Very busy on a number of matters here today, so, I'll apologize for the brevity of this post in advance.
The ongoing saga of residential real estate in the USA just continues to escalate. While more in the banking and investment community are saying a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures would be very damaging to the economy, voices on the other side of the debate, many calling for a complete halt to foreclosures and evictions, are expressing the concern that such a national stop and reset would be the proper first step toward fixing the very sick residential real estate market.
The problem is that real estate is a huge part of GDP and post-foreclosure sales of bank REO properties have been making up 25% of the total for some time now. Stopping the flow is going to have a material effect on GDP. Shutting down foreclosures and sales will throw us right back into recession, almost without a doubt.
Even as it is, without a national moratorium, hundreds of thousands of foreclosures are already in no-go mode and state Attorneys General are ramping up efforts to investigate, the latest being NY AG Andrews Cuomo - incidentally running for governor - who is calling on the four biggest lenders, Ally (GMAC), Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo to immediately halt all foreclosures, which - news to the AG - all but Wells Fargo have already done.
Further, 40 state AGs are due to announce (possibly as early as tonight) a joint task force to look into "robo-signing" and other allegations of fraud and abuse by the mortgage servicers.
All of this confusion will lead to a frozen real estate market. Anecdotal stories of short sales halted and prospective buyers preferring to "wait and see" are contributing to grind the already-maligned real estate business to a complete halt, and it seems to be spilling over into other markets, particularly stocks, which essentially treaded water for the second straight day.
Dow 11,020.40, +10.06 (0.09%)
NASDAQ 2,417.92, +15.59 (0.65%)
S&P 500 1,169.77, +4.45 (0.38%)
NYSE Composite 7,489.62, +10.61 (0.14%)
Advancers beat decliners, 3259-2433. New highs: 394; New lows: 36. Volume was improved from Monday's holiday-held-back level.
NASDAQ Volume 1,984,735,250
NYSE Volume 4,233,061,500
Oil dropped 54 cents, to $81.67, heading back to the security of the $75-80 level. Gold lost $7.70, to $1,346.70, while silver slipped 20 cents, to $23.15.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
How Far Does the Fraud Have to Go?
Here's a case out of Fairfax County, Virginia, in which Bank of America is re-instituted as a defendant on a case involving fraudulent appraisals, overpriced lots and a judge who's apparently just seen the light. The total amount, in a back-of-the-envelope calculation is upwards of $40 million.
This is just one case. There are hundreds, if not thousands more involving the biggest banks in the nation, the ones which were bailed out and the same ones Attorney general Eric Holder refuses to investigate thoroughly and bring cases against.
Holder is indeed a withholder of justice for the American people. He is not performing his sworn duty as an appointed key official of this administration. Eric Holder must be held to account for his actions and inactions in not only the banking system but in the BP oil spill debacle as well.
This is just one case. There are hundreds, if not thousands more involving the biggest banks in the nation, the ones which were bailed out and the same ones Attorney general Eric Holder refuses to investigate thoroughly and bring cases against.
Holder is indeed a withholder of justice for the American people. He is not performing his sworn duty as an appointed key official of this administration. Eric Holder must be held to account for his actions and inactions in not only the banking system but in the BP oil spill debacle as well.
Despite Denials, Foreclosure Fraud Issue Goes Mainstream
518 years ago, an Italian explorer by the name Christopher Columbus (actually the Anglicisation of the Latin Christophorus Columbus) landed on the shores of America (actually, he landed in the Bahamas), becoming the first European to land on either of the continent of the Americas.
Today, we are virtually assured that Columbus was preceded by Leif Ericson, possibly some 500 years earlier, and probably he wasn't even first, because Asians probably made their ways across the Alaskan archipelago to the "new world" many years prior to that.
Though Columbus could hardly have known that he wasn't the first, he was lauded for centuries as being the great explorer and we still honor him as the finder, even if not the first, of America, even though he missed it on his first voyage.
And today, on yet another celebration of his monumental discovery, we find that maybe he should have just turned back, because what happened afterwards were wars, nation-building, slaughter, more wars, nation-destroying and now, finally, complete fraud, deceit and the upcoming evaporation of five centuries of accumulated wealth, thanks to the same kind of people who fund these things, the giant banking cartel which began in the Netherlands and moved to England, and now resides mostly in the USA, mostly on the island of Manhattan.
