Coffee – the Greatest Addiction Ever, and other Canada Weekend Reads

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Here are this weekend’s reading diversions for your enlightenment. Wishing you a very Happy Canada Day Long Weekend!

Banish Bad Breath | Lifescript.com

Everyone suffers from bad breath occasionally. Perhaps you ate too much garlic or spices for lunch, or maybe you were unable to brush your teeth the night before.

****

How to Grow Greener Grass — Helptionary!

The first thing to do is to assess your lawn. Walk around it to see if there are any bare areas that need to be patched up. This can be done by buying grass from or seedlings from a nearby garden, and using these to grow new grass in the problem area. If you notice any areas that have an uneven surface, you might have to reapply the topsoil and plant new grass

****

Sitting Too Long Raises Death Risk

The death risk was even higher for people who don’t work out. The least active women in the study who also reported the highest amount of sitting were 94 percent more likely to die than those who said they sat the least and exercised the most. For men, it was 48 percent, the study said

****

5 (Caffeine-Free) Snacks To Fight Fatigue

Midday snacks should contain about 100 calories or 15 grams of carbohydrates. The natural sweetness in fruit takes longer to metabolize than the processed sugars you’ll find in candy. And the protein in peanut butter provides a long-lasting form of energy.

****

Coffee: The Greatest Addiction Ever (VIDEO)

Coffee lovers and full-blown addicts alike will enjoy this video, which is pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about coffee, but were afraid to ask

****

“Lean gene” ups risk of heart disease and diabetes - Yahoo! News

Being slim may not always lead to a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes, scientists said Sunday after they identified a gene linked both to having a lean body and to a higher risk of metabolic diseases.

****

Diet Soda Linked To Weight Gain

A study presented at a American Diabetes Association meeting this week shows that drinking diet soda is associated with a wider waist in humans. And a second study shows that aspartame — the artificial sweetener in diet soda — actually raises blood sugar in mice prone to diabetes

****

Why Do We Get Wrinkled Fingertips? Mystery Solved, Say Scientists

The answer, according to evolutionary biologist Mark Changizi, is all about “grip.” Changizi and his team of researchers at 2AI Labs, believe that water wrinkles are essentially treads — just like the ones that show up on our car tires — that have been genetically selected for over time

****

Metal Head Baby Loves Pantera (VIDEO)

Pantera baby was born metal, man. He’s been headbanging and throwing up the sign of the horns since the womb. No really, check his ultrasound photos.

****

Canada Day 2011 – When is Canada Day 2011

Canada Day is celebrated on July 1st across the country. July 1st marks the anniversary of the formation of the union of the British North America provinces in a federation under the name of Canada – that’s the technical explanation, but Canada Day also means fireworks and the year’s biggest national party. The Canada Day holiday is akin to the U.S. July 4th celebration but on a more Canadian scale.

****

5 Everyday Habits That Can Harm Your Memory

When thinking about memory, Aaron Nelson, Ph.D., assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and author of “The Harvard Medical School Guide to Achieving Optimal Memory,” says to look at it this way: when thinking about brain health, everything you know about heart health applies. The things that are bad for your heart — high cholesterol and smoking, for example — are also bad for your brain.

****

Endometriosis: When Painful Cramps aren’t “Normal” | iVillage.ca

Endometriosis is a little known disease that affects an astonishing 176 million women worldwide.  The cause of endometriosis is still up for debate  and currently there is no cure.

****

The Scientist Who Drew Brains, and Then a Nobel Prize | Mind & Brain | DISCOVER Magazine

Anatomist Santiago Ramon y Cajal was the first to see–and illustrate–what neurons really do. His exquisitely detailed drawings changed our understanding of the brain and nervous system. Cajal relentlessly pursued his microcopic study of animal tissues, leading to an essential discovery: Brain signals jump from cell to cell rather than flow through a continuous web of fibers, as was believed at the time.

