Turmoil in the silver and gold comex.

Harvey Organ, Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Turmoil in the silver and gold comex.

 

The One Press Release That The S&P Will Never Issue

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2011 18:17 -0400

It took less than 48 hours for the market to completely shrug off S&P's warning about America's credit rating, even as the dollar: that prima facie indicator of US stability and viability, has just hit a fresh 16 month low. And while nothing anyone says has much of a chance to impact the market, which continues to move with a negative 1 correlation to the now default carry funding currency, the following is the press release that S&P should issue if it wants to truly bring attention to the US debt crisis.

 

S&P Follows Up Its US Outlook Warning With A Comparable One For The GSEs And The FHLB System

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2011 15:46 -0400

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it revised its outlooks on the debt issues of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Bank System, and the Farm Credit System Banks to negative from stable while affirming our respective debt issue ratings. 

 

 

 

Apple Reports $6.40 EPS vs $5.36 Consensus, $24.67 Billion In Revenue, Outlook Weak

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2011 16:31 -0400

Apple beats top and bottom line, but not all is good in Borg land - Apple fails to meet the top and bottom line outlook.

• APPLE 2Q REVENUE $24.67B, EST. $23.38B
• APPLE SEES 3Q EPS ABOUT $5.03, EST. $5.25
• APPLE 2Q SOLD 9.02 MILLION IPODS, DOWN 17%
• SOLD 3.76 MM MACS IN Q2, UP 28%
• SOLD 18.65 MM IPHONES IN Q2, UP 113%
• APPLE SEES 3Q EPS ABOUT $5.03, EST. $5.25

Once again the key variable is the outlook: In Q3 Apple sees revenue of $23 billion to $23.83 billion, and EPS of $5.03 to $5.25. Consensus has revenue at $23.83 billion, and $5.25 in EPS.

Goldman Attempts To Answer The $2.9 Trillion Question: "What Happens When The Fed Stops Buying?"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2011 16:03 -0400

Goldman's just released look at what the end of QE2 would mean should certainly be taken with a grain of salt: after all lately (and in general), the firm's sellside recommendations traditionally are a gateway for its own prop traders to take the other side of what its clients are doing (observe recent performance in WTI). That said, probably the most insightful piece of data is that we now know what the upcoming Greece bankruptcy will be called in polite circles: wait for it - a "liability management exercise." As for the overall impact on rates, Goldman is not surprisingly bearish on rates, and sees the bulk of the upcoming weakness as focused on the 5 Year point. Franceso Garzarelli summarizes his view as follows: "together with our forecast of above-trend growth in coming quarters and the idea that the compression of bond premium will decay as the Fed’s balance sheet (organically or voluntarily) shrinks, we think that short positions in 5-yr Treasuries remain attractive." In other words, Goldman is expecting some flattening in the short end. Does that mean a steepening is inevitable. As for the broader perspective on the curve, Goldman says: "assuming the Fed’s bond holdings passively run off as securities mature, the bond premium should gradually rise. And our macro forecasts are consistent with higher real rates in coming quarters." In other words, another extremely non-committal report from a firm that is rapidly losing its Master of the Universe status. Key highlights below.

Meet Keratea: Greece's War Zone

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2011 17:40 -0400

One of the more interesting "war zones" that most have never heard of is not in North Africa, nor in the Middle East, but in Greece. Meet Keratea, a small city of 15,000 people located close to Athens, where after over 100 days of struggle between authorities and the broader population, the riot police has officially decided to abdicate the city to its fate in what is the first popular mini-revolution in the developed world. From the Independent: "As explosions boom, the town's loudspeakers blare: "Attention! Attention! We are under attack!" Air-raid sirens wail through the streets, mingling with the frantic clanging of church bells. Clouds of tear gas waft between houses as helmeted riot police move in to push back the rebels. This isn't a war zone, but a small town just outside Athens. And while its fight is about a rubbish dump, it captures Greece's angry mood over its devastated economy. As unemployment rises and austerity bites ever harder, tempers seem to fray faster in Greece, with citizens of all stripes thumbing their noses at authority. Some refuse to pay increased highway tolls and public transport tickets. There has been a rise in politicians being heckled and even assaulted. Yesterday, in Thessalonika, scores of activists were arrested after violent clashes with police." Meet the new and improved face of austerity: now in a small town in Greece, which is about to default all over again, and soon in many other places in the increasingly more insolvent European periphery.