Financial Headline News for Tuesday 6/14

HAPPY FLAG DAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY US ARMY!

The Stock Market finally soared today after weeks of correction. News on Retail sales and Manufacturing led the charge. The Dow was up 123.14, the Nasdaq hiked 39.03 and the S&P gained a solid 16.04.

CNBC reported that the US housing crisis is now worse than it was during the Great Depression.

Also Bank of America it was reported significantly hindered the foreclosure review.

Here are today's top financial stories:

1) Stocks Notch Broad Gains-From The Wall Street Journal

U.S. stocks closed sharply higher as investors cheered a reading on U.S. retail sales that wasn't as bad as expected and a strong industrial-production report from China.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 123.14 points, or 1.03%, to 12076.11. Home Depot led the blue-chip index higher, up $1.49, or 4.5%, to $34.75, while Caterpillar rose 2.42, or 2.5%, to 97.86 and Boeing gained 1.70, or 2.3%, to 74.64.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 16.04, or 1.26%, to 1287.87, led by energy and material stocks. All 10 of the S&P 500's sectors finished in positive territory.

The technology-oriented Nasdaq Composite rose 39.03 points, or 1.48%, to 2678.72.

It marked the second day of advances for the Dow and the S&P 500 following a six-week losing streak.

"We were due for a little bit of a snapback," said Michael Shea, managing partner at Direct Access Partners, especially as the market had reached oversold levels on a short-term basis. Still, he was cautious: "I don't think one day makes a trend."

Investor sentiment turned more cheerful after the Commerce Department said U.S. retail sales dropped only 0.2% last month, smaller than the 0.6% decline economists had expected.

2) US Housing Crisis Is Now Worse Than Great Depression-From CNBC

It's official: The housing crisis that began in 2006 and has recently entered a double dip is now worse than the Great Depression.

Prices have fallen some 33 percent since the market began its collapse, greater than the 31 percent fall that began in the late 1920s and culminated in the early 1930s, according to Case-Shiller data.

3) BofA ‘Significantly Hindered’ Foreclosure Review, U.S. Says- From Bloomberg

Bank of America, the largest U.S. lender, “significantly hindered” a federal review of its foreclosures on loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, the U.S. said.

The bank was slow in providing data and offered incomplete information, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development inspector general’s office, which conducted the review.

“Our review was significantly hindered by Bank of America’s reluctance to allow us to interview employees or provide data and information in a timely manner,” William Nixon, an assistant regional inspector general for the agency, said in a sworn declaration.

The filing, dated June 1 and obtained yesterday by Bloomberg News, was submitted as an exhibit in a lawsuit by the state of Arizona against the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank. Arizona, which is seeking to interview former Bank of America employees, accused the bank of misleading homeowners who were seeking mortgage modifications

Quote of the Day from Dave Ramsey.com:
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one. — Elbert Hubbard

Financial Headline News for Monday 6/13

The Dow barely snapped its long losing streak by gaining a paltry 1.06 today. The Nasdaq was down a little at 4.04 and the S&P was up a tiny .85. It was a slow day with no earnings being released from any major companies.

There was a substantial withdrawal from stock funds in May as investors went over to bonds and foreign stocks.

Rising Prices are causing stock investors angst for the past six weeks.

Here are the top financial stories for today:

1) Stocks Close Mixed; Dow Still Below 12,000- From CNBC

Stocks ended narrowly mixed in a choppy session Monday, after another downgrade of Greece's credit rating offset gains from a flurry of M&A activity and as investors continued to worry over a slowing global recovery ahead of a handful of key economic news throughout the week.

2) Investors withdraw $3B from stock funds in May-From AP
Investors last month withdrew $2.7 billion more than they deposited into stock mutual funds in May, snapping a four-month string of net deposits that began in January, Strategic Insight said on Monday.

Bond funds and funds buying foreign stocks attracted net deposits, as investors became less confident about the U.S. stock market, amid signs that the economic recovery is weakening, the New York-based fund industry consultant said.

Yet investors have put a net $39 billion into U.S. stock funds during the first five months of 2011. That marks a shift in sentiment after investors began withdrawing more than they deposited each month following the stock market meltdown in 2008, while bond funds attracted net deposits. That trend held up long after stock prices began to recover in March 2009.