****

Tags: American Diabetes Association, Bad Breath, Canada Day, Canadian, Canadian Market, Coffee Lovers, Death Risk, Diet Soda, Diversions, Free Snacks, Greener Grass, Heart Disease, Heart Disease And Diabetes, Lean Body, Metabolic Diseases, Natural Sweetness, Nearby Garden, New Grass, Risk Of Heart Disease, Seedlings, Topsoil, Uneven Surface
Posted in Canadian Market, Markets | Comments Off

Eric Sprott: Investment Outlook (June 2011)

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Caveat Venditor!

by Eric Sprott & Andrew Morris

The recent bear raid on silver has left many concerned about the sustainability of its historic run. Silver, being a relatively obscure market for most mainstream commentators, attracted much attention in the ensuing days following the May 1 takedown. Indeed, though the 30% drop in silver occurred over only four days, seemingly all eyes were on silver, with commentators who could’ve cared less about the silver market only a couple of months ago, suddenly tripping all over one another to make the bubble call. Silver bubble 2.0? Hardly. Anyone who has been fortunate to have been invested in silver over the past few years would unfortunately be used to such blatant takedowns. The Chinese don’t call it the “Devil’s Metal” for no good reason. With so much talk these days about the risks of investing in silver, we think that perhaps it may be timely for us to weigh in on the matter. The silver market is riskier than ever, but for reasons the vast majority of pedestrian commentators have failed to grasp.

There is no doubt that speculative dollars have been flowing into the silver market. We note that in April record trading volumes were registered in the SLV¹, Comex futures², LBMA transfers³, and the Shanghai Gold Exchange futures⁴. In fact, converting the average daily trading volume in the aforementioned silver instruments to the amount of ounces of silver they are supposed to represent, there were on average, over 1.1 billion ounces worth of silver traded every day in the month of April⁵. Truly a staggering number when contrasted against the actual amount of silver available for investment. To wit, the world will only supply about 979 million ounces this year from mine and recycling of scrap, of which it is estimated that 657 million ounces will be used up for non-investment purposes⁶. So in effect, that leaves roughly only 322 million ounces available this year for investment purposes. Converting to days (recall that at least 1.1 billion ounces traded each day) it leaves only about 1.3 million ounces per trading day of available supply. So, we are essentially trading the amount of physical silver actually available for investment, 891 times over each day! It really begs the question; just what are people trading in these markets?

Consider the largest and most prominent of those markets – the Comex, which we believe has owned an effective monopoly on silver price discovery for decades. In fact, the Comex churned over 800 million ounces of silver futures and options on average each day in April⁷. Indeed, notwithstanding the massive but very opaque over-the-counter silver derivatives market, trading on the Comex dwarfs both the physical and the other (known) paper silver markets, combined. Despite its dynamics being relatively complex and generally not well understood by most, the world’s financial community continues to view trading on the Comex as representative of the fundamentals for the physical silver markets. A market built on a high amount of leverage, both the buyers and sellers of Comex futures and options contracts are able to establish a position in “silver” with pennies on the dollar in collateral and even more astonishingly, no physical silver backing the contracts at all. The following charts illustrate just how unreal these markets have become.

Chart A:

Source:  Bloomberg, Sprott Asset Management

Chart B:

Source:  Bloomberg, Sprott Asset Management

In chart A, we compare the total open interest in Comex futures and option contracts to the actual amount of silver held in registered inventories able to be delivered against those contracts, since 2009. In chart B, with the steeply-sloping line shows the ratio of open interest (i.e. paper silver ounces) per ounce of physical silver held in inventory. We believe the historical trend of rising open interest and falling inventories deserves considerable attention from anyone attempting to understand the silver market. And though we do note that since October 2010 the trend of rising open interest appears to have abated, the inventories have been evaporating steadily and thus the ratio of the two measures has continued to trend higher. In fact, since 2009 the ratio of paper silver to physical silver has increased fourfold from approximately 8 times to almost 33 times, where it stands today.

Tags: Andrew Morris, Bubble 2, Canadian, Caveat Venditor, Comex, Eric Sprott, Futures, Gold Exchange, Good Reason, India, Investing In Silver, Investment Outlook, Investment Purposes, Lbma, Mainstream Commentators, Month Of April, No Doubt, Silver Market, Slv, Staggering Number, Takedown, Takedowns
Posted in Canadian Market, India, Markets | Comments Off

Canadian Inflation Quickens (BCA)

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

The quickening of inflation is serving as a warning that the Bank of Canada has to do something to curb pressure with normal monetary policy measures in the coming months, says BCA Research, in its Daily Insight on Canada. Also prefaced is that this development should translate into a stronger Loonie.

