Wall Street Day 11-22-11

The Wall Street day is being dictated by several factors, with European political indecision sending shares tied to the region lower. In the States, we've seen the failure of the congressional super committee cost stocks to start the day, along with a miss in the GDP revision, but deep into afternoon trade, Wall Street is higher.

Wall Street Greek founder, Markos Kaminis, 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.

Wall Street

The Congressional Deficit Reduction Committee, which we affectionately labeled the stupercommittee, looks near certain now to fail to drive budget cutting legislation. However, given the President’s commitment to veto any congressional effort to remove the default budget cuts that would come to play as a result of super committee failure, U.S. markets should theoretically be unaffected. They have performed better than their European brethren today, with the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 each up fractionally into the afternoon Tuesday.

That’s because with debt cuts coming anyway, a credit downgrade of the U.S. is effectively stopped. And this morning, all three rating agencies affirmed their positions on American sovereign debt. S&P (NYSE: MHP) stated that the default cuts mitigated risk if enforced, though Moody’s (NYSE: MCO) and Fitch said the legislative stalemate was worth noting. Of course, the last two mentioned still have top ratings on the U.S.

The key economic data of the day came from the first revision to third quarter GDP. Gross domestic product was cut to growth of 2.0%, down from the 2.5% rate initially reported and short of the 2.4% consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The range of economists’ views spanned from 2.0% to 2.9%. GDP was up 1.3% in Q2, so the improvement is still noted, yet the slower pace also takes some steam out of stocks as it raises the economic alert again looking forward.

The other big report Tuesday was the 2:00 PM ET release of the Federal Open Market Committee Meeting Minutes, which cover the Fed meeting of November 2.

ICSC/Reuters Weekly Same-Store Sales fell 0.9% through the period ending November 19 while marking 2.8% year-to-year growth. That’s not impressive when factoring in the rate of inflation. With this data immediately preceding the start of the holiday shopping season, it seems futile to read into. Shoppers are anxiously awaiting the start of Black Friday deals now, and so putting off consumption in the current period.

MF Global’s (OTC: MFGLQ.PK) post bankruptcy trustee requested New York bankruptcy court approval to speed the claims process today. The court is also reviewing the details regarding the missing funds at MF Global, and has revised the total to $1.2 billion, which is twice the initial estimate.

IPO lockup curbs expired on Solazyme (Nasdaq: SZYM) today. Jacobs Engineering (NYSE: JEC) has an analyst meeting scheduled. The earnings schedule highlights news from Medtronic (NYSE: MDT), Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB), Hormel Foods (NYSE: HRL), Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ), Chicos FAS (NYSE: CHS), China Digital TV (NYSE: STV), Patterson Companies (Nasdaq: PDCO), Acorn Int’l (NYSE: ATV), American Woodmark (Nasdaq: AMWD), Astro Med (Nasdaq: ALOT), Books a Million (Nasdaq: BAMM), China Real Estate Info (Nasdaq: CRIC), China Xiniya Fashion (NYSE: XNY), Citi Trends (Nasdaq: CTRN), Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (Nasdaq: CBRL), Daktronics (Nasdaq: DAKT), dELi’s (Nasdaq: DLIA), Diana Containerships (Nasdaq: DCIX), DSW (NYSE: DSW), Eaton Vance (NYSE: EV), E-House (China) Holdings (NYSE: EJ), Fred’s (Nasdaq: FRED), Genesco (NYSE: GCO), Gymboree (Nasdaq: GYMB), Hanwha Solarone (Nasdaq: HSOL), JA Solar (Nasdaq: JASO), Le Gaga (Nasdaq: GAGA), LTX-Credence (Nasdaq: LTXC), Nuance Communications (Nasdaq: NUAN), Pandora Media (NYSE: P), QAD Inc. (Nasdaq: QADB), Raven Industries (Nasdaq: RAVN), School Specialty (Nasdaq: SCHS), Signet Jewelers (NYSE: SIG), Suntech Power (NYSE: STP), Symbion (Nasdaq: SMBI), TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO), Tri-Valley (AMEX: TIV) and Valspar (NYSE: VAL).

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.

European Shares Doomed by Politics

The market mood across Europe was decided before the sun rose Tuesday. Pressure is intensified around Greek political leaders, as the IMF and EU are refusing to continue aid flows to Greece without written pledges by both major parties. Political bias across euro zone members has a disjointed union treading water. Thus, European shares were doomed today and will be so moving forward without political will and finally a determined path.

