US stock futures edge higher after volatile sessions (MarketWatch)
Who knows if this will hold by the time you read it, but evidently stock futures are pointing uppish. Allow us to put on our Larry Kudlow hats for a sec and explain why: Michelle Obama didn’t close the deal with America. The upshot: The market is now pricing in a John McCain victory and likes what it sees. Lower taxes, more freedom, faster growth. What other possible explanation could their be? That’s right. No explanation.
Florida tops 1Q mortgage fraud list (AP)
This is not surprising… Florida is already a key location of the housing bubble. What’s more, Florida tops every fraud list. Hello, Boca Raton? Clearwater? These cities are to fraud what Hungary is to Paprika. It’s an industry. Plus, doesn’t Florida have really lax mortgage/bankruptcy laws as it is?
Rio Tinto bolsters defences with record profits (FT)
Oh, this is still going on? Apparently so. BHP Billiton still wants to buy base metal miner Rio Tinto. And Rio Tinto is still trying to avoid it. The good news for Rio: It’s doing fine on its own. The company just reported record profits, up 55 percent for the first half of the year from the year-ago period. Chairman Paul Skinner said demand from China and India bore credit for the strong results.
Big squeeze hits Chinese oil giant PetroChina (AP)
But not everyone who pulls industrially useful commodities out of the earth is doing quite as good. AP offers up a preview of PetroChina’s earnings, which are expected to drop by about a third on refining losses. The report also notes that the company is no longer a $1 trillion firm… though it never really was. That was mainly a brief anomaly based on a small float in China, where shares briefly traded totally out of whack.
Hops Farmers Find Growth Business (WSJ)
You just know that this is going to end well: WSJ does a report on small, hops growers that have recently flooded the market, looking to capitalize on soaring demand and a paucity of growers (in a previous cycle, many had gone out of businesses). So people with little experience in hops, (or even agriculture) are getting into the hops game, courtesy of dreamd and some government grants. Hopefully the WSJ ollows up with these dudes in a year or two. See how it all went down.
China May Turn to Bonds to Lift Stocks, Official Says (Bloomberg)
We’ll admit to not fully understanding this news. It’s something having to do with China loosening bond regulations, so that companies can raise money without going to the stock market. The reason for that is that the markets have had a rough year, and they don’t want new shares hitting the market. Kinda makes sense, but we still feel like China is trying to defy some law of economics here. Oh wait. Of course they are.
I blame the one child policy: explaining the brokers part II (Bronte Capital)
Interesting post form last week, discussing the Chinese proclivity towards saving. The answer: the one child policy. That and fear. Basically, argues the author, the Chinese don’t have any reason to think they’ll be taken care of in old age. Not from children and not from any government/business institutions (like mutual funds, IRAs, etc.). So they save like crazy. Some interesting ideas there. (via Paul Kedrosky)
Late Calving, Early Weaning Nets Higher Return (Beef)
It’s pretty simple calculus when you think about it… with how much feed costs these days. You want those suckers on the ground, eating up food for as short a time as possible. Cave late! Wean Early! Profit.
What other explanation could “there” be….typo.
Yes, Michelle did a good job. Kids are cute. But he’s still inexperienced. Joe won’t help.
Now we just have to hope McCain picks someone cool as VP. McCain badly needs the cool factor. And youth.
McCain is going to pick Romney, for the same reasons Obama picked Biden; get a VP who knows your weakspots. Biden for foreign policy, Romney for the economy.
Romney knows the economy? Since when? Because he came from the private sector? You mean like Paulson who has done such a spectacular job?
I think the people should rise up and take the power back.
They all suck.
I think the people should rise up and take the power back.
michelle obama beats her husband.
i’m telling you.
#3, lets just say they know WAY WAY more than you.
Anyways, when the dollar was plunging there was a lot of noise, as well as loads of snarky comments by many folks (including models who living in America who supposedly didn’t want to be paid in dollars.)
Now that the dollar is at a 6-month hgh, can we have some love for teh greenback? No? I see. That would seem like giving Bush some credit, just like for the current situation in Iraq and that would be so bad.
@9:07 — we should give him credit that 5 years later we’re no longer losing a war that we shouldn’t have been in in the first place? He’s doing a heckuva job.
Bill Clinton tagged Michelle Obama
@ 9: might just be the most lucid comment of the entire election cycle.
#8, Actually you will thank him 5 years from now – when you will need oil even more desperately once the mega investments in imaginary alternative energy provide nothing in terms of real results. Then, when the other nations start putting the squeeze on – and when Canada has also successfully negotiated itself out of the NAFTA oil bindings thanks the ‘The One’, you will be grateful that you have a puppet regime you control ready to provide oil.
@9 — yeah, but only because barack requested it.
I wasn’t such a bad guy after all.
~The Ghost of Richard Nixon
If the Michelle Obama rally bit was a joke it was not funny.
We can only hope McCain picks Romney as his running mate, jesus biden/obama is (even if 1/2 of their populist BS comes to fruition) a veritable disaster of epic proportions
@15 — Looks like you posted the potential ticket of jesus/biden/obama. JC already served two terms starting in 1980 though.
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) — Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, banned off-site meetings among employees and cut back on color photocopying to reduce expenses as investment- banking revenue declines.
Executives in the New York-based bank’s institutional clients group will need to ensure spending is “highly efficient,” according to an internal memorandum confirmed by a Citigroup spokesman in London today.
@17 – Now Robert Rubin can’t give other employees color copies of his taint anymore – oh well…
Hurricane in the Gulf…
If you like your gasoline cheaper then $4.00, and you haven’t filled up yet, you might want to… Considering crack spreads, you might want to get a little extra…
The GOM is about to have its first real Hurricane loose in the offshore O&G assets for the first time since 05…
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT07/refresh/AL0708W5+gif/143912W_sm.gif
some services are talkin Cat 5 in the middle of the GOM if Cuba does not break its back…
The best Democratic talent from Wall Street – Rob Rubin and Joe Corzine. What else can you say. Even the touch of Sachy-ness doesn’t prevent them from being unmitigated disasters.
Well for the shareholders / voters at least. Personally Rubin is my hero. He has the sweetest gig EVER, getting paid for doing nothing and being accountable for nothing. Awesome – that is more like it.
McCain should pick Marsha Blackburn. Pro-life social conservative woman on the House committee on energy and commerce, been in Congress longer than Obama, and she is the #1 hottest woman in U.S. Politics.
Home run.
remind me again, is Sachy pronounced “Satch-y” or “Sack-y”
@22– “Sack-y”
Blue Horseshoe likes Bobby Jindal.
I don’t usually pay attention to Michelle Obama’s TV appearances but last night she took me out of shell. She was HOT!
Female who are bright and powerful are sexy to me.That’s how I define sexiness.
I agree, and I’m a McCain supporter. There’s something smart and real about her. Total opposite of her husband, who reminds me of every empty suit I have ever encountered.