Thursday, February 21, 2008

Marc Emery pleads guilty

Broker connected to Societe Generale's Kerviel questioned by judges - Forbes.com

Broker connected to Societe Generale's Kerviel questioned by judges - Forbes.com

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - The Fimat broker, who was in touch with Societe Generale rogue trader Jerome Kerviel, was interviewed for three hours this morning by judges, according to a source close to the matter.

Brokerage unit Newedge, was formerly known as Fimat, but last month renamed as Newedge after merging with Credit Agricole's brokerage operations.

Judges Renaud van Ruymbeke and Francoise Desset questioned him on his links with Kerviel and notably on his instant messaging conversations with the trader.

Around 1,600 pages of these messages, dating from between September 2007 and January 2008 have been seized by financial investigators.



Health_and_Healing : Message: Vaccines and Medical Experiments on Children, Minorities

Health_and_Healing : Message: Vaccines and Medical Experiments on Children, Minorities
snips from a huge article
n response to the BBC documentary and article "Guinea Pig Kids", the New York City Administration of Children's Services (ACS) sends out an Apr. 22 press release admitting that foster care children were used in experimental AIDS drug trials, but says that the last trial took place in 2001 and thus the trials are not continuing, as BBC reporter Jamie Doran claims. The ACS gives the extent and statistics of the experimental drug trials, based on its own records, and contracts the Vera Institute of Justice to conduct "an independent review of ACS policy and practice regarding the enrollment of HIV-positive children in foster care in clinical drug trials during the late 1980s and 1990s" (New York City ACS).

Bloomberg releases a series of reports suggesting that SFBC, the largest experimental drug testing center of its time, exploits immigrant and other low-income test subjects and runs tests with limited credibility due to violations of both the FDA's and SFBC's own testing guidelines



Merck begins pushing U.S. states to mandate the vaccination of teenage girls with Gardasil, a vaccine they claim prevents HPV, a sexually-transmitted virus. In February 2007, Texas Gov. Rick Perry -- who was revealed to have financial ties with Merck, the vaccine manufacturer -- mandates the vaccine in teenage girls (see http://www.newstarget.com/021572.html ). A key Merck lobbyist named Mike Toomey, it turned out, had served as Gov. Rick Perry's chief of staff.

The Texas decision to mandate the vaccine was a notable and troubling milestone in public health policy because it is the first time a vaccine is mandated for a disease that cannot be contracted through casual contact in public schools. It also invoked "gunpoint medicine," or the threat of arrest at gunpoint for not agreeing to receive state-mandated injections.

The Gardasil vaccinations remain a grand medical experiment being performed on children because it is not yet known what the long-term side effects of the vaccination will be, nor whether the vaccinations will actually lower rates of cervical cancer as intended.


YouTube - st0ckman's Channel

YouTube - st0ckman's Channel
opening bell 930
sorry for the delay but mccain was on during the normal 9am pre market info


Oil Drops On Pickens' Comment--But Other Commodities Rise - Trader Talk with Bob Pisani - CNBC.com

Pre Market - Trader Talk with Bob Pisani - CNBC.com

Oil Drops On Pickens' Comment--But Other Commodities Rise

Oil dropped about $0.60 after Boone Pickens said that he was short oil on our air. Natural gas also dropped, as he said he was short that also.

However, gold, platinum, and palladium are once again at new highs this morning, and it's not just those: soybeans, steel, freight, iron ore, coal, are all at highs. Base metals like copper and zinc are strong as well. While materials stocks are up a bit this month, none of them are anywhere near new highs. There seems to be some kind of decoupling going on between commodities and the stocks.

JC Penney

JC Penney Co Inc
JCP

49.39 1.44 +3%
NYSE




[JCP 49.39 1.44 (+3%) ] beat their earnings expectations, though comp store sales decreased 2.3 percent. Guidance is so-so, the range for the quarter and the full year is just below analyst expectations; comp store sales projected to decline for the year. Remember, yesterday launched a whole new line, American Living--co-developed with Polo Ralph Lauren. See Margaret Brennan's Retail Detail post on this.

Sun Capital announced that they had acquired a 9.45 percent stake in Furniture Brands and was seeking to buy the whole company.

They didn't say for how much, but they did say it would be at a "substantial premium" to the close of $10.18 a share. Up 16 percent pre-open.