But May was the first down month for the Standard & Poor's 500 since August 2010. The stock index fell 1.4 percent as investors reacted to disappointing news about the economy, as well as high gas prices, tornadoes and flooding in the South, and the debt crisis in Europe.

3) Rising Prices a Risk - From The Wall Street Journal
For the past six weeks, stock-market investors have had their eyes trained on the sputtering U.S. economy.

Now, some are also beginning to focus on the prospect of a pernicious sidekick: creeping inflation.

It might seem counterintuitive, but some investors see a growing risk that prices will keep rising, even if the economy slows. That is significant because it could dent corporate profits by crimping consumer spending while prices are rising. It also may make it less likely that the Federal Reserve would step in to further help the economy, some investors say.

The rise in inflation has been driven in part by the surge in commodity prices but also extends more broadly into imports from emerging economies like China, India, Brazil and elsewhere, which are still red hot. The prices of a variety of imported goods, including household tools and equipment, housekeeping supplies and apparel, have been rising, due to both commodity and wage inflation in these countries. While many economists expect commodity prices to ease, inflationary pressures may still remain in the system.

Quote of the Day from Dave Ramsey.com:
Disgust and resolve are two of the greatest emotions that lead to change. — Jim Rohn

Financial Headline News for Tuesday 6/7

Wall Street shed early gains after Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a gloomy economic outlook to continue its losing streak. The Dow was down 19 and the S&P and NASDAQ were down slightly at around 1 each.

NBC retains the Winter and Summer Olympics until 2020 beating out ESPN/Disney and Fox.

Consumers borrowed more in April for the 7th consecutive month but thankfully credit card borrowing fell.

The top financial stories today were:

1)Bernanke's Talk Kills Stock Rally-From The Wall Street Journal
A gloomy economic assessment from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke erased an earlier stock rally, sending major indexes in the final minutes of Tuesday's session to their fifth consecutive drop.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 19.15 points, or 0.2%, to 12070.81. The blue-chip index has dropped 4% during its five-day skid, its longest losing streak since August. The Dow rose as much as 89 points Tuesday afternoon prior to Mr. Bernanke's comments, but turned negative during the remarks and finished at its lowest closing level since March 22.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index dropped 1.23 points, or 0.1%, to 1284.94, led lower by the technology and telecom sectors. The index, which has dropped 4.5% during its five-day losing streak, hit its lowest closing level since March 18.

2) NBC retains the Olympics-From The Wall Street Journal
NBCUniversal continued its Olympic sweep, winning the rights to televise the next four Olympic Games through 2020, according to people familiar with the matter.

The International Olympic Committee is scheduled to announce the deal later on Tuesday.

The media company offered more than $4 billion for the rights to four consecutive Olympic Games beginning in 2014, according to one of the people familiar with the matter, beating out News Corp.'s Fox, which also bid for four games, and ESPN.

3) Consumers borrowed more in April for the 7th consecutive month-From AP
Americans borrowed more money in April for the seventh straight month, but they cut back on using their credit cards.

Consumer borrowing rose by nearly $7.2 billion, fueled by greater demand for school and auto loans, the Federal Reserve said Tuesday. A category that measures credit card use fell for the second time in three months. It has risen only twice since August 2008, the height of the financial crisis.

The 3.1 percent overall increase pushed consumer borrowing to a seasonally adjusted annual level of $2.43 trillion, just above the nearly four-year low of $2.39 trillion hit in September.

The report includes auto loans, student loans and credit cards, but excludes mortgages and loans tied to real estate. The Fed will give a more complete picture of Americans' debt on Thursday when it issues its quarterly report on household net worth.

Households began borrowing less and saving more to cope with the recession, which ended in June 2009. Credit card use has plummeted nearly 19 percent over the past 20 months and it has dropped 5 percent over the past year.

Inspirational Quotes from Twitter@Inspire_Us .

You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing. -Dale Carnegie

Financial Headline News for Monday 6/6

It was another day of losses across the board in the stock market today as the Dow fell 61, the Nasdaq was off 30 and the S&P was down 14. Even oil and gold were down.

Steve Jobs took a break from his medical leave to show up at Apple this afternoon with his trademark black mock turtle neck and jeans.