What's at risk is nothing less than the entire banking and financial system under which all of us alive today (unless you were born prior to 1913, when the Federal Reserve Bank was created) and living in the USA have been subject to, made slaves by and are about to overthrow.
Because bankers are inherently lazy - doing almost nothing that could in any sense be considered real "work" - they have managed to mangle the residential real estate market to such a degree that nobody really knows who owns what in much of the country. It's really that simple when one unwinds all the fraud and inappropriate behavior conducted by the banks over the better part of the past ten years. And now we see the bankers squirming in denial that they've done anything wrong. So, why, may we ask, have three of the biggest banks halted all foreclosure activity in much of the country?
Because the jig is up, the game is over, the fraud can no longer be contained, the US people no longer lied to at every chance. We see lots of "tells" on the tube, mostly CNBC, where the banking elite are hidden from view, while their surrogates try to explain away why they can't proceed with foreclosures or sales of foreclosed-upon, bank-owned properties.
The truth is coming to light, little by little, that all that securitization of the mortgage business was a really bad idea and that the banks are about to be foreclosed upon from two angles, by the homeowners in default and the investors who bought the mortgage-backed securities (MBS).
On Sunday, CNBC let the proverbial cat out of the bag with a brief story, outlining how state Attorneys Generals are going to launch a joint probe into the mortgage foreclosure fiasco that's been percolating for at least three weeks (thought the fraud's been going on since 2003, at least).
Fascinating video from CNBC on the foreclosure-gate which now involves a nationwide self-imposed moratorium by Bank of America and moratoriums on foreclosures by Ally, Chase and PNC banks.
First, Joseph Murin, former president of the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) and Steve Forbes. Note how Murin defends the banksters when the issue of fraud is introduced, saying it's "absurd."
This is what poker players call a "tell." The player tips his or her hand in some way. Murin's "tell" is how he initially says that the banks need to reassess and see if procedures were followed correctly. Then he brings up the "antiquated systems" argument, which is a tip towards MERS taking over the normal role of county clerks. At around 2:20 into the video, Steve Forbes asks how many homeowners have been deprived of their homes, and Murin then brings up "fraud" completely on his own, saying, "I've heard the word "fraud" a lot, which is absurd. There's no fraud involved with this it's just... it's "process inadequacy..."
Apparently Mr. Murin has already scoured hundreds of thousands of foreclosure-related documents and found nothing wrong. Yeah, sure. Process inadequacy. Brilliant! Hilarious! Bravo! The banks, of course, did nothing wrong, again!
Next up, we have Mandy Drury asking the loaded question, "as attorneys general in states want to know if banks have been fraudulently foreclosing..." with Steve Moore, of the Wall Street Journal, and CNBC's Diana Olick & David Faber.
Diana Olick offers a timeline of two to four months for the foreclosure issues to be repaired, but notes it may probably be longer considering AG's looking into "potentially fraudulent documents." There's another tell, courtesy CNBC, the "F" word again.
At 3:50 into the video, CNBC's Scott Wapner mentions "fraud" and Moore jumps on him, asking "who are you alleging committed fraud?" Wapner backtracks quite a bit and Olick jumps on with a short burst about "who really owns the loan," which is really the issue at the heart of the fraud. The banks cannot, in many cases, produce the promissory notes or identify the note-holders. Without the note, servicing banks cannot foreclose because they have no standing in courts where things like law and equity and actual documents - not phony affidavits - matter.
Moore keeps insisting that "95 to 99 per cent of these foreclosure notices were correct. 19 out of 20 were the right ones." he also says a couple of times, "I'm not defending the banks." Way to CYA, Mr. Moore. You may not be defending the banks, even though you are. Cute.
Now, are we ready for catastrophe? Throwing their weight into the fray just after noon on Monday, SIFMA (Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association) says a nationwide foreclosure moratorium could be 'Catastrophic' to investors. This august group of BANKERS fails to mention the windfall for people, individuals and homeowners. All they're concerned about are their profits, not whether anyone actually freezes to death this winter as they are forced out of their homes and into the streets, legally or otherwise.
Get ready for the wheels of economy to come fully skidding off the tracks right after the upcoming "important" (don't bother, the electronic machines change all the votes, anyway) elections and right before the equally important holiday shopping season.
It's all a wonderful mess, thanks to bankers who should have been tried and jailed before they stole that $700 billion otherwise known as TARP. There may or may not be a TARP2, but if there is, if you think the economy's broken now, just wait. The whole country is broken.
