The Bell Tolls For The Silence of The Lambs
Initial Claims 11/03 -13K at 317K vs prior 330K Full Report
Inside the number: prior revised up 3K. 4 week MA +2K at 329.75K. Continuing unemployment -4K at 2.579M; 4 week MA +16K at 2.552M. The bleed continues in the midwest.
For Whom the Bell Tolls... Toll Brothers, the largest U.S. luxury homebuilder...
said Q4 revenue fell 36%, cancellations rose from 24% to 39%, signed contracts shrank 33%, the value of net contracts slid 48% .
Benny & The Ink Jets... The U.S. economy is likely to "slow noticeably" this quarter while high commodity prices and a weaker dollar may stoke inflation "for a time."
Status Quo: The BOE left rates unchanged at 5.75%, speaking after the ECB left its benchmark interest rate at 4% today, ECB President Jean Claude "Tricky" Trichet...
indicated interest rates may be unchanged for months, saying that both inflation and the euro's advance against the dollar are cause for concern.
Back away from the Bonds... Yesterday, $8 Billion 10 year note auction, today $5 Billion 30 year bond auction, both with an anemic 11% indirect bid.
Sales off...
U.S. October retail sales increased 1.6%, the worst for October since 1995's 0.2% increase. Seven out of 10 retailers reported sales below forecasts.
Tech isn't immune... Cisco met the number but gave disappointing forward guidance. Cisco CEO John Chambers:
"a dramatic decline in sales to automobile and financial companies is curbing growth."
A Ford Able? In Q2, Ford surprised investors with a $750 million profit, its first in two years.
Today, Ford again beat estimates, narrowing its loss to $380 million vs $5.2 Billion in the same quarter last year.
Sales in the U.S., Ford's biggest market, dropped 18% to 600,310. North America had a $1 billion pretax deficit, about half of what it was a year earlier.
Ford has eliminated 33,600 North American factory jobs since the end of 2005.
Leaking like a SIV... The net asset value of SIVs has fallen to 71% of initial capital from 102% in June. Assets have shrunk by at least $75 billion since July to $320 billion.
Managers of structured investment vehicles don't expect their business model to survive as the value of assets shrinks and the companies struggle to borrow.
Silence of the Lambs... Jon Markman at MSN reveals how to make a buck on our new police state.
Another gross misallocation of capital..."There has been a 47% increase in U.S. workers classified as security guards since 2002 .
According to a new study, 25% of our entire labor force is focused on protection rather than production."
This happened in broad daylight, under the guise of the "War on Illegal Immigrants, Drugs and Terrorism."
Exemplifying: greedy, lazy, disinformed and misguided sheep, focusing on boogeymen fabricated to distract, whilst getting fleeced alive, then led to slaughter.
Inside the number: prior revised up 3K. 4 week MA +2K at 329.75K. Continuing unemployment -4K at 2.579M; 4 week MA +16K at 2.552M. The bleed continues in the midwest.
For Whom the Bell Tolls... Toll Brothers, the largest U.S. luxury homebuilder...
said Q4 revenue fell 36%, cancellations rose from 24% to 39%, signed contracts shrank 33%, the value of net contracts slid 48% .
Benny & The Ink Jets... The U.S. economy is likely to "slow noticeably" this quarter while high commodity prices and a weaker dollar may stoke inflation "for a time."
Status Quo: The BOE left rates unchanged at 5.75%, speaking after the ECB left its benchmark interest rate at 4% today, ECB President Jean Claude "Tricky" Trichet...
indicated interest rates may be unchanged for months, saying that both inflation and the euro's advance against the dollar are cause for concern.
Back away from the Bonds... Yesterday, $8 Billion 10 year note auction, today $5 Billion 30 year bond auction, both with an anemic 11% indirect bid.
Sales off...
U.S. October retail sales increased 1.6%, the worst for October since 1995's 0.2% increase. Seven out of 10 retailers reported sales below forecasts.
Tech isn't immune... Cisco met the number but gave disappointing forward guidance. Cisco CEO John Chambers:
"a dramatic decline in sales to automobile and financial companies is curbing growth."
A Ford Able? In Q2, Ford surprised investors with a $750 million profit, its first in two years.
Today, Ford again beat estimates, narrowing its loss to $380 million vs $5.2 Billion in the same quarter last year.
Sales in the U.S., Ford's biggest market, dropped 18% to 600,310. North America had a $1 billion pretax deficit, about half of what it was a year earlier.
Ford has eliminated 33,600 North American factory jobs since the end of 2005.
Leaking like a SIV... The net asset value of SIVs has fallen to 71% of initial capital from 102% in June. Assets have shrunk by at least $75 billion since July to $320 billion.
Managers of structured investment vehicles don't expect their business model to survive as the value of assets shrinks and the companies struggle to borrow.
Silence of the Lambs... Jon Markman at MSN reveals how to make a buck on our new police state.
Another gross misallocation of capital..."There has been a 47% increase in U.S. workers classified as security guards since 2002 .
According to a new study, 25% of our entire labor force is focused on protection rather than production."
This happened in broad daylight, under the guise of the "War on Illegal Immigrants, Drugs and Terrorism."
Exemplifying: greedy, lazy, disinformed and misguided sheep, focusing on boogeymen fabricated to distract, whilst getting fleeced alive, then led to slaughter.
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