Three Month Old Baby Shot And Killed in Palo Alto

Izack Jesus Jimenez life ended in East Palo Alto before it even had a chance to begin. He was shot in the head on Sunday June 5, 2011, while riding in his parent’s car. While Bullets hit the car, Izack’s mother tried to shield Izack and his 4 year old brother from the bullets, but it didn’t help. This was a senseless shooting, by a 17 year old gang member,
who was beaten up on May 31 in Redwood City. This punk thought Oscar Jimenez was the one who did it. It was unfortunate that Oscar Jimenez and his family were the targets of this young punk. The San Mateo County
District Attorney’s Office is deciding if they should charge this punk as an adult Really! What is it to decide on?  I get pissed when these gang member act like their so tough, but when they get their butts kicked the first thing they want to do is get a gun shoot. These gang members in Palo Alto, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose, are punks.  They know right
from wrong and they should be charged as adults.

LM


http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_18223400?source=most_viewed

Homes Prove Not Weatherproof

Even while the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) adjusts its data for seasonality, it could still be noisy or skewed by Memorial Day variation. However, we suspect several extraordinary issues are at play in messing up mortgage flow, and for that matter general economic activity as well. It’s the weather stupid!

Our founder earned clients a 23% average annual return over five years as a stock analyst on Wall Street. "The Greek" has written for institutional newsletters, Businessweek, Real Money, Seeking Alpha and others, while also appearing across TV and radio. While writing for Wall Street Greek, Mr. Kaminis presciently warned of the financial crisis.

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Homes Prove Not Weatherproof

The MBA reported for the week ending June 3 this last week, which included the May 30 falling of Memorial Day. There was a wild variance between the week’s seasonally adjusted and unadjusted mortgage application indices, so the holiday certainly came to play. However, considering activity dropped relatively sharply even after adjustment, it’s possible the MBA may have done an imperfect job in its tweaking. However, common sense tells us that several extraordinary issues are likely at play here and in other data.

Let’s Look at the Housing Data:

The MBA reported for the week ending June 3, which included the May 30 falling of Memorial Day. Of course, the prior week did not include the holiday, and produced a relatively stronger flow of activity. The MBA’s Market Composite Index of mortgage activity fell by 11% on an unadjusted basis, but only decreased 0.4% after adjustment. The MBA’s Refinance Index, which is not seasonally adjusted but tweaked for the holiday, gained 1.3% against the prior week. It had good reason to rise, as the average contracted rates on 30-year and 15-year fixed rate mortgages improved to 4.54% (from 4.58%) and 3.67% (from 3.78%) in the period.

The Purchase Index, which measures mortgage applications on home purchases, fell 15.2% before adjustment due to the holiday. However, it sank 4.4% even after adjustment. Why the non-negligible decline in Purchase Activity even after adjustment? I think the weather came into play, with so much of the central portion of the country battling floods and tornadoes of late. I know that weather impact is vague and tough to measure, and often used by corporations and the government to cover for failure. However, we’ve seen an extraordinary level of flooding within the nation’s center, and apocalyptic tornadic activity could certainly have frozen business with its inherent uncertainty. Thus, with regard to housing and mortgage activity, and also general economic activity, we should not rule out the impact of weather over these last few months as an important factor in recent softness. Homes have proven not to be weatherproof.

Yeah I said it, it’s the weather stupid! It’s certainly had some negative impact, though we continue to see gasoline prices near $4 and high commodity costs as more important.



