Feb 27, 2008

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Russia quietly prepares to switch some oil trading from dollars to rubles - International Herald Tribune

MOSCOW: Russia, the world's second-largest oil-exporting nation after Saudi Arabia, has been quietly preparing to switch trading in Russian Ural Blend oil, the country's primary export, from the dollar to the ruble. But the change, if it comes, is still some time off, industry analysts and officials said.

The Russian effort began modestly this month, with trading in refined products for the domestic market.

Still, the effort to squeeze the dollar out of Russian oil sales marks another project with swagger and ambition by the Kremlin, which has already wielded its energy wealth to assert influence in Eastern Europe and in former Soviet states.

"They are serious," said Yaroslav Lissovolik, the chief economist at Deutsche Bank in Moscow. "This is something they are giving priority to."

FDIC to Add Staff as Bank Failures Loom - WSJ.com

The FDIC is looking to bring back 25 retirees from its division of resolutions and receiverships. Many of these agency veterans likely worked for the FDIC during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when more than 1,000 financial institutions failed amid the savings-and-loan crisis.

FDIC spokesman Andrew Gray said the agency was looking to bulk up "for preparedness purposes." The division now has 223 employees, mostly based in Dallas.

The agency, which insures accounts at more than 8,000 financial institutions, is also seeking to hire an outside firm that would help manage mortgages and other assets at insolvent banks, according to a newspaper advertisement.

In public, policy makers are debating what role the government should play in trying to stabilize the housing market and minimize foreclosures. Meanwhile, regulators have worked discreetly behind the scenes to closely monitor the growing number of troubled banks and thrifts considered at risk.

"Regulators are bracing for well over 100 bank failures in the next 12 to 24 months, with concentrations in Rust Belt states like Michigan and Ohio, and the states that are suffering severe housing-market problems like California, Florida, and Georgia," said Jaret Seiberg, Washington policy analyst for financial-services firm Stanford Group.

INO Equities Stocks Indexes - U.S $ INDEX (NYBOT:DX) Price Chart and Quote

1 year chart of the us dollar index. click link for detailed chart and quote.

the dollar has obviously broken support.

this is not a recommendation to buy or sell a security. this is for education in technical analysis only.

YouTube - st0ckman's Channel

YouTube - st0ckman's Channel
pre market info as of 915 am est.
bloomberg had a guest on during the normal 9am pre market post.
give ytube time to load

January foreclosures up 57% - Feb. 26, 2008

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Foreclosure filings nationwide soared 57% in January over the same month last year - another indication that the nation's housing woes are deepening.

A study released Tuesday by RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosure properties, showed that 233,001 homes were affected, 8% more than in December. Of that total, 45,327 homes were lost to bank repossessions.

The only good news was the comparatively modest month-to-month increase in total filings.

"It could be that some of the efforts on the part of lenders and the government - both at the state and federal level - are beginning to take effect," said James Saccacio, RealtyTrac's chief executive.

"The big question is whether those efforts are truly helping homeowners avoid foreclosure in the long term, or if they are just forestalling the inevitable for many beleaguered borrowers," he said.

Many mortgage-assistance efforts simply give borrowers a chance to pay off missed payments, rather than lowering monthly payments, which effectively just delays foreclosures.

U.S. stock futures slip before Bernanke testimony - MarketWatch

Oil futures rose 12 cents to $101 a barrel and gold futures rose $14.70 to $963.60 an ounce.

Yields on 10-year Treasury bonds fell to 3.82%.

Elsewhere, Amgen (AMGN:

AMGN

and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ:

JNJ

each lost 2% in Frankfurt after a study published late Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that treating anemia with erythropoiesis-stimulating agents increases the risk of certain blood clots and death among cancer patients.

Autodesk (ADSK:

ADSK

fell 12% in pre-open trade after the design software maker's virtually flat earnings came in below analyst estimates.

Microsoft (MSFT:

MSFT

was fined 899 million euros ($1.35 billion) by the European Commission for failing to comply with its 2004 antitrust ruling. It brings the fines levied by the European Commission against Microsoft for alleged anti-competitive activity to 1.68 billion euros.

Luxury home builder Toll Brothers (TOL:

TOL

swung to a fiscal first-quarter loss of $96 million and said "ceaseless talk" about a recession is dampening the mood of consumers.

Nortel Networks (NT:

announced a plan to cut 2,100 jobs and shift another 1,000 to low-cost destinations as the Toronto telecom-equipment maker reported an $844 million fourth-quarter loss. Nortel shares fell 3.9% in pre-open trade.

International markets were mixed. Asian stocks generally rose, led by a 3.1% advance from the Hang Seng after a Hong Kong tax break package, while stocks in Europe were lower, with the FTSE 100 losing 0.7% in London.

24/7 Wall St.

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ABX, BIOD, FTK, GLNG, OSG, TEF, PAR, UPL, XLNX)

Below are the top 10 individual analyst calls we are focusing on this morning:

Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) downgraded to neutral at Credit Suisse.
Biodel (NASDAQ: BIOD) started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
Flotek Ind. (NYSE: FTK) started as Outperform at bear Stearns.
Golar LNG (NASDAQ: GLNG) downgraded to Hold at Jefferies and downgraded to Market Perform at FBR.
Overseas Shipholding (NYSE: OSG) raised to Outperform at Bear Stearns.
Telefonica SA (NYSE: TEF) raised to Buy at UBS.
3Par (NYSE: PAR) started as Buy at Merriman Curhan Ford.
Ultra Petroleum (NYSE: UPL) downgraded to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Xilinx (NASDAQ: XLNX) raised to Buy at UBS.

NYSE Arca Morning Update

NYSE Arca Morning Update for Wednesday, Feb 27, 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	Tuesday's Close	Current Price	Pct Chng	Current NYSE Arca Vol
CIMT	$3.90	$4.59	18%	1,010

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	$295,786,095
QQQQ	$34,822,950
GLD	$11,016,850
IWM	$8,107,007
GOOG	$6,460,324
SLV	$4,767,144
NOK	$4,309,814
MDY	$3,879,450
SDS	$3,376,813
SYT	$2,979,683

Stock	Share Volume
SPY	2,146,863
QQQQ	794,103
ALU	221,786
GFI	144,300
GLD	116,446
NOK	114,717
IWM	114,276
THC	112,674
FNM	75,224
C	74,034

Gapping up:

ERES +10.3%, SGY +7.6%, WRNC +6.4%, AXTI +5.7%, HLF +5.6%, DWA +5.2%, MXWL +5.0%, SBLK +4.8%, ENOC +4.7%, ARUN +3.9%, NFLX +3.8%, VSNT +3.2%, STM +2.9%, STO +2.9%, MEDX +2.7%, GFI +2.7%, FRO +2.2%, WST +1.7%, BARE +1.4%, CVA +1.1%...

Gapping down:

ADSK -10.1%, DY -8.8%, URS -7.1%, CRI -6.5%, JASO -5.6%, DRC -5.3%, BTUI -5.1%, EEP -3.8%, CVTX -3.6%, SUPG -3.0%, BMRN -2.9%, CF -2.9%, ENS -2.7%, DAL -2.6%, CF -2.6%, ING -2.6%, AGU -2.4%, BCS -2.3%, COST -2.2%, BID -2.0%, KMP -1.8%, SCRX -1.7%, POT -1.7%, MOS -1.7%, TRA -1.5%, MON -1.5%, COGT -1.3%, AMGN -1.2%, JNJ -1.0%.