Bank of America's $10 Billion In 2014 Legal Charges Mask Ugly Trends, Net Interest Margin Drops To Lowest On Record | Zero Hedge

Bank of America's $10 Billion In 2014 Legal Charges Mask Ugly Trends, Net Interest Margin Drops To Lowest On Record | Zero Hedge: "If last quarter Bank of America was forced to report a stunning loss, its first in years, as a result of a $6 billion "one-time, non-recurring" litigation charge which clearly was added back to non-GAAP earnings because it could not possibly become a part of ongoing earnings, in Q2 BofA just reported another whopper of a litigation charge, this time totaling $4 billion. And naturally, BofA was helpful in adding it back to the actual EPS print of $0.19, which was to be expected: the charge itself was $0.22 or more than the actual amount of money earned by the bank in the quarter, resulting in a pro-forma EPS of $0.41 beating Wall Street expectations of $0.29."



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Is This The Scariest Chart In IBM's History? | Zero Hedge

Is This The Scariest Chart In IBM's History? | Zero Hedge: "Moments ago IBM reported revenues and EPS that both beat expectations and yet the stock is sliding after hours. We may have an idea why, and it has to do with the scariest chart in IBM's history, which we first revealed three months ago and which just got scarier."



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Stock buybacks, debt to equity

Federal Debt to Reach 106% of Economy in 2039, CBO Says - Bloomberg

Federal Debt to Reach 106% of Economy in 2039, CBO Says - Bloomberg: "The U.S. debt held by the public is expected to rise to 106 percent of the economy in 2039 from 74 percent this year, largely driven by increases in the cost of health benefits, the Congressional Budget Office said.

To put federal finances on a sustainable path, Congress must boost revenue, cut spending on benefit programs or combine the approaches, the nonpartisan CBO said in its long-term budget outlook released today."



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Why The Status-Quo Is Unsustainable: Interest and Debt (What Yellen Won't Tell You) | Zero Hedge

Why The Status-Quo Is Unsustainable: Interest and Debt (What Yellen Won't Tell You) | Zero Hedge: "If you want to know why the Status Quo is unsustainable, just look at interest and debt. These are not difficult to understand: debt is a loan that must be paid back or discharged/written off and the loss absorbed by the lender. Interest is paid on the debt to compensate the owner of the money for the risk of loaning it to a borrower.

It's easy to see what's happening with debt and the real economy (as measured by GDP, gross domestic product): debt is skyrocketing while real growth is stagnant. Put another way--we have to create a ton of debt to get a pound of growth."



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Are Share Buybacks About To Hit A Brick Wall? | Zero Hedge

Are Share Buybacks About To Hit A Brick Wall? | Zero Hedge: "Companies are cash flow positive after investing and paying dividends (see above), but have a deficit when buybacks are taken into account. We estimate that non-financial S&P 1500 companies need to raise around $250bn per annum to make up the difference,"



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Market Rigging Explained | Zero Hedge

Market Rigging Explained | Zero Hedge:

Conclusion

All this evidence points to an inescapable conclusion:

The order cancellations and trades executing just before, or during the traders order were not a coincidence. This is premeditated, programmed theft, plain and simple.

Michael Lewis probably said it best when he told 60 minutes that the stock market is rigged. To the fantastic claims made by HFT that they provide liquidity, perhaps we should ask, what kind of liquidity? To the now obviously ludicrous claim that "everyone's order uses the same tools that HFT uses", we'll just say, the data shows otherwise. To Mary Jo White and other officials who claim the market isn't rigged and that regulators need to look at the data before making any decisions, well, you made it this far - if things aren't clear, just re-read the above, or just call us and we'll explain it to you. Or dust off Midas and lets us show you how to work with data.

One more note to the SEC in particular - if you believe that the industry can fix these problems on their own, then we believe you are no longer fit to regulate, because that is not, and never was, how Wall Street works. Honestly, a free for all, no–holds–barred environment would be better than the current system of complicated rules which are partially enforced, but only against some participants. And make no mistake, what is shown above is as close to automatic pilfering as one can get. It probably results in a few firms showing spectacularly perfect trading records; it definitely results in people believing the market is unfair and corrupt.

And to CNBC and other financial media companies who say these problems have all been fixed - we think you might have been lied to. Probably by the ones doing the market rigging.

And finally, to our regular readers: we are taking a break. Everyone has a limit to how much corruption they can witness and digest in a given period of time and we've simply reached our limit.

* * *

We wish Nanex an enjoyable break.

We here at Zero Hedge, on the other hand, are not only just getting started, but every new case of corruption (which inevitably 6/12/24 months prior was nothing but another ridiculous "conspiracy theory") merely doubles our resolve to expose and chronicle this farce of a rigged market, rigged economy, and rigged political theater, as an aid to whatever comes next. One can only hope that the mistakes of this period of near-terminal lunacy will be studied and, hopefully, not repeated.

