Monday October 12 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

The Fed speaks, and investors scratch their heads - (www.cnbc.com)  The flurry of opinions following the Federal Reserve's decision to hold interest rates near zero at its September meeting has done little to provide clarity on future interest rate policy, market watchers told CNBC on Monday. In fact, the pronouncements are simply confusing the market, they said. "I think they're trying to be transparent — which you can't argue against transparency — but there is such a thing as an overload of information, and I think that's what a lot of investors are getting right now," Robert Luna, Surevest Capital Management CEO, told CNBC's" Power Lunch" on Monday. Market watchers got another opinion to mull over on Monday after Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans said in a speech the United States faces inflation and dollar headwinds that may not subside until the middle of next year. He said the Fed could help the country navigate those headwinds by delaying a long-anticipated hike to the benchmark fed funds rate until 2016.

Shell Oil Loses $7 Billion in US Artic, Leaves it For Dead - (www.wolfstreet.com)  After more than eight years of planning and drilling, costing more than $7 billion, Royal Dutch Shell announced that it is shutting down its plans to drill for oil in the Arctic. The bombshell announcement dooms any chance of offshore oil development in the U.S. Arctic for years. Shell said that it had completed its exploration well that it was drilling this summer, a well drilled at 6,800 feet of depth called the Burger J. Shell was focusing on the Burger prospect, located off the northwest coast of Alaska in the Chukchi Sea, which it thought could hold a massive volume of oil. On September 28, the company announced that it had “found indications of oil and gas in the Burger J well, but these are not sufficient to warrant further exploration in the Burger prospect. The well will be sealed and abandoned in accordance with U.S. regulations.” After the disappointing results, Shell will not try again. “Shell will now cease further exploration activity in offshore Alaska for the foreseeable future.” The company cited both the poor results from its highly touted Burger J well, but also the extraordinarily high costs of Arctic drilling, as well as the “unpredictable federal regulatory environment in offshore Alaska.”

Step Aside Detroit: There Is A New "Worst" City For Housing In The U.S. - (www.zerohedge.com)  Perhaps just to underscore this point, Case-Shiller also provided a handy chart showing the best and worst cities for home prices in the US. It will come as no surprise that the west, with San Diego, is where the gains are still frothiest: after all the Chinese "hot money" exporters are rushing to park their funds before the exit door slams shut, and are doing so as close to home as possible. What was surprising is the other end of the spectrum, because as Case-Shiller clearly shows, Detroit - after staging a brief dead cat bounce in the aftermath of its bankruptcy and since sliding once again - may no longer be the worst city for home prices in the US. It has now been displaced by a city which many speculate will be nothing short of the "next Detroit."

Commodity rout hits traders, emerging markets - (www.reuters.com)  Global equity markets touched a two-year low on Tuesday as the outlook for raw materials prices and emerging markets remained soft, while U.S. biotech shares attempted to stabilize after their recent selloff. Commodity prices edged up but held near multi-year lows on concern over an economic slowdown in major raw material consumer China. U.S. stocks were higher after suffering their worst drop in nearly a month in the prior session, boosted by the gains in biotechs. "A lot of traders are hoping that this is the end of the pullback," said Gordon Charlop, a managing director at Rosenblatt Securities in New York, of the move in equities. "We'll have to see if this represents a session where things start to turn around a little bit."

Glencore Ripples are Felt Across the World / Bloomberg Business - (www.bloomberg.com)  Glencore is at the epicenter of the sell-off: shares in the miner and commodity trader sank a record 29 percent in London on Monday, the latest leg of a slump that's seen 77 percent wiped from its value this year. Glencore shares did rebound as much as 10 percent on Tuesday. Asian stocks, as measured by the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, sank to a November 2012 low, led by a 4 percent decline in Japan. Mining companies dropped for an eighth day, their longest losing stretch since early July. Glencore is the lightning rod for the ills of the industry: high levels of debt, slumping metals prices, and a Chinese economic slowdown. The Bloomberg World Mining Index, a gauge of the world's biggest miners, has fallen to an almost seven-year low. Since reaching its high for the year in May, the gauge has plummeted 41 percent.

OTHER STORIES:

Glencore Must Stem Rumors, Stop Lehman-Like Moment, L&G Says - (www.bloomberg.com)
Chinese Stocks Decline Most in a Month in Hong Kong on Economy - (www.bloomberg.com)
Commodity rout hits traders, emerging markets - (www.reuters.com)
Global Rout Ebbs as S&P 500 Futures Advance With Oil, Glencore - (www.bloomberg.com)
Rajan Cuts India Rate More Than Expected to Four-Year Low - (www.bloomberg.com)

US junk bonds cracking after debt binge - (www.ft.com)
Glencore Shares Plunge as Debt Fears Rattle Investors - (online.wsj.com)
Debt-Market Tumult Hits Corporate-Bond Sales - (online.wsj.com)
Investors Fall Out of Love With Deals - (online.wsj.com)
Fast Flows Amplify Risk of Mutual Funds That Mimic Hedge Funds - (www.bloomberg.com)