Research in Motion

Research In Motion Ltd
RIMM

107.99 10.08 +10.3%
NASDAQ




[RIMM 107.99 10.08 (+10.3%) ] up 10 percent pre-open, they said net subscriber additions would be 15 to 20 percent higher previously forecast. They affirmed their forecast.

Steel giant Arcelor Mittal said they were raising prices; so is everyone else in the commodity world, it seems.



Political, Economic & Financial Intelligence

Al Martin Raw: Political, Economic & Financial Intelligence

(2-18-08) Last week the marketplace revealed yet another consequence of Bushonomics, namely, that the municipal bond market (which we have been warning people to get out of) began to unravel in earnest as liquidity in the municipal bond market simply dried up.

By Wednesday’s session, we saw that three out of five municipal bond auctions were simply being cancelled due to lack of bids. In the daily municipal cash market where states, counties, municipalities have to turn to if they are unable to rollover securities, we saw that some districts, including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, were forced to pay as high as 20% for money last Thursday.

We also saw on Thursday in cash-market municipal borrowing that a wide variety of the nation’s counties, ranging from Harris County, Texas, to Bergen County, New Jersey, had to pay between 9% and 11% for money. This is an increase from 4% for money the week before – yet another ominous sign of the diabolical efficiency of Bushonomics.

NYSE Arca Morning Update

NYSE Arca Morning Update

NYSE Arca Morning Update for Thursday, Feb 21, 2008 :


Stocks trading on NYSE Arca at a price more than 15% away from the previous trade day's consolidated close price. (As of 08:30:00 ET)

Stock
Wednesday's Close Current Price Pct Chng Current NYSE Arca Vol
CPS

$33.65

$48.20

43%

89,150

VDSI

$18.28

$12.61

( 31%)

46,431

SSRX

$11.70

$8.90

( 24%)

1,300

NVTL

$13.83

$11.05

( 20%)

8,300

NEON

$3.28

$3.87

18%

1,000

10 Most Active stocks on NYSE Arca as of 08:30:00 ET

Based on Dollar Volume: Based on Share Volume:
Stock
Dollar Volume
SPY
$247,481,161
QQQQ
$85,546,418
RIMM
$67,043,546
IWM
$15,974,792
AAPL
$11,193,934
BHP
$10,435,170
NOK
$8,660,804
SHPGY
$4,700,623
CPS
$4,286,950
QID
$3,046,778
Stock
Share Volume
QQQQ
1,927,422
SPY
1,809,740
RIMM
629,309
NOK
234,550
IWM
224,110
BHP
140,896
GFI
94,494
CPS
89,150
AAPL
88,633
SHPGY
82,350


Pre-Market Most Active Stocks - NASDAQ Premarket

Pre-Market Most Active Stocks - NASDAQ Premarket


NASDAQ - Pre-Market Ten Most Advanced

Active Share Volume Declined

Symbol

Company Name

Market
Close
Last Sale (Pre-Market) % Change
(Pre-Market)
Share
Volume

(Pre-Market)

ANSYS, Inc.
$35.50 $39.50 11.27% 3,800

Netease.com, Inc.
$18.90 $20.65 9.26% 13,600

Research in Motion Limited
$97.91 $106.87 9.15% 900,782

Blue Coat Systems Inc
$28.42 $30.25 6.44% 38,798

Origin Agritech Limited
$9.75 $10.29 5.54% 22,442

3Com Corporation
$2.87 $2.96 3.14% 22,989

Cisco Systems, Inc.
$23.20 $23.83 2.72% 57,280

Shire plc
$55.51 $56.93 2.56% 208,900

Marvell Technology Group, Ltd.
$10.99 $11.26 2.46% 8,300

Apple Inc.
$123.82 $126.39 2.08% 102,188

As of 2/21/2008 8:06:52 AM

NASDAQ - Pre-Market Ten Most Declined

Active Share Volume Advanced

Symbol

Company Name

Market
Close
Last Sale (Pre-Market) % Change
(Pre-Market)
Share
Volume

(Pre-Market)

Novatel Wireless, Inc.
$13.86 $11.36 18.04% 5,595

Randgold Resources Limited
$51.47 $51.39 0.16% 30,100

As of 2/21/2008 8:06:58 AM



Gapping up:

CPS +44.7%, BCSI +12.6%, LOCM +9.8%, RIMM +8.3%, NTES +8.2%, ARII +7.6%, ANSS +7.0%, ITRI +7.0%, TEX +6.4%, SNPS +6.4%, IFSIA +6.0%, GFI +5.7%, SQNM +5.2%, GA +4.7%, CPST +4.5%, ACH +4.1%, IVAC +3.9%, ADI +3.9%, PQ +3.8%, TQNT +2.7%, GRMN +2.7%, CSCO +2.6%, BHP +2.6%, RTP +2.4%, MRVL +1.9%, TRN +1.9%, RIG +1.4%...