Canada’s CPI experienced a greater-than-forecast month-over-month increase of 0.7% during May. Although this monthly increase was led by by food and energy, the core rate CPI rose by a strong 0.5% month-over-month. The underlying rate of inflation as measured by the Bank of Canada accelerated to 1.8% annualized, and this was far greater than the 1.4% forecast made by BoC in the latest Monetary Policy Report. As a result of worries over U.S. growth, Europe’s debt crisis, and hard landing fears in China, interest rate futures had all but discounted the need for higher policy interest rates for the next year ahead.

Despite those worries, it appears the Canadian economy is indicating that a tightening of monetary policy is required.

Housing is showing signs of bubbling, and there is pressure on the labour front, says BCA.

Yesterday’s CPI report contained warnings that spare capacity within the Canadian economy is nearly used up. Notwithstanding external economic shock, the monetary tightening cycle should be resumed later this year. So long as U.S. Fed policy stands down, spreads between short term interest rates will widen, making conditions favourable for the Canadian dollar and Canadian bonds will underperform its counterpart U.S. treasuries, assuming currency is hedged.

Source: BCA Research

Tags: Bank Of Canada, Boc, Canadian, Canadian Bonds, Canadian Economy, Canadian Inflation, Canadian Market, China Interest, Core Rate, Cpi Report, Debt Crisis, Economic Shock, Fed Policy, Interest Rate Futures, Labour Front, Loonie, Monetary Policy Report, Policy Interest, Policy Measures, Rate Of Inflation, Treasuries, Underlying Rate Of Inflation
Posted in Canadian Market, Markets | Comments Off

Ambush in the Oil Market

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

The most significant development in the financial markets during my recent sojourns in Europe was the International Energy Agency’s shocking release of strategic petroleum reserves. Unprecedented during peacetime, the move caught oil traders completely by surprise and prompted an immediate $6 drop in crude prices.

The howls of leaked information and insider trading were so loud that they could be heard in the distant recesses of the Swiss Alps. This is what you usually get when several leading players lose a huge chunk of money overnight.

The move was orchestrated by President Obama’s White House, and quickly found several willing coconspirators in Japan, Germany, and South Korea. Ostensibly done to address the 1.6 million barrel a day shortfall in light crude supplies caused by the Libyan civil war, there are in fact far broader implications for all of us.

This is the first real attempt by the consuming nations to eliminate the oil risk premium, which has been variously estimated at up to $50 a barrel. Take away the instability from the Middle East, the chicanery by short term traders at hedge funds, and more recently, the entry into the market of high frequency algorithms, and crude should be trading at a mere $50 a barrel. This is the point where virtually all oil majors believe would be supported by weakening global economic fundamentals, and on which they based their own multibillion dollar long term capital spending and development budgets.

The amount of oil involved was really quite small, some 2 million barrels, or 2.3% of a single day’s global consumption. That is not important. The impact at the margin where prices are made was large. Goldman Sacks said that this would cut oil prices by $10-$12 a barrel over the next three months, while JP Morgan predicted a whacking great drop from $130 to $100 for Brent crude.

The game changer is that the move reflects a new interventionist, activist approach by governments towards the commodity markets in general and the energy space specifically. Traders may bet against the national interest, but now do so at their peril. Volatility and unpredictability in the oil markets have just taken a quantum  leap up.

That leads to an automatic increase in SPAN margin, making it more expensive to maintain positions. Hedge fund risk managers will also be taking an ax to oil trading books. While the profits to be made from oil trading are quite substantial, they are now higher risk and of lower quality, justifying lesser amounts of capital. Over time this should shrink the speculative demand for oil in the market place, especially if the IEA repeat the action in the face of rising oil prices.

The impact on the global economy can be quite large. World oil consumption is at 87 million barrels a day, or 31.8 billion barrels a year. At today’s $95 a barrel, that costs consumers some $3 trillion a year out of a $60 trillion world GDP. If the IEA’s strategy works, and prices stay down 10% over time, this would inject $300 billion into the world economy. A 20% decline generates $600 billion, exactly the amount of money the financial system is losing with the expiration of Ben Bernanke’s QE2.  Call it QE3 in black?

