US Planned Layoffs Jump 53%: Challenger Report — US Business News - CNBC

US Planned Layoffs Jump 53%: Challenger Report —  US Business News - CNBC:

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India GDP Growth Hits 9-Year Low; Rupee Tumbles - Asia Business News - CNBC

India GDP Growth Hits 9-Year Low; Rupee Tumbles - Asia Business News - CNBC:

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CNBC Stock Market News — DuckDuckGo Cooks Google’s Goose: Analyst — CNBC.com Stock Blog - CNBC

CNBC Stock Market News — DuckDuckGo Cooks Google’s Goose: Analyst — CNBC.com Stock Blog - CNBC: "Is Weinberg making money? Oh yeah. Remember, there are no salespeople. No tricky local search options. No crazy investments in driverless cars, a la Google. Weinberg simply resells paid search links through established online relationships.

“It’s a standard kind of affiliate deal,” he said. “AOL uses Google search, Yahoo uses the Microsoft ad platform. We’re equivalent to Yahoo in that respect.”"

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Greece to Leave Euro Zone on June 18: Wealth Manager - Business News - CNBC

Greece to Leave Euro Zone on June 18: Wealth Manager - Business News - CNBC: "He added that Greek society was built on cheating and scheming, saying “everyone does it” but that voters elsewhere in the euro zone were now calling Greece to account.

“The basic question is that a German has to increase working from 65 to 67 and that is to pay for Greeks retiring at 50. The 17th of June is the perfect opportunity to say either 'we’ll behave' or 'we’ll carry on cheating,'" he said."

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JPMorgan Beefs Up China Unit With $400-Million Injection - Business News - CNBC - CNBC

JPMorgan Beefs Up China Unit With $400-Million Injection - Business News - CNBC - CNBC:

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JPM is a Buy; Rumors of Trouble are a 'Farce': Bove — US Business News - CNBC

JPM is a Buy; Rumors of Trouble are a 'Farce': Bove — US Business News - CNBC: "JPM is a Buy; Rumors of Trouble are a 'Farce': Bove"

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The Things He Carried - Magazine - The Atlantic - Hilarious !!

The Things He Carried - Magazine - The Atlantic:

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Did The Fed Just Give Us A Very Big Clue Just How Big JPM's CIO Loss May Be? | ZeroHedge

Did The Fed Just Give Us A Very Big Clue Just How Big JPM's CIO Loss May Be? | ZeroHedge: "the cumulative "realized losses/gains securities (AFS/HTM) and Trading and Counterparty Losses" amount to $31.5 billion for the pendency of the stress test.
In other words $31.5 billion is how much pain JPM is allowed, in the NY Fed's view, to suffer before losses and dividends/buyback would jeopardize the capital structure, and the buyback process should be halted
Once again, as a reminder, the buyback process was halted today."

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Apple Stock Has Lost Over 5 Years Of Dividend Gains Since Announcement | ZeroHedge

Apple Stock Has Lost Over 5 Years Of Dividend Gains Since Announcement | ZeroHedge:

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As One JPMorgan Trader Sold Risky Contracts, Another One Bought Them - US Business News - CNBC

As One JPMorgan Trader Sold Risky Contracts, Another One Bought Them - US Business News - CNBC: "While JPMorgan has been reluctant to share the details of the transactions, it is believed that the London trader, Bruno Iksil, sold default protection on a specific index: the CDX IG 9. That index tracks the default risk of 125 major North American companies, including Aetna, Walt Disney and Lockheed Martin. If the default risk increases, JPMorgan effectively loses money. By January and February of this year, brokers were relentlessly calling hedge funds and trying to sell the contracts to them, according to investors. Given the size of the position in the relatively quiet market, the seller was quickly revealed as JPMorgan. Hedge funds and others began to chatter about the merits of the trade.

The rationale for the hedge funds was simple: with JPMorgan selling so much of this insurance, the price was artificially cheap. In buying it, the funds were betting that the cost would increase when the bank eventually stopped selling. Such a move would notch them a tidy profit while causing steep losses on paper for JPMorgan."

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David Tepper and Appaloosa heavy buying...now upside down!

Sometime around March 31 the market was soaring, and there were still those naive, clueless ones, who thought that 2012 would not be a carbon copy of 2011. Rumors of more QE were becoming quieter and quieter as the S&P was on a rampage, the economy was humming along (courtesy of the reacord warm winter as ZH predicted in January, but this would not be widely accepted for at least 2-3 more weeks), Europe was "fixed" and the world was a lovely place. It is right there that everyone's favorite "baller to the waller" David Tepper went all in and bought anything that moves, or doesn't, in financials and tech. As the chart below shows, after having a mere $764 million in equity AUM at the end of December 31, Appaloosa went on an epic liftathon, and increased its AUM to a whopping $4.1 billion in the span of 3 months.

