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This market is looking tired and the volume is drying up. But while the volume remains low it will likely keep drifting with an upward bias.
The SP Futures closed today at the July high which is remarkable.
First serious event will take it down hard. Strong support is at 1270 or so.
Don't feed the sharks. Wait for it.
Disney exceed earnings but missed the topline revenue. It is amazing what modern US accounting rules can allow. They took a hit in the theme park business. Looks like Mom and Pop are tightening their budgets.
Senator Chuck Grassley put a clause back into the Senate's anti-insider trader law that requires financial analysts who meet with Congressmen and their staffs to register their meetings.
The purpose of this clause is to bring transparency to the information peddling that represents a lucrative business for hedge funds and banks that trade on insider information from the Congressmen themselves.
There is also the selling of information obtained in private meetings with the Congress to hedge funds. And rumour has it that quite a bit of that information spreads its way through the halls of the august Wall Street banks as well who help to gather it as well.
Wall Street apparently went into full court lobbying mode when they found out that Grassley had resubmitted this clause after they had successfully had it removed.
The clause only requires analysts to register their contacts and to disclose how they might be using the information provided by the Congress.
Information is power, and private access to public power is one of the great strengths of the Wall Street monied interests.
This bill might curtail the ability of JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs to obtain private information from the Finance Committees. And they are upset about the loss of that privilege.
I am sure Mr. Obama, the great reformer who promised transparency, is solidly behind this move by the Republican Senator Grassley, right? Hard to tell right now.
Panic on Wall Street.
Bloomberg
Wall Street Sees Analysts Snagged by Political Intelligence Bill
By Phil Mattingly and Robert Schmidt
Feb 7, 2012 12:01 AM ET
A U.S. Senate measure that would place restrictions on people who gather and sell government information to hedge funds may entangle bank research analysts and others on Wall Street, according to lawyers and lobbyists. (The others are the conduits to the trading desks of the TBTF banks - Jesse)
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which represents firms including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., held a rare weekend call for members on Feb. 4 to discuss the measure, according to two people with direct knowledge of the call.
The provision, part of a broader bill that passed the Senate last week and is scheduled to face a House vote this week, may require analysts and others to register with Congress and disclose contacts with government officials, according to a legal analysis prepared for the group’s members.
“There are going to be a lot of entities and organizations who will not want their people anymore to contact government officials to get information which might be used for a number perfectly appropriate purposes,” Robert L. Walker, an attorney for Wiley Rein LLP who is listed as one of the authors of the legal memo, said of the impact of the provision. ('Jump you fuckers' as the Tea Party said before they turned corporate. lol - Jesse)
The broader bill would ban lawmakers, their staffs, and much of the executive branch from trading stocks, commodities or futures based on confidential information they learn on the job. Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, succeeded last week in adding the provision that targets trading in so-called “political intelligence.” (There is nothing 'so-called' about it. That is what it is, and it is a form of corruption, albeit lucrative. - Jesse)
Such information may include conversations with lawmakers, congressional staff or other government officials about the future of legislation or regulations that have not been made public. That information has been targeted by lawmakers, who are pushing to identify firms and individuals in the business and force them to disclose their clients....
These fellows in New York, Washington, and London hate to see any amateurs engaging in deceptive financial practices without an official license or the right markings.
When the Iranians get good enough to move past merely practicing deception into the big leagues of world class professional fraud, and start playing ball with the big boys maybe the Iranian central bank can sign up for the primary dealer slot recently vacated by MF Global.
It is hard to imagine that Iran even has any assets remaining in the US or in any of their foreign branches.
The repatriation of assets and gold overseas is starting to gain some momentum, based on a fresh wave of vaporization concerns. Unless you're talkin about German gold which is on semi-permanent loan to Wall Street.
Bloomberg
Obama Freezes Iranian Government, Central Bank Assets
By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan
February 06, 2012, 11:47 PM EST
Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama ordered a freeze on all Iranian government and central bank assets held in the U.S. or any foreign branch of a U.S. entity, the White House said today.
The president cited “deceptive practices” of the Iranian central bank and an “unacceptable risk” to the international financial system from Iranian activities.
Previously, only assets belonging to sanctioned Iranian entities or individuals were frozen. The order, signed by the president yesterday, blocks all property and interests in property belonging to the Iranian government, its central bank, and all Iranian financial institutions, even those that haven’t been specifically designated for sanctions by the U.S. Treasury.
Longstanding U.S. regulations already prohibited American citizens or entities from virtually all direct and indirect transactions involving Iran or its government, aside from those exempted under general licenses for transactions involving food, medicine, remittances and humanitarian relief.
The measure was mandated as part of Iran sanctions legislation that was passed by Congress and signed by the president Dec. 31.
“I have determined that additional sanctions are warranted, particularly in light of the deceptive practices of the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks to conceal transactions of sanctioned parties, the deficiencies in Iran’s anti-money laundering regime and the weaknesses in its implementation, and the continuing and unacceptable risk posed to the international financial system by Iran’s activities,” Obama said in his congressional notification...