As for the equally-absurd stock market, well, why bother? Stocks were up, as they always are in Ponzi-nation, but around 2:45, everything went right into the slime, with all indices falling briefly into the red before recovering to finish positive, though we're hearing now that some NYSE stocks are still open?
It was about the lowest trading volume of the past two years, and that's pretty low. It was a holiday, after all, but how can they manage to get the indices just above the unchanged mark like that?
Dow 11,010.34, +3.86 (0.04%)
NASDAQ 2,402.33, +0.42 (0.02%)
S&P 500 1,165.32, +0.17 (0.01%)
NYSE Composite 7,479.01, +0.59 (0.01%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,551,449,250
NYSE Volume 3,214,674,500
Oil was down 45 cents, to $82.21, because the few people still working in the Western economies can only afford to drive to and from work. Gold made another new record, up $9.10, to $1,354.40, and silver added 24 cents, to $23.35. The precious metals (PMs) were higher because the US dollar and most other currencies will soon be worthless. Give it six months to a year, maybe sooner, but stock up on veggies and, if you have a freezer, meats. everything you need to survive is going to get a lot more expensive as the economy nose-dives into depression.
Yes, it's a lot worse than you think.
Though Columbus could hardly have known that he wasn't the first, he was lauded for centuries as being the great explorer and we still honor him as the finder, even if not the first, of America, even though he missed it on his first voyage.
And today, on yet another celebration of his monumental discovery, we find that maybe he should have just turned back, because what happened afterwards were wars, nation-building, slaughter, more wars, nation-destroying and now, finally, complete fraud, deceit and the upcoming evaporation of five centuries of accumulated wealth, thanks to the same kind of people who fund these things, the giant banking cartel which began in the Netherlands and moved to England, and now resides mostly in the USA, mostly on the island of Manhattan.
What's at risk is nothing less than the entire banking and financial system under which all of us alive today (unless you were born prior to 1913, when the Federal Reserve Bank was created) and living in the USA have been subject to, made slaves by and are about to overthrow.
Because bankers are inherently lazy - doing almost nothing that could in any sense be considered real "work" - they have managed to mangle the residential real estate market to such a degree that nobody really knows who owns what in much of the country. It's really that simple when one unwinds all the fraud and inappropriate behavior conducted by the banks over the better part of the past ten years. And now we see the bankers squirming in denial that they've done anything wrong. So, why, may we ask, have three of the biggest banks halted all foreclosure activity in much of the country?
Because the jig is up, the game is over, the fraud can no longer be contained, the US people no longer lied to at every chance. We see lots of "tells" on the tube, mostly CNBC, where the banking elite are hidden from view, while their surrogates try to explain away why they can't proceed with foreclosures or sales of foreclosed-upon, bank-owned properties.
The truth is coming to light, little by little, that all that securitization of the mortgage business was a really bad idea and that the banks are about to be foreclosed upon from two angles, by the homeowners in default and the investors who bought the mortgage-backed securities (MBS).
On Sunday, CNBC let the proverbial cat out of the bag with a brief story, outlining how state Attorneys Generals are going to launch a joint probe into the mortgage foreclosure fiasco that's been percolating for at least three weeks (thought the fraud's been going on since 2003, at least).
Fascinating video from CNBC on the foreclosure-gate which now involves a nationwide self-imposed moratorium by Bank of America and moratoriums on foreclosures by Ally, Chase and PNC banks.
First, Joseph Murin, former president of the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) and Steve Forbes. Note how Murin defends the banksters when the issue of fraud is introduced, saying it's "absurd."
This is what poker players call a "tell." The player tips his or her hand in some way. Murin's "tell" is how he initially says that the banks need to reassess and see if procedures were followed correctly. Then he brings up the "antiquated systems" argument, which is a tip towards MERS taking over the normal role of county clerks. At around 2:20 into the video, Steve Forbes asks how many homeowners have been deprived of their homes, and Murin then brings up "fraud" completely on his own, saying, "I've heard the word "fraud" a lot, which is absurd. There's no fraud involved with this it's just... it's "process inadequacy..."
Apparently Mr. Murin has already scoured hundreds of thousands of foreclosure-related documents and found nothing wrong. Yeah, sure. Process inadequacy. Brilliant! Hilarious! Bravo! The banks, of course, did nothing wrong, again!
Next up, we have Mandy Drury asking the loaded question, "as attorneys general in states want to know if banks have been fraudulently foreclosing..." with Steve Moore, of the Wall Street Journal, and CNBC's Diana Olick & David Faber.
