Monday, October 6, 2014

Tuesday October 7 Housing and Economic stories


Falling used-car prices roil the auto market - (www.usatoday.com) Used-car prices are sliding, a boon to penny-pinchers, but troubling for new-car sales. The auto industry sales recovery in recent years means millions of used cars, many coming off lease, are starting to flood the market. The result is a decline in used-car prices that zoomed sky-high after the recession. And the decline is leading to talk that new-car auto sales growth may be peaking. "We're going to see a tremendous increase in used-car supply over the next couple of years," says Larry Dominique, an executive vice president of auto-pricing site TrueCar. That used-car cascade could dampen new-car sales in three ways.

U.S. court tosses Argentina, Citigroup appeal in bond case - (www.reuters.com) A U.S. appeals court on Friday dismissed an appeal by Citigroup Inc and Argentina of a judge's order blocking the bank from processing payments on $8.4 billion in bonds issued under the country's local laws following its 2002 default. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York in a brief order declined to find it had jurisdiction, because the order Citigroup and Argentina appealed over was a "clarification, not a modification" of a prior decision by U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa. The appellate court, though, said nothing in its decision was intended to prevent Citigroup from seeking further relief from Griesa.

Time to worry? Russell 2000 hits 'death cross' - (www.cnbc.com) The Russell 2000 has been diverging from the broader market over the last several weeks, and now technicians point out it has flashed a bearish signal. For the first time in more than two years, the small-cap index has hit a so-called death cross. A death cross occurs when a nearer-term 50-day moving average falls below a longer-term, 200-day moving average. Technicians argue that a death cross can be a bearish sign. While traders have already been quite bearish on the Russell 2000 so far this quarter, no other major U.S. index is near its death cross. The small-cap index has far underperformed the broader markets during the quarter, falling 5.3 percent versus the S&P 500 rising 1.7 percent and the Nasdaq composite climbing 2.5 percent over the last 12 weeks. More evidence of the recent weakness in small-cap stocks: the Russell 2000 is currently about 7 percent below its all-time high set at the start of the quarter on July 1, while both the Dow and S&P 500 are just off their own record levels hit last week.

NY regulator warns against looming cyber 9/11 - (www.cnbc.com) A top regulator in New York believes it's only a matter of time before terrorists strike a major cyber blow against the American financial system. "I'm worried what we are going to have some major event in the cybersystem that is going to cause us all to shudder," Benjamin M. Lawsky, the superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, said Monday at the Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit. Asked if it would resemble, in computer system terms, a 9/11-like event, he said the damages would be along those lines. "We like to say that to some extent the failures to detect the 9/11 plot were a failure of imagination and communication," he said. "I'm worried about the same thing here—that an event will happen and we'll look back and say, 'How did we not do more?'"

Insider Buying Dries Up Defying $275 Billion of Buybacks - (www.bloomberg.com) American companies have seldom spent more money than they are now buying back shares. The same can’t be said for their executives. A total of 7,181 insiders bought their own stock this year through Sept. 12 and 23,323 sold shares, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Washington Service. The ratio of buys to sells is near the lowest since 2000. At the same time, corporate repurchases reached $275 billion in the first half of the year, the second busiest since S&P Dow Jones Indices began tracking the data in 1998. Share purchases by executives are becoming rarer afterseven straight quarters of advances pushed valuations in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to a four-year high. While companies are pouring money into their own stock because they have nothing better to do with it, officers and directors aren’t -- and that’s a bearish signal for share prices, saidBrad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network.






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