State and Local Governments are laying off workers causing more job growth concerns.

1) Stocks down across the Board-From the Wall Street Journal
Stocks dropped for a fourth straight day, as concerns over an economic slowdown continued to weigh on investor sentiment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 61.30 points, or 0.5%, to 12089.96, led lower by Bank of America, which shed 45 cents, or 4%, to $10.83, and J.P. Morgan Chase, which dropped 1.04, or 2.5%, to 40.53.

The blue-chip index has shed 479.83 points over the past four sessions, for its largest four-day point drop since May of last year.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index lost 13.99 points, or 1.1%, to 1286.17, as financials and energy sank, with all sectors finishing in the red. It was the first time since March 23 the index dipped below 1300.

The technology-oriented Nasdaq Composite lost 30.22 points, or 1.1%, to 2702.56.
Investors focused their economic-growth worries on financial stocks amid concerns a stalled economic recovery could make it harder for banks to work troubled loans off their balance sheets. Financials have been the worst-performing sector this month, down 5.9%.

2) Steve Jobs shows up at Apple-From CNBC
CEO Steve Jobs strode back into the spotlight on Monday to unveil the iCloud, a music-streaming service that the company hopes will power its next stage of growth and popularize Web-based consumer services.

A still thin-looking Jobs walked out to a standing ovation from the more than 5,000 Apple faithful at its Worldwide Developers' Conference in downtown San Francisco's Moscone Center, making opening comments for just a few minutes before ceding the stage to marketing chief Phil Schiller.

The Silicon Valley icon emerged from medical leave to launch an Internet-based service for consumers called the iCloud, which lets users play their music and get access to their data from any Apple device — a crucial capability for users increasingly accustomed to performing tasks on the move.

3) Local and state governments, normally job creators, are weighing on the national economy-From AP

In a healthy economic recovery, states and localities start hiring, expand services and help fuel the nation's growth.

Then there's the 2011 recovery.

The U.S. economy is moving ahead, however fitfully. Yet state and local governments are still stuck in recession. Short of cash, they cut 30,000 jobs in May, the seventh straight month they've shed workers.

Rather than add to U.S. economic growth, they're subtracting from it.

And ordinary Americans are feeling it -- from reduced services to fewer teachers, police officers and firefighters.

Inspirational Quotes Twitter @Inspire_Us .

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. -Golda Meir

Financial Headline News for Friday 6/3

More bad news on the economic front today. The Unemployment rate ticked up to 9.1% from 9.0% when it was expected to go down to 8.9%. Only 54,000 jobs were created in May far short of the 150,000 expected.

The Stock Market posted its fifth straight week of losses as the Dow was down 97 points, the S&P fell 13 and Nasdaq was down 4.

Finally, more Americans think the economy will never recover. However, I believe we are down but we are not out. The US came back after the 1920 Recession, Great Depression, and 9-11 and we will come back again once better fiscal free market policies are installed in Washington.

Here are the lead financial stories today:

1) Jobless Rate Rises as Pace of Hiring Slows-From the Wall Street Journal 
Hiring by U.S. companies slowed dramatically in May and the unemployment rate kept rising, adding to concerns the jobs market will still take years to heal as the economy's recovery remains weak.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 54,000 last month, much less than economists anticipated, as the private sector posted the smallest job gain in nearly a year, the Labor Department said Friday in its survey of employers. Payrolls increased by 232,000 jobs in April.

2) Stocks post fifth straight week of losses-From AP
Evidence is piling up that the economic recovery has lost some of its vigor. That has deflated a stock market rally and pushed indexes down for five straight weeks, the longest losing streak since mid-2008.
So, what's next? Don't hold out hope for more help from the government, analysts say. Another round of stimulus spending isn't in the cards, the Fed has already slashed interest rates near zero and has said it will end its bond-buying program on schedule at the end of this month.
With high gas prices crimping consumer spending and companies still reluctant to hire, investors may have to settle for a stock market and an economic recovery that plod slowly along.

3) More Americans Think Economy Will Never Recover-from CNBC
The mixed signals regarding the economy's health are taking a toll.Americans are growing increasingly doubtful about direction of the US economy, according to the latest survey from business-advisory firm AlixPartners.In fact, an increasing number, some 61 percent, say they don't expect to return to their respective pre-recession lifestyles until the spring of 2014, if ever.
What's worse, a full 10 percent said they expect they will never return to pre-recession spending.