Editor's Note: Article should interest investors in Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC.OB), Fannie Mae (OTC: FNMA.OB), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), Toronto Dominion (NYSE: TD), BB&T (NYSE: BBT), CIT (NYSE: CIT), Bank United (NYSE: BKU), First Citizens (OTC: FCNCA.PK), Synovus (NYSE: SNV), United Bankshares (Nasdaq: UBSI), Hampton Roads Bankshares (Nasdaq: HMPR), WesBanco (Nasdaq: WSBC), City Holding (Nasdaq: CHCO), Sandy Spring (Nasdaq: SASR), First Citizens (OTC: FCBN.OB), SCBT Financial (Nasdaq: SCBT), Wilmington Trust (NYSE: WL), WSFS Financial (Nasdaq: WSFS), Southside Bancshares (Nasdaq: SBSI), Stellar One (Nasdaq: STEL), Union First Market (Nasdaq: UBSH), Eagle Bancorp (Nasdaq: EGBN), First Bancorp (Nasdaq: FBNC), Ameris (Nasdaq: ABCB), The Bancorp (Nasdaq: TBBK), First Community (Nasdaq: FCBC), Capital City (Nasdaq: CCBG), Financial Institutions (Nasdaq: FISI), National Bankshares (Nasdaq: NKSH), Citizens & Northern (Nasdaq: CZNC), Charter Financial (Nasdaq: CHFN), Seacoast Banking (Nasdaq: SBCF), TIB Financial (Nasdaq: TIBB), American National (Nasdaq: AMNB), United Community (Nasdaq: UCBI), Middleburg Financial (Nasdaq: MBRG), Heritage Financial (Nasdaq: HBOS), Zions Bancorp (Nasdaq: ZION), East West Bancorp (Nasdaq: EWBC), City National (NYSE: CYN), Bank of Hawaii (NYSE: BOH), SVB Financial (Nasdaq: SIVB), Westamerica (Nasdaq: WABC), Cathay General (Nasdaq: CATY), Umpqua (Nasdaq: UMPQ), Glacier Bancorp (Nasdaq: GBCI), Pacific Capital (Nasdaq: PCBC), PacWest (Nasdaq: PACW), Western Alliance (NYSE: WAL), First National Alaska (OTC: FBAK.OB), First Interstate Bancsystem (Nasdaq: FIBK), Nara (Nasdaq: NARA), West Coast (Nasdaq: WCBO), TriCo (Nasdaq: TCBK), Territorial (Nasdaq: TBNK), Washington Banking (Nasdaq: WCBO), Bank of Marin (Nasdaq: BMRC), Hanmi (Nasdaq: HAFC), PNC Bank (NYSE: PNC), J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), United Bankshares (Nasdaq: UBSI), Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK), MB Financial (Nasdaq: MBFI), Astoria Financial (NYSE: AF), New York Community (NYSE: NYB), Hudson City (Nasdaq: HCBK), People’s United (Nasdaq: PBCT), First Niagra (Nasdaq: FNFG), Capitol Federal (Nasdaq: CFFN), Washington Federal (Nasdaq: WFSL), Investor’s Bancorp (Nasdaq: ISBC), Northwest Bankshares (Nasdaq: NWBI), Sterling Financial (Nasdaq: STSA), Ocwen (NYSE: OCN), Flagstar (NYSE: FBC), Provident (NYSE: PFS), Colombia Banking (Nasdaq: COLB), Kearny (Nasdaq: KRNY), Brookline (Nasdaq: BRKL), Dime Community (Nasdaq: DCOM), Flushing Financial (Nasdaq: FFIC), Danvers (Nasdaq: DNBK).

Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. This article and website in no way offers or represents financial or investment advice. Information is provided for entertainment purposes only.

Jobless Claims Report Shows Positive Move Toward Natural State of Employment

Now well-embedded above the psycho- logically dampening threshold of 400K, the latest weekly jobless claims tally held at about the same level seen over the past several weeks. Still, while the report is surely full of lowlights, it does include one bright spot that illustrates a labor market condition not yet anywhere near natural state.

Our founder earned clients a 23% average annual return over five years as a stock analyst on Wall Street. "The Greek" has written for institutional newsletters, Businessweek, Real Money, Seeking Alpha and others, while also appearing across TV and radio. While writing for Wall Street Greek, Mr. Kaminis presciently warned of the financial crisis.

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Jobless Claims Report Shows Positive Move Toward Natural State of Employment

Weekly Initial Jobless Claims for the period ending June 4 increased by another 1,000 above last week’s revised rate, to 427K. Thus, over the last three weeks, we’ve recorded 429K, 426K and now 427K new benefits filers. Remember, we have been unscientifically tracking the enthusiasm of the stock market in relation to the claims filings and there is an unscientifically obvious correlation – you run the regression. As jobless claims broke under 450K and then 400K for the first time, stocks rejoiced the coming of the new old economy, or recovery in drab-man’s terms. Just as quickly as stocks rejoiced over dwindling claims counts, they lost hope with their revival. Of course, other economic indicators have offered a similarly sad signal, though at varying rates and times.