You won’t hear any carping from me, as I have been playing oil from the short side over the last two months, all the way down from $118, as part of a generalized “RISK OFF” trade, buying puts on the oil ETF (USO), and buying the 2X inverse oil major ETF (DUG). The IEA action gets us within striking distance of my downside target of $84 a barrel, the price that prevailed before the onset of the Libyan war and a six month low. That is the neighborhood where I start to buy again.

By. Mad Hedge Fund Trader

John Thomas, The Mad Hedge Fund Trader is one of today’s most successful Hedge Fund Managers and a 40 year veteran of the financial markets. He has one of the best performing newsletters and has just launched a new investment service for Investors and Traders.

Tags: Brent Crude, Chicanery, Commodity Markets, Crude Oil, Crude Prices, Development Budgets, Economic Fundamentals, First Real Attempt, Global Consumption, Goldman Sacks, Insider Trading, International Energy Agency, Japan Germany, Jp Morgan, Oil Majors, Oil Traders, Risk Premium, Sojourns, Strategic Petroleum Reserves, Swiss Alps, Term Traders
Posted in ETFs, Markets, Oil and Gas | Comments Off

Goldman Trading Desk Sees Surge In Gold Prices Into Year End

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

While Goldman’s traditional, client-facing sell-side research is terminally useless and empirical evidence suggests that doing the opposite of what is recommended yields profitable results more than two thirds of the time, what its trading desk releases to select clients is far more targeted, nuanced, and, in one word, correct. Which is why we were surprised to hear what Goldman’s traders had to say about gold. To wit: “We are hearing anecdotes of strong physical demand already coming through in the last few days. Official sector buying is also likely to feature…Although having been rather wrong footed by this recent setback I continue to believe that gold will have a strong end of summer into q4 and that current price moves are creating another great buying opportunity.” And unlike the reverse psychology in the research department, the sales guys are much more careful as they have named accounts they get make commission revenue from. Piss these off one too many times and you are cut off. Which makes us believe that Goldman is really long and strong here.

From GS Trading:

Last week gold made an attempt to break above technical resistance of 1550. The momentum failed at 1558 and was followed by a severe correction into the end of the week losing over 60 usd in price. Yesterday we slipped below 1500 to 1491 which I felt certain would not happen as I mentioned in the previous commentary. Correlations with the eur are high and another broad de-risking across commodities amongst a highly unstable macro environment gathered gold in it’s wake. This morning we trade 1508.

From the franchise flow perspective, we saw sizeable liquidations from the levered community many of which had been building positions ahead of the break (including myself). It’s almost certain that CFTC data for the week that ended yesterday and released on Friday will show a sizeable drop in spec length although not yet taking us to the lower ranges. Most recent spec positions were 29m oz. I think it could be at least 3m oz lower. Anything below 20m is considered a much cleaner backdrop. Last summer we also saw painful liquidations in gold as comex length dropped from 30m to 21m oz with prices dropping 100 usd to 1160. This was quickly absorbed by the physical and central bank players which set the stage for the huge rally in September and October before ending the year at 1430.

From a technical perspective the thin summer markets could allow for further weakness to test last months support around 1465-70 but I am sure that the physical markets will be absorbing well ahead of these levels. We are hearing anecdotes of strong physical demand already coming through in the last few days. Official sector buying is also likely to feature. A recent survey of central banks suggested that gold purchases would continue to be an important part of their future activity.

Although having been rather wrong footed by this recent setback I continue to believe that gold will have a strong end of summer into q4 and that current price moves are creating another great buying opportunity. A significant break of 1460 will probably usher in a new era and author of GS trader commentaries…..

Tags: Anecdotes, Cftc, Commodities, Correlations, Empirical Evidence, Gold Prices, Goldman, Liquidations, Macro Environment, Momentum, Nuanced, Price Moves, Profitable Results, Q4, Reverse Psychology, Setback, Technical Resistance, Two Thirds, Wit, Year End
Posted in Commodities, Markets | Comments Off

Tracing America’s “Too Big To Fail” Crisis: An Infographic

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Tracing America’s “Too Big To Fail” Crisis: An Infographic

by Creditloan.com

Most call it one of the biggest financial crises in living memory. Others call it one great big Ponzi scheme. Whatever you want to call it, a bunch of people lost a bunch of money and the world of high finance may never be the same. But don’t worry – that doesn’t mean that we’ve fixed all these problems or punished the people responsible. It just means that next time you can’t get a loan or a higher credit limit, the banks will have an excuse.