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.

Relevant tickers: NYSE: DB, NYSE: STD, Nasdaq: ITUB, NYSE: UBS, NYSE: WBK, NYSE: LYG, NYSE: BCS, NYSE: CS, NYSE: AIB, NYSE: BLX, NYSE: NBG, NYSE: RY, NYSE: BFR, NYSE: IRE, NYSE: BMO, NYSE: CM, NYSE: ING, NYSE: C.

European Shares Doomed

The troika is seeking written pledges from Greek political parties stating that they will pursue the austerity path agreed to through the February election and beyond. The entire situation has effectively placed Greece’s new Prime Minister Lucas Papademos on a stick for February roasting. The busy new PM met with the President of the Euro Group today, Jean-Claude Juncker, likely answering questions on this matter. The risk to U.S. investors here is of course of contagion across Europe, and the unclear result of a Greek default and falling out from the eurozone.

Forces are pressuring for the European Central Bank (ECB) to step up its bond purchase activity and for the EU to issue euro bonds. Such action would effectively force the significant investment of all European participants in regional recovery. They would have significantly increased vested interests, and so the Germans, with the farthest to fall from their state of independent grace oppose the idea. This division has raised doubts, at least here, about the EU’s ability to survive the crisis intact. And with global market entanglement, there would be no escaping a European downfall for U.S. investors. If the American banking risk outlined recently by Fitch, is not enough to get us, the deteriorating economies of Europe should weigh heavily enough.

European shares were down on the day as a result, with the Euro Stoxx 50 down 1.1%, the DAX off 1.2%, CAC 40 down 0.8% and the Athex Composite short 2.0%. European banking shares were off, with Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) down 0.9%, Banco Santander (NYSE: STD) off 2.5%, UBS (NYSE: UBS) down 0.9%, Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) off 0.8%, Barclays (NYSE: BCS) off 3.0% and Lloyds (NYSE: LYG) down 5.1%.

Article is relevant to Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB), Banco Santander (NYSE: STD), ITA (Nasdaq: ITUB), UBS (NYSE: UBS), Westpac Banking (NYSE: WBK), Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE: LYG), Barclays (NYSE: BCS), Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS), Allied Irish Bank (NYSE: AIB), Banco Latinamericano (NYSE: BLX), National Bank of Greece (NYSE: NBG), Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY), BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE: BFR), The Bank of Ireland (NYSE: IRE), Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM), ING Groep (NYSE: ING), Citigroup (NYSE: C).

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.

Most Important News 11-22-11

Today's most important news highlights turmoil across global markets as Europe struggles with political barriers to Greek aid and fear of downgrades to EU powerhouses. Needless to say, political barriers here in the States has the congressional stupercommittee failing to come to agreement on where to cut the budget. There's a whole lot more important news here below.

Most Important News

• Q3 GDP Growth Revised Lower to 2.0%


• GDP Downgraded Short of Expectations


• Gridlock Fears as US Deficit Talks Fail


• Global Market Turmoil on Debt Fears


• Egyptian Protests Expand and Bloody


• Iran Says West Waging Psych War


• Target (NYSE: TGT) Black Friday Petition Finds 190,000 Signatures


• Netflix Shares Pay Price of Co. Actions (Nasdaq: NFLX)


• Spanish Bond Markets Find no Respite Post Elections


• Flash Mob Shoplifts at 7-Eleven


• Trump Says He May Yet Run


• Gold Rebounds


• Solar Stocks Fall on Forecasts


• Putin Booed at Public Appearance


• Discounting Hurts Chicos (NYSE: CHS)


• Hewlett-Packard’s (NYSE: HPQ) Tough Year Ends in EPS Slump


• Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Warned to Get Stronger


• Woman Gets 50 Years for Decapitating Boyfriend’s Piglet


• UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH) Buys Medicare Insurer


• Oil Above $98


• Tokyo and Osaka Exchanges Confirm Merger


• Corzine’s $1.2 Billion Problem (OTC: MFGIQ.PK)


• Greek PM Hopeful to get Austerity Backing


• Monti Gears Up for Week of Debt Talks


• Papademos on a Stick


• Fed Meeting Minutes at 2 PM


• Store Sales Down 0.9% in Latest


• Medtronic Sales Edge Higher (NYSE: MDT)


• Campbell’s Soup is Good Food (NYSE: CPB)


• Yahoo! Earnings Calendar

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.