The four-week moving average of jobless claims offers some mildly good news today, perhaps like a cancer patient hearing that no new tumors had appeared. The four-week claims count decreased 2,750, to 424K. Considering that this figure sat as high as 439,750 in the May 21 period might give our hypothetical cancer patient some hope. We are not cured but perhaps feeling a bit better today, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average seeking a half-point gain in early trading.

If you dig deep enough, there is still good news to be found in labor data, believe it or not. The insured unemployment rate dropped to 2.9% on a seasonally adjusted basis through May 28 (the latest for this data point); that’s down from 3.0% reported the week before. Better yet, the number of people receiving benefits of some sort for their unemployment keeps improving. This week’s data covering the May 21 period showed the total number of unemployed persons receiving some sort of benefit, including unemployment insurance extensions, improved by 89,233 to 7.6 million. This figure has been steadily improving, a sign that we are not yet near a natural state of national employment. Some claim, and we agree, that many of the lost jobs of the last decade will never return. However, new jobs should be created nonetheless as population growth, wealth stores and ambitious Americans push growth.

Speaking of the unemployment insurance extensions, the number of Americans receiving such benefits fell slightly in the May 21 period, losing 6,593 people, leaving 618,459 long-term insured unemployed Americans. We again remind you that there is a definite threshold that many Americans fall short of, leaving them high and dry as far as these benefits are concerned, while they are just as unemployed as the rest. These are the folks who are being foreclosed upon, the forgotten.

In conclusion, as we have highlighted, there is a reversion to the mean occurring in the labor market, to a natural state of national employment that is clearly better than what we have today.

Regional Lowlights:

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending May 21 were in Alaska (5.0 percent), Puerto Rico (4.4), Oregon (4.0), California (3.9), Pennsylvania (3.9), Nevada (3.6), Connecticut (3.5), New Jersey (3.5), Illinois (3.3), and Rhode Island (3.3).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 28 were in New York (+3,187), Oregon (+1,508), Missouri (+1,158), Illinois (+1,081), Washington (+844), while the largest decreases were in California (-1,614), Wisconsin (-1,032), Massachusetts (-929), New Jersey(-882) and Texas (-659).



Article should interest investors in Paychex (Nasdaq: PAYX), Manpower (NYSE: MAN), Robert Half International (NYSE: RHI), 51Job Inc. (Nasdaq: JOBS), Monster World Wide (NYSE: MWW), Korn/Ferry International (NYSE: KFY), Administaff (NYSE: ASF), Kforce (Nasdaq: KFRC), TrueBlue (NYSE: TBI), Dice Holdings (NYSE: DHX), Kelly Services (Nasdaq: KELYA), SFN Group (NYSE: SFN), CDI Corp. (NYSE: CDI), Cross Country Healthcare (Nasdaq: CCRN), On Assignment (Nasdaq: ASGN), AMN Healthcare Services (NYSE: AHS), Barrett Business Services (Nasdaq: BBSI), Hudson Highland Group (Nasdaq: HHGP), StarTek (NYSE: SRT), RCM Technologies (Nasdaq: RCMT), VirtualScopics (Nasdaq: VSCP), American Surgical (OTC: ASRG.OB), Medical Connections (OTC: MCTH.OB), iGen Networks (OTC: IGEN.OB), St. Joseph (OTC: STJO.OB), General Employment Enterprises (NYSE: JOB), Total Neutraceutical (OTC: TNUS.OB), TeamStaff (Nasdaq: TSTF), Stratum (OTC: STTH.OB), Purespectrum (OTC: PSRU.OB), Corporate Resource Services (OTC: CRRS.OB), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Citigroup (NYSE: C), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), TD Bank (NYSE: TD), PNC Bank (NYSE: PNC), General Electric (NYSE: GE), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), Alcoa (NYSE: AA), American Express (NYSE: AXP), Boeing (NYSE: BA), Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), Chevron (NYSE: CVX), DuPont (NYSE: DD), Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), Home Depot (NYSE: HD), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Kraft (NYSE: KFT), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), 3M (NYSE: MMM), Merck (NYSE: MRK), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), AT&T (NYSE: T), Travelers (NYSE: TRV), United Technologies (NYSE: UTX), Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM).

Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. This article and website in no way offers or represents financial or investment advice. Information is provided for entertainment purposes only.