Gapping down:

CTCT -29.9%, ANDS -27.2%, SSRX -23.2%, LAD -18.3%, NVTL -17.8%, MSSR -13.5%, CECO -7.1%, VRGY -6.9%, PSYS -6.9%, LNET -6.9%, MCRI -6.5%, OII -6.3%, DDSS -5.6%, LFG -3.1%, GW -2.3%.

24/7 Wall St.

24/7 Wall St.

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (AEM, MDRX, BP, CSCO, ENR, GRMN, SHW, STI, TGT, RIG)

These are the early bird analyst calls we are focusing on this Thursday morning at 247WallSt.com:

  • Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (NYSE: AEM) cut to Neutral at UBS.
  • Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
  • BP (NYSE: BP) downgraded to Sell from Hold at Citigroup.
  • Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) raised to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
  • Energizer (NYSE: ENR) raised to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
  • Garmin (NASDAQ: GRMN) raised to Outperform at Baird.
  • Sherwin Williams (NYSE: SHW) raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • SunTrust (NYSE: STI) cut to Underperform at Oppenheimer.
  • Target (NYSE: TGT) downgraded to Sell from Hold at Citigroup.
  • Transocean (NYSE: RIG) raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.

U.S. futures gain; Cisco, RIM and ChoicePoint poised to rise - MarketWatch

U.S. futures gain; Cisco, RIM and ChoicePoint poised to rise - MarketWatch

The dollar traded broadly flat against the euro and Japan's yen, while crude oil hovered close to $100 a barrel, with the April light-crude contract down 8 cents at $99.62.
Cisco (CSCO:
CSCO
)
was upgraded to buy from hold at Citigroup, sending its Frankfurt-traded shares up 2.6%.
Also likely to draw scrutiny, handheld device supplier Research In Motion (RIMM:
RIMM
)
said it expects net subscriber account additions in the fourth quarter to be 15% to 20% higher than the 1.82 million additions it had previously forecast. An expected seasonal slowdown in sales didn't materialize, the company said.
The bond-insurance sector will be back in focus as well. MBIA (MBI:
MBI
)
spurned a plan put forth by hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman to split up struggling insurers, saying it's mainly designed to boost Ackman's negative bets against itself and rival Ambac Financial Group (ABK:
ABK
)
. See full story.
In deal news, ChoicePoint Inc. (CPS:
CPS
)
has agreed to be bought by U.K. publishing group Reed Elsevier (RUK:
RUK
)
for $4.1 billion, including $600 million of assumed debt. The $50-a-share deal represents a 49% premium to Wednesday's closing price for ChoicePoint.
Among companies due to report financial results, supermarket operator Safeway (SWY:
SWY
)
is expected to report fourth-quarter earnings of 68 cents a share and department-store chain J.C. Penney (JCP:
JCP
)
is forecast to have earned $1.74 a share in the quarter.
Late Wednesday, Analog Devices (ADI:
ADI
)
said first-quarter profit more than doubled to $370.7 million from $153.2 million due to gains from the sale of two businesses.
Asian markets rose overnight, helped by Wall Street's gains in the previous session. European stocks were also trading higher, with the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index adding 1.7% in mid-morning trading.

Pre-Market: Stock Trading Before the Markets Open from CNNMoney

Pre-Market: Stock Trading Before the Markets Open from CNNMoney

FTSE 100+96.30+1.63%5,989.90
XETRA-DAX+93.02+1.35%6,992.70
CAC 40+67.57+1.40%4,880.38
HANG SENG+32.42+0.14%23,623.00
NIKKEI 225+377.91+2.84%13,688.28

U.S. Dollar vs Euro+0.0018+0.12%1.4730

U.S. Dollar vs Yen+0.1000+0.09%0.0092

U.S. Dollar vs UK £+0.02+0.79%

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