Our “most unwanted” list includes guys like Martin Feldstein. He was an economics professor at a little school called Harvard (maybe you’ve heard of it) and served as Ronald Reagan’s Chief Economic Advisor. He was a major architect in Reagan’s deregulation scheme (which is either the best thing ever in the world to some political views, or the worst thing in the world to others).

Alan Greenspan is also responsible, some believe. He was paid $40,000 to testify on behalf of extreme bank looter Charles Keating. Greenspan spoke of his “sound business plans” and “expertise.” Of course, these kind words didn’t come for free.

Robert Rubin was the Treasury Secretary and also a former CEO of Goldman Sachs. He teamed with Larry Summers to get Congress to pass the “Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.” Whatever that did, he went and used it to make $126 million as Vice Chairman of CitiGroup.

Last up is Larry Summers, who also served as Treasury Secretary. Another Harvard economics professor (not looking good for that place). He was another key player in deregulation and also helped create derivatives, the trading of which was a major contributing factor to the financial collapse.

Companies and Their (Illegal) Activities

With all the time giant financial corporations spend doing shady and downright illegal things, it’s a wonder that they have any time left to do…whatever it is that they are actually supposed to do. Let’s take a look at some notable post-deregulation antics of those wacky corporations:

JP Morgan: Bribed government officials

Riggs: Laundered money for Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (a military leader – for those who don’t know – who led a coup in Chile and was said to have brutally crushed, killed, and interred all who opposed his illegal regime)

Credit Suisse: Laundered money for Iran in violation of US sanctions

Freddie Mac: Accounting fraud

Fannie Mae: Accounting fraud (which, in this case, means overstating their earnings by 10 billion over ten years, which is NOT the same as slightly exaggerating your salary to impress someone at the bar)

UBS: Fraud

ENRON: Fraud – Citibank, JP Morgan, and Merrill Lynch tried to help conceal the fraud

Of course, this is just the beginning. Review the infographic to see how, exactly, the economic crisis of 2008 occurred and you be the judge: who’s to blame? Are we out of the dark yet? And are we making the right choices now?

[Via: CreditLoan.com]

The views and opinions expressed herein are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of AdvisorAnalyst.com

Tags: Alan Greenspan, Biggest Financial Crises, Charles Keating, Economic Advisor, Economics Professor, Financial Collapse, Financial Corporations, Goldman Sachs, Gramm Leach Bliley, Gramm Leach Bliley Act, Harvard Economics, High Finance, Infographic, Larry Summers, Living Memory, Martin Feldstein, Ponzi Scheme, Ronald Reagan, Sound Business Plans, Treasury Secretary
Posted in Markets | Comments Off

The Most Important Point in Market History, says Todd Harrison

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

by Trader Mark, Fund My Mutual Fund

I wanted to highlight a story on Marketwatch by Minyanville’s Todd Harrison.  While the headline is a bit of hyperbole , I’ve learned many times, headlines are not written by authors but by publishers (but judging from the content of the piece, Todd might have choesn the headline as well).  That said, it’s a nice overview of the bigger issues behind the scenes – that of a grand transfer of risk.debt from the private sector to the public, as we focus on the day to day market environment in ‘bailout globe’.  As stock speculators this handoff is a “great thing” (as evidenced by huge rallies each time governments transfer trouble from the ‘markets’ to ‘citizens’)… and will continue to be a great thing, until one day it is not.  But for now kick the can forever is the only solution 2007-present.

A few snippets

• Still, we’ll chew through the macro dew one more time, for this is perhaps the most important juncture of the year—if not, and I’m not prone to hyperbole, history.  Yes, history.
• The bulls will point to strong corporate credit markets (which suggest higher equity prices despite trading well off their best levels) and “The Misery Index,” which recently hit a 28-year high, as a contrary indicator. They’ll use technical terms like “stochastics” and “put/call ratios” to support their thesis, and in a vacuum they’re 100% right.
• Outside the vacuum, here in the world with the rest of us, we’re dancing on the head of a pin, and few people seem to notice how precarious our position is. Way back when, during the panic of 2008, we spoke about the lesser of two evils, about how the government bought the cancer in an attempt to sell the car crash.
• They were “successful,” insofar that they jacked the stock market 100% and allowed Corporate America to roll its debt and issue stock. What they also did, perhaps unintentionally, is transfer risk from the private sector to an already burgeoning public sector, which has heightened tension across the geopolitical spectrum.