Having cut just his two positions in Boston Scientific and Hartford, Tepper then nearly doubled his holdings to a total of 53 different CUSIPs, with a focus almost exclusive on banks and tech.

Here are the key additions:

QQQ: new $1.3 billion position;
Apple: $410 MM from $73 MM;
Citi: new $223 MM position;
United Continental: up to $171 MM from $22 MM;
Google: new $104 MM position;
QCOM: new $102 MM position;
Goodyear: up to $97 MM from $86 MM;
Broadcom: new $95 MM;
Ford Motor: new $82 MM position;
Bank of America: new $71 MM position.

And so on.
Which means that unless he sold everything in the past 2 weeks, which he didn't, Tepper is now stuck holding a flaming bag of, well, stocks which are about 15-20% cheaper than they were at March 31 - something he and his LPs will hardly be happy with.

So what happens next? Expect another book talking TV interview on the Comcast/GE Joint Venture fin-comedy station, by the man who appeared on CNBC once back in September 2010 and sent the DJIA soaring (or rather helped QE2 off on its brief but Bon Voyage, which launched at the same time). We can only hope that the script will be somewhat updated since his last appearance.

Bank Of Japan Goes Full Tilt, Buys Record Amount Of ETFs And REITs To Prevent Market Crash | ZeroHedge

Bank Of Japan Goes Full Tilt, Buys Record Amount Of ETFs And REITs To Prevent Market Crash | ZeroHedge: "The Japanese central bank said it spent 39.7 billion yen (about $500 million) buying up stock ETFs as part of its ongoing asset-purchase program, breaking a previous record of ¥28.5 billion, set on April 16. In addition to the ETF buys, the Bank of Japan also acquired ¥2.3 billion in real-estate investment trusts Monday." "

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April's Jobs Report and the Youth Problem - This and The"Occupy" movements will hobble this country with their grassroots effect.

By SUSANNA KIM and BILL McGUIRE
Yesterday, 4:49 PM

U.S. employers added 115,000 jobs in April, fewer than economists expected, and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 8.1 percent as more people exited the workforce, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Economists had expected about 165,000 jobs to be added, according to a consensus figure from Bloomberg. April's jobs gain was the smallest in six momths.

"The unemployment rate is not materially changing, which is disappointing since privately held companies have continued to grow their sales and are generally the engine of job growth," said Brian Hamilton, CEO of Sageworks and a leading expert on privately held companies. "This probably reflects continued anxiety about the economy and where it will be 12 months from now. We are 34 months into an expansion and an 8.1 percent unemployment rate is too high at this point."

Employers added 120,000 jobs in March in that month's disappointing jobs report, which showed the jobless rate at 8.2 percent. But the Labor Department revised the March figure upward today to 155,000.

Employment increased in professional and business services, retail trade, and health care, but declined in transportation and warehousing, the government said.

"Looking through the revisions and weather effects, this report indicates a labor market that continues to show a modest pace of improvement, about in line with expectations and an economy that is making some headway in recovery," said Peter Hooper, a Deutsche Bank economist.

On Thursday, the Labor Department reported people filing for unemployment benefits fell last week. After inching higher during the last few weeks, the jobless claims fell to 365,000 for the week ending April 28, down from 392,000 in the prior week.

Hiring among U.S. private employers dropped in April to the lowest level in seven months, payroll company ADP reported on Wednesday.

Among the major worker groups, teenagers have the highest unemployment rate, but the imminent summer hiring season may make a dent in that figure.

In April, teenagers had a 24.9 percent unemployment rate, compared with a 7.5 percent rate for adult men and 7.4 percent among adult women.

Companies like Jamba Juice, based in Emeryville, Calif., have already started ramping up seasonal hiring in anticipation of stronger business during the warmer months.

The food retailer is planning to add 2,500 seasonal hires this summer for most of their 750 locations nationwide. The company employed about 4,900 people, 190 of whom are part of its corporate offices or operation services as of January 3, according to the company's latest annual report.

Its peak selling season is during the spring and summer, and seasonal hiring at Jamba Juice and other companies across the country is likely to boost employment figures -- at least temporarily.

Kathy Wright, vice president of human resources at Jamba Juice, said the company's preliminary numbers showed it has hired 500 seasonal employees so far.