Diana Olick offers a timeline of two to four months for the foreclosure issues to be repaired, but notes it may probably be longer considering AG's looking into "potentially fraudulent documents." There's another tell, courtesy CNBC, the "F" word again.
At 3:50 into the video, CNBC's Scott Wapner mentions "fraud" and Moore jumps on him, asking "who are you alleging committed fraud?" Wapner backtracks quite a bit and Olick jumps on with a short burst about "who really owns the loan," which is really the issue at the heart of the fraud. The banks cannot, in many cases, produce the promissory notes or identify the note-holders. Without the note, servicing banks cannot foreclose because they have no standing in courts where things like law and equity and actual documents - not phony affidavits - matter.
Moore keeps insisting that "95 to 99 per cent of these foreclosure notices were correct. 19 out of 20 were the right ones." he also says a couple of times, "I'm not defending the banks." Way to CYA, Mr. Moore. You may not be defending the banks, even though you are. Cute.
Now, are we ready for catastrophe? Throwing their weight into the fray just after noon on Monday, SIFMA (Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association) says a nationwide foreclosure moratorium could be 'Catastrophic' to investors. This august group of BANKERS fails to mention the windfall for people, individuals and homeowners. All they're concerned about are their profits, not whether anyone actually freezes to death this winter as they are forced out of their homes and into the streets, legally or otherwise.
Get ready for the wheels of economy to come fully skidding off the tracks right after the upcoming "important" (don't bother, the electronic machines change all the votes, anyway) elections and right before the equally important holiday shopping season.
It's all a wonderful mess, thanks to bankers who should have been tried and jailed before they stole that $700 billion otherwise known as TARP. There may or may not be a TARP2, but if there is, if you think the economy's broken now, just wait. The whole country is broken.
As for the equally-absurd stock market, well, why bother? Stocks were up, as they always are in Ponzi-nation, but around 2:45, everything went right into the slime, with all indices falling briefly into the red before recovering to finish positive, though we're hearing now that some NYSE stocks are still open?
It was about the lowest trading volume of the past two years, and that's pretty low. It was a holiday, after all, but how can they manage to get the indices just above the unchanged mark like that?
Dow 11,010.34, +3.86 (0.04%)
NASDAQ 2,402.33, +0.42 (0.02%)
S&P 500 1,165.32, +0.17 (0.01%)
NYSE Composite 7,479.01, +0.59 (0.01%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,551,449,250
NYSE Volume 3,214,674,500
Oil was down 45 cents, to $82.21, because the few people still working in the Western economies can only afford to drive to and from work. Gold made another new record, up $9.10, to $1,354.40, and silver added 24 cents, to $23.35. The precious metals (PMs) were higher because the US dollar and most other currencies will soon be worthless. Give it six months to a year, maybe sooner, but stock up on veggies and, if you have a freezer, meats. everything you need to survive is going to get a lot more expensive as the economy nose-dives into depression.
Yes, it's a lot worse than you think.
Friday, October 8, 2010
No Jobs, Free Homes, Cheap Money and High-Flying Stocks
The financial sector of the US economy delivered one of the more entertaining sessions of the past few months on Friday, first, trying to weight the relative benefits of a nation without jobs against the potential for more than a trillion dollars flowing into the currency via the Federal Reserve's Quantitative Easing, Part II, otherwise known as QE2.
At 8:30 am Eastern time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its survey of non-farm payrolls for the month of September. Wall Street and investors worldwide have shown a keen interest in this number all week, and the news that the US had shed another 95,000 jobs in the month was something of a surprise to many.
Watching the Dow Jones futures as the number was announced, the immediate, knee-jerk reaction was a drop of 88 points, though that was followed by a lightning-quick ramp up. Within minutes, the investor class had come to the perverse recognition that a poor showing in employment meant almost certainty for further QE by the Federal Reserve. In other words, much more free money would be headed to Wall Street and the corrupt banking system to keep stocks flying high.
The perversity of what was easily recognizable as bad news actually having an antecedent knock-on caused the market to open in positive territory and quickly surpass the 11,000 mark on the DJIA. Joining into the fray were most commodities, after some initial fits and starts, which also ramped up on the idea of a debased US dollar and limitless liquidity being supplied by the Fed.
