News Updates 4 U: worst

Showing posts with label worst. Show all posts

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Spain"s Community Debt Tops €42 Billion as Unpaid Bills Mount; Madrid Worst Offender

If you don’t have the money, and cannot borrow the money, and cannot print the money, what can you do? The easy to understand answer is “you do not pay the bills” at least on time. This has been happening all over Spain, but particularly Madrid.

Via Mish-modified Google translate from Libre Mercado, please consider Hidden Debt Soars Thanks to Mayor Gallardón of Madrid.

Note: Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón is a Spanish politician and former mayor of Madrid.

Local authorities accumulated a total debt of €41.9642 billion euros at the end of last year, €6.545 billion more than in 2011, representing an increase of 18.4% yoy, according to data released Wednesday by the Ministry of Finance.

But the most striking is, once again, that of Madrid. Madrid owes a total of €7.4296 billion in 2012, the most municipal debt Spain. This amount is equivalent to almost 18% of total debt of local authorities, 21% of all municipal debt, nearly half (46.5%) of the debt accumulated provincial capitals, and 63.5% of the debt of the big cities. In fact, Madrid’s debt is six times that of Barcelona (€1.780 billion) and nearly eight of Valencia (€975.7 million euros).

What is most relevant, however, is that Madrid’s debt soared by €1.082 billion in 2012 alone, representing an increase of 17% yoy. This is the largest increase registered by the council since 2006, when it grew by €1.700 billion.

The reason lies in the payment of overdue invoices from suppliers. Alberto Ruiz Gallardón left a legacy to new mayor Ana Botella.

Gallardón was the mayor who accumulated the largest debt to suppliers throughout Spain. Close to €1 billion extra debt was the culmination of financial management of Gallardón, following years of waste and the red in front of City Hall. When Gallardón came into office in 2003, debt amounted to €1.455 billion euros, but when he left office in 2011, debt grew to €6.348, nearly four times more.

End Translation

Not to worry, the ECB, Brussels, and Prime Minister Rajoy have everything under control. If you have a hard time accepting that, please take another blue pill.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

Spain"s Community Debt Tops €42 Billion as Unpaid Bills Mount; Madrid Worst Offender

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Stock market rebounds from worst day of the year

NEW YORK (AP) — Strong housing and earnings reports helped stocks rebound from their worst day of the year.
Business Headlines

Stock market rebounds from worst day of the year

Friday, April 12, 2013

Gold Bitcoined, Bonds And Yen Soar, Dow Back To Unch (Of Course)

Gold was Bitcoin’d (or Baumgartner’d) as it suffered its biggest daily drop since LTRO2 on 2/29/12. The JPY rallied over 1% – its biggest rise in 7 weeks. 10Y Treasuries had their best day in 7 weeks. Macro data was absymal. But it was evident that the only thing mattered was a new high close for the Dow – as we noted 10 minutes before the close:

EURUSD must ramp over 1.31 for green DJIA

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 12, 2013

And thanks to some help from the old ramp standbys – HYG and VIX – they nearly made it (but not quite) as the Dow ended -0.08 points rallying 75 points on the worst macro data day in months, with the EURUSD ramping just the right amount over 1.31.

Not a good day for Commodities… gold…

A Great day for bonds…

Not a good day for JPY carry traders and the rest of Western Civilzation banking on Abenomics to save the world…

But The Dow came through so mom and pop wouldnt even know the stuff had hit the economic fan…

The S&P did not have such a sgood day though once Europe closed the algos were in charge and we oscillated around VWAP… and closed prefectly balance at VWAP…

But FX land was more active today than it has been a week or two…

as Treasuries reversed almost all their losses on the week…

Not a fun week for precious metals (or oil for that matter)…

Charts: Bloomberg and Capital Context

Zero Hedge

Gold Bitcoined, Bonds And Yen Soar, Dow Back To Unch (Of Course)

Friday, April 5, 2013

Canada Unexpectedly Sheds 54,500 Jobs in March; Worst Job Loss in 4 Years; Canadian Dollar Tumbles

Our neighbor to the North also suffered from an unexpectedly weak jobs report today, the worst monthly job losses in more than four years.

Canada shed 54,500 positions in March, more than wiping out the 50,700 jobs that were added in February, Statistics Canada said on Friday. Market operators had expected a modest gain of 8,500 jobs.
It was the biggest monthly jobs loss since February 2009, when the economy shed 69,300 positions. The March unemployment rate rose to 7.2 percent from 7.0 percent.

“The employment numbers did seem to be defying gravity up until March and were not lining up with the underlying growth numbers,” said Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. “We knew one of them had to give way and it looks as if employment has given way.”

Adding to the gloom were trade figures for February that showed Canada’s deficit increased to C$ 1.02 billion on both lower exports and higher imports. Traders had expected a surplus of C$ 200 million.

