I’m unsure if I want to laugh or scream because on one hand the news that today’s markets tacked on 112 points because Goldman Sachs ‘upgraded’ financials is absolutely hilarious, but the fact that investors actually swallowed this malarky is more than a little frightening…
If GS is playing ‘trick or treat’, I’m voting ‘trick’. The only thing preventing the global finance markets from crumbling to dust is ‘creative accounting’. Banks are getting hammered by a record number of foreclosures but, thanks to ‘mark to fantasy’ accounting rules they get to ‘pretend’ it’s not happening…and this makes the banking sector ‘attractive’ how, precisely ?
How many of you folks feel bad for Jack Healy? I know he has my sympathy…
Upgrade for Big Banks Helps Chase Away Gloom
by JACK HEALY
Published: October 5, 2009
Wall Street climbed back to its feet on Monday after two weeks of losses. [Why do I suspect these are ‘famous last words’?]
Investors went shopping across all sections of the market, from financial shares to oil producers to health care companies. They were heartened by new figures showing that service businesses, which dominate the American economy, grew last month after nearly a year of relentless declines, a private research group said on Monday. [Private and apparently ‘totally anonymous’ research group…]
The report from the Institute for Supply Management offered corroboration that the economy was recovering, though perhaps at a glacial pace. Businesses said that new orders were coming in and business activity was picking up, though they were still cutting jobs and worried about overstocked shelves. [How much do you want to wager there isn’t enough ‘measurable’ business activity here to fill a thimble? Oh, and did you notice…they slippery ‘coke-sackers’ aren’t saying if the ‘definite improvement’ is ‘year over year’ or ‘month over month’ (the more likely of the two cases…).]
Over all, the report noted only a slight return to positive growth, but it seemed enough of a shift for Wall Street. [If the gain is ‘month over month’ then it’s pretty much meaningless, they keep pulling the month over month rabbit out of the hat on housing data, while the year over year is still pitiful…but these assholes are absolutely ‘shameless’.]
A report from Goldman Sachs upgrading big banks to attractive encouraged investors to buy in the financial sector.
Shares of the consumer bank Wells Fargo rose nearly 7 percent to $28.09, and other financial giants like the Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup were all higher. Regional lenders, too, were up slightly, even though Goldman cautioned they could be outfoxed by their larger rivals. [Um, is ‘outfoxed’ code for being screwed into the woodwork by the ‘to big to fail’/too big to operate profitably, federally protected instutions?]
The market has failed to recognize the dramatic improvement in earning power at the large banks versus the regionals,” Goldman analysts wrote. [Perhaps the markets are recoiling at the idea that the government would provide these supposedly ‘private’ institutions with such unfair advantages over their competitors…these circumstances make a mockery of both the government and the rule of law!]
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 112.08 points, or 1.18 percent, to close at 9,599.75, and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 15.25 points, or 1.49 percent, to 1,040.45. The Nasdaq was up 20.04 points, or 0.98 percent, at 2,068.15.
The price of crude oil inched up to $70.41 a barrel, and gold prices shot to $1,017 an ounce as the dollar weakened against other major currencies. [While Mr. Geithner tried to ‘jaw-bone’ the dollar into a stronger position on world markets…Seriously good citizen, just how ‘bad’ can the rest of the world be compared to the level of unmitigated bullshit that’s being pulled off here on Wall Street? If the US is truly ‘the safest place in the world’ to invest then the whole world is ‘toast’ because there is nothing even remotely ‘safe’ or ‘honest’ about the US markets or the people that run them!]
Interest rates were steady. The Treasury’s benchmark 10-year note was unchanged at 103 13/32 and the yield remained at 3.22 percent.
Comments from the White House about its efforts to stabilize the job market spurred speculation that Washington would push through extensions of several tax credits and spending programs already passed under the stimulus. Some investors fear a so-called double dip recession if the government abruptly withdraws stimulus spending. [Honestly good citizen, at this point in time, the government IS the economy…if they stop spending, there won’t be anything left to put on ‘life support’.]
