Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Markets Soar on New Gang of Six Debt Ceiling Proposal

Supposedly, the government will fix everything by changing the way the CPI is measured, which means that Social Security recipients are about to get whacked by way of inflation.

If ever there was an inept government being led around by its nose by financial masters, this one is it. Whatever Wall Street wants, Wall Street gets. As for the general population - the ones who pay all the bills and pay for bailouts and frauds - they receive the shaft.

The current legislation under proposal, offered by the Senate's Gang of Six, promises %3.7 Trillion in savings, some of it - about $1 Trillion - supposedly to come from increased revenues. House Republicans have already started making noise about it, since the plan calls for some tax increases. While President Obama seemed to be thrilled about the plan at a 1:30 press conference, party leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell seem to have been cut off at the knees after working on an alternative plan to both save face and raise the debt ceiling.

Nonetheless, Wall Street acted as though manna was being dropped from the heavens, boosting stocks an additional 100 points on top of the bogus 100-point, low-volume, morning melt-up.

Forget TV dramas and soap operas. The best one is being played out right on CNBC every day with the fraudulent bankers running the politicians in a light-hearted farce known as the US economy.

Dow 12,587.42, +202.26 (1.63%)
NASDAQ 2,826.52, +61.41 (2.22%)
S&P 500 1,326.73, +21.29 (1.63%)
NYSE Composite 8,254.38, +118.85 (1.46%)


Advancing issues led decliners by an unhealthy margin, 5167-1418. On the NASDAQ, there were 68 new highs and 34 new lows. The NYSE showed 79 new highs and 32 new lows. The combined total of 147 new highs and 66 new lows completely reversed yesterday's dour numbers. Volume was as pathetic as it gets, especially on a 200-point Dow move.

NASDAQ Volume 1,842,038,625.00
NYSE Volume 4,228,335,000


Commodities changed direction on the day as well, which is not surprising for WTI crude oil, which continued it's up-and-down daily fluctuation, rising by $1.57, to $97.50. The lowered prices for gold (-$1.30, to $1,601.10) and silver (-0.12, to $40.22) are also in line with the corrupt rigging in those markets.

The best news of the day came from the financial sector, which was offering its own version of "recovery summer." Bank of America (BAC) posted a loss of 90 cents per share in the second quarter, mostly attributed to mortgage put-backs and side deals with note-holders. The stock traded as low as 9.40 following the pre-market release of second quarter results, ending the day down 0.15, at 9.57, another new 2-year low in a recent string of them.

Goldman Sachs (GS) also released fiscal first quarter results before the bell and came in with numbers in-line with analyst expectations, .

From the article linked above:
Revenue in Goldman's core fixed-income trading division fell 63% sequentially and 53% year-over-year due to reduced trading activity and economic uncertainty. That, along with weakness in its lending-and-investing division, led to an 18% year-on-year decline in overall firm revenue.

Doing "God's work," huh, guys? God must be angry.

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