Inspirational Quotes Twitter @Inspire_Us .

Ninety-nine percent of the failures comes from people who have the habit of making excuses. -George W. Carve

Financial Headline News for Thursday 6/2

Another busy day in Financial News...the most important of which being Moody's warning that the US Credit Rating may be downgraded if the debt limit debate between the White House and Congress isn't resolved.

Ist Time Unemployment claims came in at 422,000 which was a little more than expected.

Coming on the heels of LinkedIn's incredible IPO a few weeks ago, the coupon website Groupon announced they will also file to go public.

1) 1st Time Unemployment claims up from the projected 415,000- From CNBC

New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, but not enough to assuage fears the labor market recovery has taken a step back.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 422,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday, less than economists' expectations for a fall to 415,000.

2) Moody's Threatens to slash the US Credit Rating- From Yahoo Finance

A credit rating agency is warning the U.S. government that it could lose its sterling debt rating if Congress and the Obama administration don't reach an agreement to raise the nation's borrowing limit.

Moody's Investors Service said Thursday that if the parties fail to make progress soon, it would put the U.S. rating under review for a possible downgrade. That's because there's a "very small but rising risk" that the government will default on its debts.

Standard & Poor's, another major credit rating agency, issued a similar warning in April.
The U.S. government hit its $14.3 trillion borrowing limit on May 16. The debt limit is the amount the government can borrow to help finance its operations.

3) Groupon Files for IPO- From The Wall Street Journal

Coupon website Groupon Inc. filed Thursday to go public, looking to raise up to $750 million, in what would be one of this year's most high-profile initial public offerings.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303745304576361631817311972.html#ixzz1O9jIUscp

Inspirational Quotes Twitter @Inspire_Us .

All dreams come true if we have the courage to pursue them.

Financial Headline News for Wednesday 6/1

After today there are no more mixed signals, the economy has hit a brick wall like Stuart Varney said this morning on Fox News. Only 38,000 private sector jobs were created in May.

Tomorrow first time unemployment filers are released at 8:30 am EST with 419,000 being estimated. Friday the Unemployment Rate for May will be released with an estimated 8.9% expected.

Any negative deviations from these numbers should send the stock market stumbling just like today when the Dow was down  279.65 and the Nasdaq was negative 66.11.

Here are the leading financial stories for today:

1) Only 38,000 jobs were created in the private sector for May- From Bloomberg
Companies in the U.S. added fewer workers than forecast in May, a sign that job growth is struggling to gain momentum, data from a private report based on payrolls showed today.

Employment increased by 38,000 last month, the smallest increase since September, from a revised 177,000 in April, according to figures from ADP Employer Services. The median estimate in the Bloomberg News survey called for a 175,000 advance for May.

Such gains in employment are insufficient to help the world’s largest economy accelerate after a surge in food and fuel costs earlier this year. Businesses added 207,000 jobs last month after a 268,000 gain in April and the jobless rate dipped to 8.9 percent from 9 percent, economists project a Labor Department report to show in two days.

2) Stocks Plunge- From CNBC
Stocks sank more than 2 percent Wednesday, following several economic reports that confirmed a struggling recovery and after Moody's downgraded Greece's bond ratings deeper into junk status.

The Dow plunged 279.65 points, or 2.22 percent to close at 12,290.14. 

The Dow and S&P have seen the biggest drops since August 11, 2010 and are now on pace for a fifth straight week of losses. The Nasdaq saw its worst first day of the month since October 2009. All 10 key S&P 500 sectors dropped, led by financials, materials and industrials.

3) Manufacturing falls to 53.5 ISM index in May-from CNBC

The pace of growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector tumbled in May, slackening more than expected to its slowest since September 2009, according to an industry report released Wednesday.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity fell to 53.5 in May from 60.4 the month before. The reading missed economists' expectations for 57.7.

A reading below 50 indicates contraction in the manufacturing sector, while a number above 50 means expansion.

Inspirational Quotes from Twitter @Inspire_Us .

One of the secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others. -Levi Strauss