“The economy itself is not yet healthy enough to propel itself forward without the aid of the government. That is the consensus,” said Marc Pado, market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald. [No kidding…so what’s all of this ‘babbling’ about an ‘economic recovery’ all about? ]
After two weeks of declines and souring economic news, investors had been looking for something to fill their sails in advance of third-quarter earnings season, which begins on Wednesday when the aluminum maker, Alcoa, reports results.
This summer, businesses showed they could turn a profit by slashing costs, usually by laying off workers and reducing plans for growth. Now, many investors are hoping for glimmers of rising revenue at industrial producers, consumer companies and financial firms as the recession ebbs.
Some analysts believe that companies will surprise Wall Street with better profits and smaller losses than expected, touching off another surge forward in stocks. [Strangely, most observers believe the market has gotten ahead of itself because the transport sector refuses to verify the ‘uptick’ in production the ‘analysts’ claim to see.]
“We’re looking for some decent numbers,” said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank.
But last week, stocks fell close to 2 percent after new reports on job losses, and on weakened manufacturing activity and automobile sales, suggested that the recovery will be a difficult slog for investors and workers alike. The weak economic numbers reinforced worries that stocks had surged too far, and were overdue for a correction.
On Monday, some investors were betting that such a correction had already occurred, and began buying again. Shares of department stores like Macy’s, Saks and Dillard’s all rose more than 3 percent, and the online marketplace eBay was up slightly after the report on service-sector growth.
I am once again compelled to restate the fact that I am not an investment professional and nothing you read here should be construed as ‘investment advice’.
The opinions expressed here are the opinions of the author alone and are not necessarily those of the management, employees, or other associates of this web site.
That should do it, now, how about that stock market? While I have repeatedly expressed my ‘distrust’ of Wall Street (and the MSM along with it) can you believe there are people ‘stupid’ enough to buy financial stocks just because ‘Government Sachs’ recommended them?
Sadly, this whole ‘rally’ is made of these exact same ‘vapors’, nobody in their right mind is buying stocks (especially financial stocks) so it must be something else…and that ‘something else’ has some pretty dire ramifications if it turns out to be what it appears to be.
Do I ‘know’ what is going on? Most definitely not! All I have is my suspicions…and we can talk about those for a while…
Now, win, lose or draw here good citizen, you have to admit our circumstances are more than a little ‘unique’. For the first time in history we have investment banks that have direct access to the government printing presses.
These ‘gamblers’ can borrow from the Fed at rates nobody else enjoys, and that rate is at a historic low…how much more over ‘zero’ is the Fed charging ‘Government Sachs’?
Now, for some bizarre reason, the badly beaten financial stocks keep rallying. One would think there was no unemployment and foreclosures were at a ‘normal’ level considering how, er, ‘glibly’ investors are snapping up the stocks of these extremely ‘shaky’ institutions…face it good citizen, the abrupt return of ‘mark to market’ would put them all out of business at once! Poof and they’d be gone!
No questions at all.
It is this extremely bizarre set of circumstances (which the MSM routinely ignores) that we all find deeply disturbing.
Somehow smashing your TV set to bits and throwing the remains out on the street isn’t going to ‘fix’ this problem (at least all by itself, although I bet it would get their ‘attention’.)
Perhaps this is my question to you good citizen,
Just how bizarre does it have to get before the wheels come flying off this broken-down old jalopy?
You can’t invest for your future or that of your children with any degree of certainty. Worse, it’s already a fact that you won’t last long enough with any single employer to put aside enough money to retire on…and should you be so lucky, the odds are the thieves on Wall Street will help themselves to it before you collect a single nickel!
And there ain’t a fuckin’ thing you can do about it! Nothing, not one blessed thing…well, nothing legal that is.
Is this the kind of world YOU want to live in good citizen?
Not me and certainly not my kids…
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
No comments:
Post a Comment