Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Thursday November 29 Housing and Economic stories


TOP STORIES:

Faber: Prepare for a Massive Market Meltdown - (finance.yahoo.com) The markets are going to go into meltdown soon so expect stocks to lose 20 percent of their value, Marc Faber, author of the Gloom, Boom and Doom report told CNBC on Tuesday. "I don't think markets are going down because of Greece, I don't think markets are going down because of the "fiscal cliff" - because there won't be a "fiscal cliff," Faber told CNBC's "Squawk Box." (Read More Below Video.) "The market is going down because corporate profits will begin to disappoint, the global economy will hardly grow next year or even contract, and that is the reason why stocks, from the highs of September of 1,470 on the S&P, will drop at least 20 percent, in my view." Faber, who is known for his bearish views, cited tech giant Apple (AAPL), a company whose disappointing earnings have caused its stock to fall 20 percent from its September highs and 14 percent in the past month. A series of poor quarterly earnings from corporate giants such as Amazon (AMZN), McDonalds (MCD) and Google (GOOG) have hurt investor sentiment in recent weeks.

S&P and Fitch accused of market manipulation in Italy - (www.telegraph.co.uk) Italian prosecutors have filed charges against Deven Sharma, the former president of Standard & Poor’s, and six other credit rating officials for issuing downgrades that destablised the country and fuelled the debt crisis. Prosecutor Michele Ruggiero has asked a court in Trani, Italy to indict five S&P employees and two from Fitch Ratings for market manipulation, in a move that could trigger a raft of similar claims against rating setters around the world. Mr Ruggiero, who has pursued the agencies since they placed Italy on negative watch last summer, accused them of “aggravated and continuous…market abuse”. He claimed they leaked “biased and distorted information” about Italy’s financial stability to traders. In a statement, he said the rating agencies had tried to “destabilise Italy’s image, prestige and credit confidence on the financial markets, alter the value of Italian bonds by depreciating them [and] weaken the euro”.

Spanish Yields Climb to Six-Week High as IMF, Europe Disagree - (www.bloomberg.com)  Spanish 10-year bonds rose, pushing down yields from the highest in more than six weeks, after German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble signaled Greek aid payments may be bundled into a single installment. Germany’s 10-year bonds erased a gain after Bild-Zeitung earlier reported that the nation favored giving Greece a one-off disbursement of 44 billion euros ($55.8 billion). European policy makers extended by two years the Mediterranean country’s deadline to reduce its budget deficit, though they didn’t say how the additional funding needs would be covered. The yields on Austrian and Belgian securities slid to records and French bonds climbed for a ninth day, the longest winning streak since 1997. “The headlines on Schaeuble” have boosted Spanish and Italian bonds, said Marc Ostwald, a rates strategist at Monument Securities Ltd. in London. “He’s saying all that is left to discuss is process rather than principal. That gives markets a bit of reassurance.”

Carry Trades Lose Most Since ’11 as HSBC Gauge Warns: Currencies - (www.bloomberg.com) The foreign-exchange market is signaling more pain ahead for currencies that benefit from a sustained global recovery, five years after the onset of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. HSBC Holdings Plc’s Global Hazard Indicator, which combines implied volatility readings in options for the dollar, euro and yen, shows wider price swings in currencies over the next year than in the coming three months. If history is any guide, that means the dollar and yen will strengthen and higher-yielding, higher-risk currencies such as the Brazilian real and South African rand will depreciate.

EU-IMF feud erupts over Greek debt - (www.financialtimes.com) Eurozone finance ministers last night postponed agreement on Greece's long-delayed €31.3bn aid payment for yet another week as divisions between the International Monetary Fund and EU creditors over how fast Athens must reduce its burgeoning debt levels burst into the open. Christine Lagarde, the IMF chief, and Jean-Claude Juncker, chair of the eurogroup of finance ministers, publicly sparred over whether Greece must reduce its debt levels to 120 per cent of economic output by 2020, long viewed the target to get Athens back to a sustainable debt level. An agreement between the IMF and eurozone governments is essential to releasing the bailout tranche since both creditors disburse financial assistance concurrently. In a rare breach, Mr Juncker told a post-meeting press conference the target would be moved to 2022, prompting Ms Lagarde to insist the IMF was sticking to the original timeline. When Mr Juncker again insisted it would be moved -- "I'm not joking," he said -- Ms Lagarde appeared exasperated, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.




No comments: