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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: clochard who wrote (109887)	1/19/2015 12:32:21 AM
From: Metacomet	Respond to of 220332

..and the debt scolds rave about everything else causing the instability ..mindless squids spraying gibberish as they strive to enable an unfettered celebration of greed

To: clochard who wrote (109887)	1/19/2015 2:14:38 AM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 220332

Between the 1930s and late 1970s, 90% of all American workers shared 70% of all income growth. Between 1980 and 2012 guess how much of the economic growth that 90% of all American workers shared in their incomes? Zero.

To: clochard who wrote (109887)	1/19/2015 5:58:45 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 220332

Europe stocks at 7-year high on QE hopes. Optimism on the US economy, following news that consumer confidence is at its highest in 11 years, helped push Wall Street’s S&P 500 up 1.3 per cent on Friday and that is helping underpin investor sentiment in most developed-nation bourses. Europe stocks at 7-year high on QE hopes Monday 10:00 GMT. European equities are inching to seven-year highs as traders bet on more stimulus this week from the European Central Bank. But Chinese stocks plummeted nearly 8 per cent after the country’s top three brokerages were banned from opening new margin accounts — a major driver of the recent stock market rally — and fears grew over the health of the country’s property market. Optimism on the US economy, following news that consumer confidence is at its highest in 11 years, helped push Wall Street’s S&P 500 up 1.3 per cent on Friday and that is helping underpin investor sentiment in most developed-nation bourses. But traders will have to manage without further guidance from the US because stock and bond markets there are closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr holiday. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 is up 0.1 per cent to 1,409.1, leaving the benchmark on course to close at its best level since January 2008. Equity bulls have been energised in recent sessions by heightened expectations that the ECB will on Thursday announce a big package of quantitative easing designed to stimulate the bloc’s economy and reverse a slide into deflation. A belief that “full-blown” QE is on its way was reinforced last week when the Swiss National Bank’s removal of its franc ceiling versus the euro was assumed to be a pre-emptive strike ahead of further single currency weakness following any ECB action. “Expectation for a bold QE announcement by [ECB President Mario] Draghi has risen sharply in recent days, with the consensus expectation looking for a programme in excess of €500bn over the next two years,” wrote Eric Green, head of US rates and research at TD Securities. European equities are made relatively more attractive because expectations of ECB stimulus has already forced up prices of sovereign bonds, pushing yields to historic lows. The 10-year Bund yield last week hit 0.40 per cent, its most meagre payout on record, and the two-year note offered minus 0.16 per cent, reflecting negative inflation across the region. The more upbeat tone across markets at the start of the week may be removing some of Bunds’ haven status, but yields are again edging lower, off 1 basis point to 0.44 per cent. Despite that, the euro is having a better day as traders think the recent sell-off is overdone. The common currency, which on Friday hit an 11-year intraday low of $1.1459, is up 0.4 per cent to $1.1616, and it is 1.5 per cent firmer against the Swiss franc at SFr1.0066 as the cross strives to find equilibrium after last week’s momentous moves. A feature of the turmoil sparked by the franc’s sharp rally was that many retail investors saw their accounts wiped out because of the high gearing with which they were encouraged to play the forex markets. And regulators’ concerns about trading excesses appear to have spread to China. The Shanghai Composite, which had surged to a 65-month high on a burst of retail investor optimism, plunged 7.8 per cent after China’s securities regulator last week said 12 brokers violated rules in their margin trading businesses, following investigations into high-risk margin trading. The SCi’s drop was its biggest in more than six-and-a-half years and it infected Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng shed 1.6 per cent. Chinese brokerage shares were hit after Citic Securities, Haitong Securities and Guotai Junan Securities — the country’s biggest brokerages by assets — were banned from opening new retail accounts for three months. A Bloomberg index of institutional brokerages soared as much as 200 per cent between July and mid-December, as trading volumes in China’s retail-dominated market surged late last year. New margin-financing account openings in December alone totalled 724,000, versus a monthly average of 232,000 in the previous 11 months, according to Citigroup research. Christina Yu, equities analyst at Citi, said the earnings impact of the CSRC ban “appears limited”, but was significant for market sentiment. “This is the first time CSRC has taken action against leverage trading,” she noted. Adding to investor concerns was news over the weekend that prices of new homes in big Chinese cities fell 4.3 per cent in December from a year earlier, the largest drop since the current data series began in 2011, according to Financial Times calculations. Many investors remain worried about the fragility of China’s property sector amid corruption probes by Beijing and fears of more loan defaults. Concerns about reduced construction activity in China is weighing on industrial commodities, with copper off 0.9 per cent to $5,730 a tonne in a mostly negative metals sector. Benchmark Brent crude is slipping 1.3 per cent to $49.53 a barrel and gold is retreating $4 from a four-month high to $1,276 an ounce even as the dollar index dips 0.3 per cent. The slump in China encouraged Asia-based investors to seek perceived safety in the yen, pushing the Japanese unit up 0.3 per cent against the dollar to Y117.24. Yen strength would normally hurt the exporter-sensitive Tokyo stock market, but the Nikkei 225 preferred to follow Wall Street’s rally on Friday and rose 0.9 per cent. Additional reporting by Patrick McGee in Hong Kong Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.