6/22/09

Worst Performing Stocks Since June 12th

Read More

Dodd's Irish Luck

Dodd's Irish Luck
The Senator Sure Knows How to Pick an Investment.


Irish property prices have plummeted since 2002. But a "cottage" in County Galway owned by Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd has tripled in value during the same period, according to a financial disclosure form filed by the Senator this month.

There are two possible explanations for this remarkable turn of fortune. Maybe Mr. Dodd is luckier than a leprechaun. Or could it be that he paid well below the market price when he bought out a co-owner in 2002 and had undervalued the property accordingly? If it's the latter, then Mr. Dodd received a "gift," in IRS parlance, and should have declared it on his financial disclosure form that year. He did not. Oh, and by the way, the seller at that low, low price has been the business partner of a man for whom Mr. Dodd lobbied to receive a Presidential pardon. READ/Puke more.

(RSX is the ETF) Russia Stocks Fall 20% in World’s First Bear Market Since March

Russia Stocks Fall 20% in World’s First Bear Market Since March
Share | Email | Print | A A A

By Michael Patterson and Laura Cochrane

June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s Micex Index tumbled more than 20 percent from its 2009 peak, becoming the world’s first benchmark equity index to enter a bear market since global stocks began rallying in March.

The index of ruble-denominated shares slid 7.8 percent to 937.98, bringing its decline since June 1 to 22 percent. The 30- company gauge posted the steepest drop worldwide today and has led a slide from New York to Mumbai this month on concern the global recession will persist longer than investors estimated.

The Micex, which rallied as much as 135 percent since October, reversed direction after reaching the most expensive level relative to profit estimates since January 2007, according to Bloomberg data. Russia’s economy may shrink 7.5 percent this year as industrial output slumps, unemployment rises and investors pull capital from the world’s largest energy exporter, the World Bank said today. The lender also forecast a 2.9 percent contraction in the global economy.

“The market needs to pause because it has been going up too much,” said Nicholas Field, who helps manage about $11 billion in emerging-market stocks at Schroders Plc in London, including Russian equities. “Nothing goes in a straight line.”

The MSCI All-Country World Index has dropped 6 percent from its 2009 high, paring its gain from a six-year low on March 9 to 38 percent.

No V-Shaped Rebound

The Russian economy shrank an annual 9.8 percent in the first quarter, the most in 15 years, as companies struggled to raise funds and falling incomes crimped consumer demand. Industrial output shrank a record annual 17.1 percent in May.

“Some of Russia’s main industrial production data was disappointing and is a reminder that the real economy is going to be impacted quite severely this year,” said Michael Wang, an emerging-markets strategist at Morgan Stanley in London. “There is not going to be a quick V-shaped recovery in Russia.”

Earnings for Russian companies may tumble 61 percent in 2009 before rebounding 12 percent next year, according to forecasts from Citigroup Inc. in New York. That compares with a 24 percent decline this year for developing nations as a whole, and a 23 percent increase in 2010, the brokerage’s data showed.

After Russia, Croatian stocks are the closest to a bear- market decline since the global equity rally began. The Balkan nation’s Crobex Index is down 15 percent from its 2009 high. A bear market is defined as a decline of 20 percent or more.

Brazil, India, China

Brazil’s Bovespa Index has dropped 8.7 percent from its peak this year, while India’s Bombay Stock Exchange Composite Index slid 7.4 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index closed today at its highest level since July 28.

The Russian market’s “extreme” rally since October makes a 20 percent decline less meaningful than for markets that didn’t rise as much, said Lombard Odier & Cie.’s Curtis Butler.

“It seems a bit absurd at this point to be using the phrase ‘bear market,’” Butler, chief investment officer of emerging-market equities at Lombard, said in a phone interview. The decline is a “healthy development that will allow investors who have booked significant profits to offload shares to those who have not participated,” he said.

Investors fled Russia last year, taking capital outflows to a record $132.7 billion, as Urals crude, the country’s main export blend, declined as much as 77 percent from a July peak. A five-day war with Georgia in August increased speculation that overseas companies would reduce investments, after the conflict was condemned by the U.S.

Russian corporations slashed output and cut staff after the collapse of New York investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. froze credit markets worldwide and the global economy slipped into its first recession since World War II. The Micex tumbled as much as 73 percent last year.

Best Performer

The Russian market’s rally from its four-year low on Oct. 24 to its peak this month was the steepest among stock benchmarks in the world’s 70 biggest markets. Investors returned as oil more than doubled and the nation’s currency, the ruble, recovered from a 19 percent slide against the dollar last year.

Urals crude has dropped 4.8 percent from its high this year, while the ruble has weakened 2.3 percent against the dollar since June 1.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Patterson in London at mpatterson10@bloomberg.net; Laura Cochrane in London at lcochrane3@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 22, 2009 13:10 EDT

DOW down a duce 200, SPX off 3% with XLE and XLF getting assraped today $SML (TNA TNZ ) off over 3%

Interested to see if we gap to 880 support and see how it holds.

SPX 989 with 30 min to go...any pop should be quick if at all

SPX off 27 points new low today at 894 - New 15 min channel developing

XLE - 5% XLF -4.5% today DOW off 190

Insiders Dump Shares at Fastest Pace in 2 Years - "Mish" Shedlock

Insiders Dump Shares at Fastest Pace in 2 Years

Bloomberg is reporting Insiders Exit Shares at the Fastest Pace in Two Years

Executives at U.S. companies are taking advantage of the biggest stock-market rally in 71 years to sell their shares at the fastest pace since credit markets started to seize up two years ago.

Insiders of Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies were net sellers for 14 straight weeks as the gauge rose 36 percent, data compiled by InsiderScore.com show. Amgen Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Sharer and five other officials sold $8.2 million of stock. Christopher Donahue, the CEO of Federated Investors Inc., and his brother, Chief Financial Officer Thomas Donahue, offered the most in three years.

Sales by CEOs, directors and senior officers have accelerated to the highest level since June 2007, two months before credit markets froze, as the S&P 500 rebounded from its 12-year low in March. The increase is making investors more skittish because executives presumably have the best information about their companies’ prospects.

“If insiders are selling into the rally, that shows they don’t expect their business to be able to support current stock- price levels,” said Joseph Keating, the chief investment officer of Raleigh, North Carolina-based RBC Bank, the unit of Royal Bank of Canada that oversees $33 billion in client assets. “They’re taking advantage of this bounce and selling into it.”

If insiders don't believe this rally, why should you?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Rut row : Feds To Get Power To Target Websites Making “False Claims” New FTC guidelines would allow government to scrutinize content of websites, “

Feds To Get Power To Target Websites Making “False Claims”

New FTC guidelines would allow government to scrutinize content of websites, “patrol what bloggers say and do”

Political storm clouds on the horizon folks. Free Speach up for grabs...

SPX holding well above 880 support - bounce time?

Short term trend is now down on the daily...below the 40 EMA

Pair trade set up : long UNG short USO (or visa versa)

SPX RSI breaks below 50... sell next rally reversal

Update on XLE short (3X's)

Testing 903 now, BTW 10 week EMA is 902...a bounce or sell off there

SPX Fut show 1% gap down, USO XLF XLE too - 903 then 880 maybe tested pretty soon