks on June 25 and Cyprus that day became the fifth member of the 17-nation euro zone to ask for outside help. European leaders agreed today to ease repayment rules for emergency loans to Spanish banks and relax conditions on potential help for Italy. Gold came close to a bear market in May as some investors sold bullion to cover losses in stock markets as $7 trillion was erased from global equities in about two months.“While demand has been weaker for bullion in recent months, it has picked up in the last month,” said Mark O’Byrne, the executive director of Dublin-based GoldCore Ltd., a brokerage that sells and stores everything from quarter-ounce British Sovereigns to 400-ounce bars. “A resolution to the crisis is not going to be seen in the short term. A lot more speculators could pile back into the market.”

Prices Slide

Gold tumbled 4.4 percent to $1,598.40 an ounce since the end of March, the biggest retreat since the third quarter of 2008. Bullion is up 2 percent this year which compares with an 8.8 percent slide in the Standard & Poor’s GSCI gauge of 24 commodities and a 3.9 percent advance in the MSCI All-Country World Index of equities. Treasuries returned 2.1 percent, a Bank of America Corp. index shows.The metal fell 3.8 percent last week, the most this year, as the Federal Reserve refrained from announcing a new round of debt purchases to shore up growth. Bank of England GovernorMervyn King told lawmakers June 26 the world isn’t yet halfway through the global financial crisis that began in 2007 and said his backing for more stimulus this month reflected concern the outlook is deteriorating amid Europe’s debt crisis.

ETP Holdings

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-28/gold-traders-extend-bullish-streak-on-debt-crisis-commodities.html