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June Full-Time Jobs Plunge By Over Half A Million, Part-Time Jobs Surge By 800K, Most Since 1993 | Zero Hedge

June Full-Time Jobs Plunge By Over Half A Million, Part-Time Jobs Surge By 800K, Most Since 1993 | Zero Hedge: "Is this the reason for the blowout, on the surface, payroll number? In June the BLS reports that the number of full-time jobs tumbled by 523K to 118.2 million while part-time jobs soared by 799K to over 28 million!"



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VIX-Manipulating HFT Algo Is Booted From Dark Pool, Exposed For Whole World To See | Zero Hedge

VIX-Manipulating HFT Algo Is Booted From Dark Pool, Exposed For Whole World To See | Zero Hedge: "The Bottom Line...

1) On days when the VIX has been slammed notably lower, we have seen more than coincidentally massive after-hours volume spikes in VXX and TVIX (where manipulators can hide their actions)
 
2) This is the footprint of dark pools flushing their orders to the public markets
 
3) Since June 26th (when Barclays was hit by the Dark pool probe), a 'new' algo has appeared in TVIX
 
4) Today's major algo manipulation (above) and plunge in VIX suggest the dark pool rigging is in the open more transparent public markets now...
So we know how they do it... will anyone see it as front-running of 'riggedness' and do something about it?"



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MarketWatch - Stock Market Quotes, Business News, Financial News

MarketWatch - Stock Market Quotes, Business News, Financial News: "Why you’re still poor as Dow flirts with 17,000"



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BBC - Capital - A tiny island’s big lesson

BBC - Capital - A tiny island’s big lesson: "The benefits of a diverse workforce are only seen if the staff is well managed. Bosses need to understand that people with differing backgrounds will come up with ideas in different ways and give them the flexibility to be creative in their custom."



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BBC News - Vaccine developed against Ebola

BBC News - Vaccine developed against Ebola: "The new vaccine contains a synthetic viral protein, which prompts the immune system to better recognise the Ebola virus, and is much more stable when stored long-term.

The vaccine protects 80% of the mice injected with the deadly strain, and survives being "dried down and frozen," said biotechnologist Charles Arntzen from Arizona State University who was involved in its development.

He said the next step is to try the vaccine on a strain of Ebola that is closer to the one that infects humans."



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Vanguard economic and investment outlook for 2014 - Excellent

• This paper presents Vanguard’s global perspectives on the future of
growth, inflation, interest rates, and stock and bond returns over the
next ten years. As in past outlooks, we anticipate that the modest
global recovery will likely endure at a below-average pace through a
period of low interest rates, continuing high unemployment and debt
levels, and elevated policy uncertainty.
• We detail how, after years of slightly disappointing 2% real growth,
the U.S. in 2014–2015 faces cyclical risks tilted toward better-than-trend
growth for the first time since the onset of the global financial crisis.
Our economic outlook, in short, is one of resiliency.

https://pressroom.vanguard.com/nonindexed/Updated_Vanguard_economic_and_investment_outlook_January_2014.pdf

Forecast

Kiplinger 2014 Stock Market Outlook: More Gains-Kiplinger

Kiplinger 2014 Stock Market Outlook: More Gains-Kiplinger: "Another year of gains will be supported by stronger economic and corporate underpinnings, and, just as important, improving sentiment among investors. By most measures, stocks are fairly priced, if not bargains. Given expected earnings growth of nearly 10% in 2014, we think stock prices could rise that much and perhaps more if investors again prove themselves willing to pay more for each dollar of corporate profits, ratcheting up the market’s price-earnings ratio. A reasonable range to expect would be 8% to 12% returns, including dividends. An 8% price gain would put the S&P 500 in the vicinity of 1,944, translating into roughly 17,300 on the Dow Jones industrial average; a 10% gain would put the S&P 500 at 1,980, the Dow a bit over 17,600. With dividends, the S&P’s returns could reach 12%."





Forecast



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A Stock Market Crash Simply Can’t Happen - Here's Why | InvestorPlace

A Stock Market Crash Simply Can’t Happen - Here's Why | InvestorPlace: "Bottom Line
It’s unlikely that a stock market crash, or even a major correction, will occur of its own accord. For the Marc Faber/Nouriel Roubini crowd to be correct in their market crash calls, an unforeseen external event will need to drive the market lower.

That can happen at any time, of course. But without this type of negative surprise, the lack of alternatives to equities continues to be the main support for the bull market — just as it has been for the past five-plus years.

For now, buying the dips remains the order of the day."



Forecast



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The Riskiest Housing Markets in the U.S. - Bloomberg

The Riskiest Housing Markets in the U.S. - Bloomberg: "

Methodology: For each of the 50 largest housing markets, Zillow.com analyzed average home prices over 117 rolling five-year periods since 1979, as far back as reliable data go. The “risk of loss” is the percentage of those periods that created negative returns for homeowners. In the case of ties between markets, those with the bigger drop in their worst years were ranked as riskier.

"



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