Youth are generally the company's customer base, so the company says it is serving both its customers and the communities they live in by hiring young people.

"They are usually very excited to work for us," she said. "We have a team environment, and they love the product. If you love the product, you love the brand already, so coming to work is not like coming to work. It's having fun. We look for people with passion to deliver a great experience to our customers."

Wright says seasonal hires are usually between the ages of 16 and 19 and in high school or college and looking for summer employment

"They're out of school and have free availability when we have an open door," she said.

The company has also partnered with the Labor Department's Job Corps, the no-cost education and vocational training program to help underserved youth ages 16 through 24.

"We're committed to helping out as long as we continue to open more stores," Wright said, adding that the company's growth trajectory may lead to the opening of 40 more stores this year. Stores can employ 8 to 20 people, she said.

The company partners with Job Corps to place six to eight participants in the public agency's culinary schools, like its location in San Francisco, to intern at Jamba Juice's corporate office in Northern California.

Jamba Juice is also one of the companies participating in the White House's summer jobs initiative for workers ages 16 to 24, announced by President Obama in January. On Wednesday, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced the launch of an online "Summer Jobs+ Bank" with nearly 300,000 summer jobs targeted toward low-income youth.

Those openings include credited internships, job shadowing, mentorship and 90,000 paid jobs. The program's jobs bank compiles jobs targeted toward youth from both job boards and companies.

"America's young people face record unemployment, and we need to do everything we can to make sure they've got the opportunity to earn the skills and a work ethic that come with a job," President Obama said in January when announcing the program.

Real U-3 Unemployment Rate: 11.6%

Real U-3 Unemployment Rate: 11.6% | ZeroHedge: "Propaganda unemployment rate: 8.1%; Real unemployment rate: 11.6%. Reason for difference: organic growth of labor force"

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The 12-Million-Worker Hole: This Is the Scariest Employment Graph, and Now You Can Play With It - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic

The 12-Million-Worker Hole: This Is the Scariest Employment Graph, and Now You Can Play With It - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic: "The 12-Million-Worker Hole: This Is the Scariest Employment Graph, and Now You Can Play With It"

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Jobs Gap » The Hamilton Project. Jobs Gap Calculator

Jobs Gap  »  The Hamilton Project: "If the economy adds about 208,000 jobs per month, which was the average monthly rate for the best year of job creation in the 2000s, then it will take until March 2020—or eight years—to close the jobs gap. "

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IRS Presence at OffshoreAlert Conference Criticized - US Business News - CNBC

IRS Presence at OffshoreAlert Conference Criticized - US  Business News - CNBC: "“There is certainly no reason for 19 IRS employees to attend the conference,” Grassley wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner Monday. “In a challenging fiscal time, this is not the best use of IRS resources.”"

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The good ole US of A .....101.5% Debt/GDP And... 1.7% Effective Interest Expense....Yeeeeha !

Name The Country: 101.5% Debt/GDP And... 1.7% Effective Interest Expense | ZeroHedge: "101.5% Debt/GDP And... 1.7% Effective Interest Expense"

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Private Sector Adds Just 119,000 Jobs in April: ADP - US Business News - CNBC

Private Sector Adds Just 119,000 Jobs in April: ADP - US Business News - CNBC:

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Bolivia Nationalizes Unit of Spanish Power Company - Business News - CNBC

Bolivia Nationalizes Unit of Spanish Power Company - Business News - CNBC: "Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales marked May Day on Tuesday by nationalizing the local unit of Spain's Red Electrica, ratcheting up tension between the former colonial power and South American governments eager to assert control over energy resources."

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Bulls Bet on Indian Stocks, Despite Economic Gloom - Asia Business News - CNBC - CNBC

Bulls Bet on Indian Stocks, Despite Economic Gloom - Asia Business News - CNBC - CNBC: "In a recent report, HSBC forecasts the Sensex will rise to 19,300 by the year-end, an upside of more than 10 percent from current levels. Morgan Stanley expects a 20 percent rise in the benchmark index over the next 12 months."

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The words of Tecumseh .....

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and
Demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life,
Beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and
Its purpose in the service of your people.

Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend,
Even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and
Bow to none. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the food and
For the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks,
The fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and nothing,
For abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts
Are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes
They weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again
In a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home."

Want Economic Growth? Do It Like the Fed: Analysts - Europe Business News - CNBC

Want Economic Growth? Do It Like the Fed: Analysts - Europe Business News - CNBC:

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