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Bernanke's Jackson Hole speech may be a letdown - (money.cnn.com) Every year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas
City hosts a meeting of the world's top economic minds near the small Wyoming
town of Jackson Hole. The invitation-only meeting is usually a big deal,
closely watched by investors, economists and journalists. Fed chairman Ben
Bernanke has made market-moving announcements there in the past. But those who
have been to the Jackson Hole meeting before aren't expecting much from
Bernanke when he gives a speech on August 31. Allen Sinai, chief global
economist for Decision Economics and a Jackson Hole attendee for the past 20
years, said people "will be disappointed" if they think Bernanke will
signal that the Fed is ready to launch a third round of quantitative easing or
QE3.
Trading volume at 5-year low - (money.cnn.com) August is always a quiet
month on Wall Street as traders escape to catch some rays during the final days
of the summer, but this year's lull is more pronounced than usual.
Trading
volume hasn't been this low since September 2007, with a daily average of fewer
than 3.3 billion shares exchanging hands so far this month. And trading volume
is down more than 30%, compared with the average August over the past five
years. What's more, the unusually low volume comes as stocks trade near
four-year highs, raising concern that the recent move higher lacks conviction,
and it's just a matter of time before markets are mired in a sell-off. But
experts say investors shouldn't panic. "One of the big knocks on this
rally is that volume has been light," said Ryan Detrick, senior technical
strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "But it's been that way for
a few years. It's not going to change anytime soon, and it's not a sign of
danger ahead."
China bubble in 'danger zone' warns Bank of Japan - (www.telegraph.co.uk) China risks a repeat of
Japan’s boom-bust disaster 20 years ago as exorbitant property prices combine
with a demographic tipping point, a top Japanese official has warned. “China is
now entering the 'danger zone’,” said Kiyohiko Nishimura, the Bank of Japan’s
deputy-governor and an expert on asset booms. The surge in Chinese home prices
and loan growth over the past five years has surpassed extremes seen in Japan
before the Nikkei bubble popped in 1990. Construction reached 12pc of GDP in
China last year; it peaked in Japan at 10pc. Mr Nishimura said credit and
housing booms can remain “benign” so long as the workforce is young and
growing. They turn “malign” once the ratio of working age people to dependents
rolls over as it did in Japan.
S&P 500 Facing 25% Drop Before US Election - (www.cnbc.com) The S&P 500 is likely to fall by 20-25
percent over the next three months according to Nomura strategist Bob Janjuah. In a research note published on Tuesday, the long-term
bear who called the recent rally for U.S. stocks said he expects investors to
be back in risk-off mode until the U.S.
election is over. “I now think the correct thing to do — as I
also said in April and June — is to prepare for a serious risk-off phase
between August and November…over the August to November period I am looking for
the S&P 500 to trade off down from around 1400…by 20 to 25
percent...to trade at or below the lows of 2011.”
Slaughterhouse
Run By In-N-Out Burger Meat Supplier Shut Down After Horrific Animal Abuse
Video Surfaces - (www.businessinsider.com)
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture has indefinitely shut down operations at a California
slaughterhouse after it received a video from an animal welfare group exposing
what looks like horrific animal cruelty, reports CNN. The plant is owned and run by
Central Valley Meat, one of the beef suppliers for big regional fast food chain
In-N-Out Burger. It had accounted for about 20 percent of all beef used by the
burger chain in a given week, according to Gawker.
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