Canadian Dollar Tumbles

Bloomberg reports Canadian Dollar Tumbles After Unexpected March Employment Loss

The Canadian dollar fell in its biggest decline in nine months against its U.S. peer after the nation unexpectedly lost jobs last month by the most since the last recession four years ago.
The loonie, as the Canadian dollar is known for the image of the C$ 1 coin, fell 0.6 percent to C$ 1.0183 at 2:09 p.m. in Toronto. Earlier, it fell 1.1 percent to C$ 1.0236 per U.S. dollar, the largest drop since June 28. One loonie buys 98.20 U.S. cents.

I think we have seen the end of good jobs reports here and in Canada for quite some time.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

Canada Unexpectedly Sheds 54,500 Jobs in March; Worst Job Loss in 4 Years; Canadian Dollar Tumbles

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Planned layoffs fall in March, but worst quarter since 2011

People wait in line to meet a job recruiter at the UJA-Federation Connect to Care job fair in New York March 6, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

Reuters: Business News

Planned layoffs fall in March, but worst quarter since 2011

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

SEC hits "like" on corporations releasing info on social media

The Securities and Exchange Commission caught up to the 21st century today. The agency issued a ruling basically saying that posting corporate news on Twitter or Facebook is just as legitimate as a media release or a regulatory filing.

The SEC even said it “encouraged” companies to “seek out new forms of communication to better connect with shareholders.” Memo to the SEC. Facebook’s about a decade old.

The controversy over tweeting and Facebooking corporate news started last summer with a Facebook post by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. He wrote that Netflix had surpassed a record for streaming content: 1 billion hours in a single month, a stat that prompted Netflix’s stock price to shoot up.

Joseph Grundfest is a former SEC commissioner who teaches business and law at Stanford.

The SEC’s argument against the Netflix post was “that this information material non-public information… and shouldn’t have appeared on Reed Hastings’ personal Facebook page without prior notification to the market,” says Grundfest.

The ruling today makes clear that Hastings’ Facebook post was fine. Investors simply need a heads up when a company may be releasing new information through social media, and where to look for it.

But don’t expect companies to start live tweeting their regulatory filings.

“The typical disclosures by publicly traded companies… the very large forms will continue to be disclosed the regular way.” Grunfest says. “You can’t post that on Facebook and you certainly can’t tweet all that information. “

But experimentation will prevail. After the ruling, Goldman Sachs sent the SEC its thanks in a tweet.

Hastings’ post ultimately held up under SEC scrutiny. But a company’s faux pas on social media can go oh-so much further. We’ve compiled a slideshow of some of the worst corporate social media fails. Cast your vote on which was the worst here.

Corporate tweet #fail: Which was the worst?

Today the Securities and Exchange Commission ruled that companies are now allowed to use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to make important announcements, as long as investors are told the information beforehand. One of the key controversies leading to the decision was Netflix CEO Reed Hastings’ post on Facebook about company metrics.

But Hastings wasn’t the first to make a major faux pas on social media (and he surely won’t be the last). We’ve compiled a slideshow of some of the worst corporate messages that have been tweeted. Vote on which is the worst, and let us know of any others in the comments below or by tweeting us @MarketplaceAPM.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

China shares suffer worst loss in over a week on fundraising fears

HONG KONG, March 26 | Tue Mar 26, 2013 3:09am EDT

HONG KONG, March 26 (Reuters) – China shares suffered their worst loss in more than a week on Tuesday after Everbright Securities won approval for a private share placement, stoking fears of a new wave of stock-offerings by brokerages.

The CSI300 of the leading Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listings closed down 1.5 percent at 2,575.1, while the Shanghai Composite Index sank 1.3 percent. For both, it was their heaviest one-day loss since March 18. (Reporting by Clement Tan; Editing by Eric Meijer)

Reuters: Financial Services and Real Estate

China shares suffer worst loss in over a week on fundraising fears

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

No tax, no bailout? A worst case scenario for Cyprus

Cyprus is in turmoil following the decision last night by its parliament to reject a bailout plan from the eurozone. The plan entailed a one-off tax of up to 10 percent on Cypriot bank accounts. But should the rest of the world worry about what’s happening on a tiny island nation in the middle of the Mediterranean?

Yes, perhaps.

Here’s the worst case scenario: Cyprus continues to reject the bailout deal. Its banks go bust. The country is forced out of the eurozone. Hedge funds speculate on which euro country will be next to head for the exit. There are bank runs across the continent, and mayhem in global markets.

Some observers say that this possibility makes it all the more remarkable that the Europeans — and the Germans in particular — refuse to pump that little extra bit of cash into the small island economy.

“It’s just ridiculous that they wouldn’t. That they threaten bank runs across Europe,” says analyst Louise Cooper. “They threaten contagion, for €7 billion. It’s ridiculous but the reason they’ve done it is because it’s German election year.”

The German government fears that if they cut a special deal for Cyprus, much bigger euro countries like Spain and Italy will be lining up for extra assistance. And that would be exceedingly unpopular with German voters.

So far financial markets are taking the Cypriot fiasco in stride. They seem to believe that Europe cannot afford to let Cyprus sink, or that the Russians will ride to the rescue — but that eerie calm in markets may not last.