Again, there are two paths:

• Drugs that mask the symptoms (throwing trillions of dollars at the problem), which triggered a spate of unintended consequences (such as outsized bank profits) and lead to a tricky trifecta of societal acrimony (over the likes of Goldman Sachs and BP), social unrest (from Greece to Libya), and geopolitical conflict (yet to be determined).
• Medicine that cures the disease (debt destruction and reorganization) will be a bitter pill to swallow. But once we traverse that process, it’ll pave the way to a legitimate outside-in globalization (the US won’t lead, but will participate). This, in my view, is where the market was heading before the synthetic stimuli, and it’s where the market will ultimately go whether we like it or not. The question, of course, is,“From where?”

Tags: Bailout, Car Crash, Credit Markets, Dancing On The Head Of A Pin, Handoff, Head Of A Pin, Hyperbole, Issue Stock, Juncture, Lesser Of Two, Lesser Of Two Evils, Market Environment, Market History, Minyanville, Misery Index, Stochastics, Stock Speculators, Time Governments, Todd Harrison, Transfer Risk
Posted in Markets | Comments Off

Worldwide Nuclear Industry Woes Deepen

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Worldwide Nuclear Industry Woes Deepen

The year 2011 will go down for the nuclear industry worldwide as an annus horribilis.
First came the March Fukushima nuclear disaster, with operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) belatedly acknowledging that three of the facility’s six reactors did, in fact, suffer core meltdowns.

On 20 June Moody’s Investors Service obligingly cut its credit rating on TEPCO to junk status and kept the operator of Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant on review for possible further downgrade, citing uncertainty over the fate of its bailout plan. TEPCO is Japan’s largest corporate bond issuer and its shares are widely held by financial institutions. TEPCO shares have plummeted 80 percent since March, dragging its market capitalization below $9 billion. Following the Fukushima crisis, including a round of emergency loans from lenders and $64 billion in outstanding bonds, TEPCO now has around $115 billion in debt versus equity of about $35 billion. It’s enough to make any self-respecting Japanese salaryman commit hara-kiri.

Farther to the west, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is closely monitoring conditions along the Missouri River, where floodwaters were rising at Nebraska Public Power District’s Cooper Nuclear Station and Omaha Public Power District’s Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant. Flooding could complicate the restart of the Fort Calhoun plant, shut in April for refueling, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects record water release from the federal dams along the Missouri River to continue until mid-August. The failure on Friday of a Missouri River levee in northwest Missouri offered the imperiled plants a brief reprieve from possible flooding, although Nebraska officials nervously expect the river’s waters to rise again.

Completing the trifecta and adding to the perfect storm is news of a work stoppage at Israel’s secretive Dimona nuclear power station. The only thing that Dimona officials fear more than publicity is bad publicity and Israel’s Channel 10 is reporting that Dimona employees have decided to enact work sanctions after ongoing negotiations have failed to bring an end to a dispute over their work conditions. Beginning Sunday, external workers will not be allowed to work in Dimona, and the union may shut down the core completely in the coming weeks if their demands are not met. The labor dispute is between the Treasury and the reactor’s managers, who are demanding salary reimbursement comparable to that of nuclear researchers.

And the hits just keep on coming.

The Israeli Atomic Energy Commission is preparing to make a presentation to a special session of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna to outline new steps to supervise Israel’s two nuclear reactors, the 24-megawatt Dimona reactor and a 5-megawatt Center for Nuclear Research reactor at Nahal Sorek and the handling of their nuclear waste. Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission head is leading the Israeli delegation.

It is likely to be a contentious meeting. The United States provided the Nahal Sorek reactor to Israel in the 1960s as part of the Atoms for Peace Program. The reactor is under IAEA supervision and is visited by international inspectors twice a year.

Dimona, on the other hand, was supplied to Israel by France in 1958 and is widely believed to provide fissile material for Israel’s nuclear weapons program. Buttressing these concerns is the fact that Israel is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and refuses to allow IAEA inspectors to supervise or even visit Dimona. Israel’s protestations over the benign nature of Dimona’s activities received a worldwide blow in 1986 when a technician at Dimona, Mordechai Vanunu, revealed an account of Israeli covert nuclear weapons production there, complete with photographs, to London’s Sunday Times. An infuriated Israeli government subsequently kidnapped him in Rome, returning him to Israel for trial on charges of treason and espionage in a closed court, where he received and served a 18-year sentence, 11 of them in solitary, for having the temerity to reveal Israel’s covert nuclear military program to the world.

According to an Arab diplomatic source speaking to Kuwait’s KUNA news agency, Arab nations are demanding that the IAEA inspect Israel’s nuclear facilities at an international nuclear security conference, which opened at IAEA headquarters in Vienna on Monday. Arab nations maintain that Israel’s unmonitored nuclear program, led by Dimona’s aging reactor, pose an unacceptable risk to Middle Eastern nations without proper IAEA supervision. Further upping the ante, the diplomatic source stated that the participating Arab delegations are renewing calls for Israel to sign to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as well opening its nuclear facilities to regular IAEA supervision. In the wake of Fukushima such calls are certain to receive a more sympathetic hearing.

Between Vienna and labor woes, its enough to make an Israeli nuclear official wish for something more manageable, like a plague of locusts.

Source: http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Worldwide-Nuclear-Industry-Woes-Deepen.html

Posted in Markets | Comments Off

Stock Price Correction Mostly Played Out, But Duration Could Go Longer (BCA)

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

In the context of this macro-economic climate, BCA Research says that investors will need to become more tactically involved in asset allocation, than they needed to be during the initial period of the equity rally, and that technical signals will become very important as far as the timing of moves is concerned.

BCA’s U.S. Equity Strategy service has watched numerous key technical measures during the current correction. It appears sentiment has retraced back to levels that indicate previous bull market troughs. More NYSE stocks are currently reaching new lows than highs, indicating that selling or ‘distribution’ pressure is advancing.

BCA has two proprietary indices, the Intermediate Equity Indicator, and the Capitulation Index, and both have dropped sharply and are getting close to neutral territory. In past corrections, both of these slipped slightly into negative territory by the time broader markets hit the floor.

According to BCA, when you combine these technical signals, what shines through is that the bulk of the corrective phase may be over as far as magnitude, though none of these indicators has been fully played out, especially if you consider the VIX has yet to ‘spike.’

In conclusion, BCA says that while the market has already experienced an advanced correction, where price is concerned, its duration still has room to run.

Copyright © BCA Research

Tags: Asset Allocation, Capitulation, Corrective Phase, Distribution Pressure, Duration, Economic Climate, Equity Strategy, Initial Period, Lows, Magnitude, Negative Territory, Neutral Territory, Nyse Stocks, Sentiment, Signals, Stock Price, Strategy Service, Technical Measures, Troughs, Vix
Posted in Markets | Comments Off

Second Quarter Earnings Expectations (Bespoke)

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

by Bespoke Investment Group

The first chart below shows how expectations for Q2 S&P 500 earnings growth have changed over the past four months.  From the end of February through the end of April, growth expectations rose from 10.7% to 14.1%.  Since the end of April, however, earnings growth expectations have drited lower and the consensus estimate currently stands at 13.3%.  The peak in the Q2 earnings growth estimate coincides with the peak in the S&P 500 this year.  Has the market dropped because of the drop in growth estimates, or have analysts lowered their estimates because of the market drop?  Something tells us it’s the latter.

Below we highlight the current consensus Q2 earnings growth expectations for the ten S&P 500 sectors.  As shown, just two sectors are expected to see Q2 growth that is bigger than the S&P 500 as a whole — Energy at 40.5% and Materials at 46.3%.  Technology, Industrials and Financials are expected to see low double-digit Q2 earnings growth, while Health Care, Telecom, Consumer Discretionary and Consumer Staples have single-digit growth expectations.  Utilities is the only sector with negative Q2 growth expectations.

Copyright © Bespoke Investment Group

Tags: Stocks
Posted in Markets | Comments Off