With stocks cruising along, even word that Bank of America was halting all foreclosure activities in all 50 states - upping their previous call for a halt in just the 23 judicial foreclosure states - had virtually no effect on the celebratory mood. Sad as it may seem, investors somehow believe that outright inflationary policy against a backdrop of people with no jobs living in homes they cannot afford is somehow a great and marvelous thing.
Folks, I can't make this stuff up. We live in a country that's just about as upside-down as one can get.
Dow 11,006.48, +57.90 (0.53%)
NASDAQ 2,401.91, +18.24 (0.77%)
S&P 500 1,165.15, +7.09 (0.61%)
NYSE Composite 7,478.42, +53.41 (0.72%)
NASDAQ Volume 2,014,985,125
NYSE Volume 4,060,130,250
Advancing issues buried decliners, 4199-1500. New highs maintained their huge edge over new lows, stunningly, 471-33. Volume was anemic, being supplied by quants, Goldman Sachs, high frequency trading computers and the odd hedge fund here and there. Nobody seems to be concerned that the market is demonstrating absolutely the thinnest trading in our lifetimes.
In the commodity space, crude oil priced 99 cents higher, at $82.66 by the close. Gold resumed its ascent to the stratosphere, up $10.30, to $1,345.30. Silver tagged along with a gain of 52 cents, to $23.10.
Monday's a holiday, so the day's events will have plenty of time in which to sink in at cocktail parties and weekend outings. Somebody has to be able to make sense of it all, though that person isn't yet telling anyone.
At 8:30 am Eastern time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its survey of non-farm payrolls for the month of September. Wall Street and investors worldwide have shown a keen interest in this number all week, and the news that the US had shed another 95,000 jobs in the month was something of a surprise to many.
Watching the Dow Jones futures as the number was announced, the immediate, knee-jerk reaction was a drop of 88 points, though that was followed by a lightning-quick ramp up. Within minutes, the investor class had come to the perverse recognition that a poor showing in employment meant almost certainty for further QE by the Federal Reserve. In other words, much more free money would be headed to Wall Street and the corrupt banking system to keep stocks flying high.
The perversity of what was easily recognizable as bad news actually having an antecedent knock-on caused the market to open in positive territory and quickly surpass the 11,000 mark on the DJIA. Joining into the fray were most commodities, after some initial fits and starts, which also ramped up on the idea of a debased US dollar and limitless liquidity being supplied by the Fed.
With stocks cruising along, even word that Bank of America was halting all foreclosure activities in all 50 states - upping their previous call for a halt in just the 23 judicial foreclosure states - had virtually no effect on the celebratory mood. Sad as it may seem, investors somehow believe that outright inflationary policy against a backdrop of people with no jobs living in homes they cannot afford is somehow a great and marvelous thing.
Folks, I can't make this stuff up. We live in a country that's just about as upside-down as one can get.
Dow 11,006.48, +57.90 (0.53%)
NASDAQ 2,401.91, +18.24 (0.77%)
S&P 500 1,165.15, +7.09 (0.61%)
NYSE Composite 7,478.42, +53.41 (0.72%)
NASDAQ Volume 2,014,985,125
NYSE Volume 4,060,130,250
Advancing issues buried decliners, 4199-1500. New highs maintained their huge edge over new lows, stunningly, 471-33. Volume was anemic, being supplied by quants, Goldman Sachs, high frequency trading computers and the odd hedge fund here and there. Nobody seems to be concerned that the market is demonstrating absolutely the thinnest trading in our lifetimes.
In the commodity space, crude oil priced 99 cents higher, at $82.66 by the close. Gold resumed its ascent to the stratosphere, up $10.30, to $1,345.30. Silver tagged along with a gain of 52 cents, to $23.10.
Monday's a holiday, so the day's events will have plenty of time in which to sink in at cocktail parties and weekend outings. Somebody has to be able to make sense of it all, though that person isn't yet telling anyone.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Obama Defies Banks with Pocket Veto
You know it's a slow news day when all there is to report on is what didn't happen, and that would be President Obama not signing HR 3808, the Recognition of Notarizations Act, which would have forced federal and state courts to recognize notary signatures - including digital signatures - from other states, and was widely seen as an attempt by the banking lobby to do an end run around the "robo-signing" foreclosure mess they've created by having bank and processing firms' employees sign off on enormous rafts of affidavits without reading them.
In the midst of a foreclosure moratorium by Ally Bank, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America, the timing of the passage of the bill raised eyebrows and brought forth derision from homeowner advocates.
The bill was passed by the House and Senate and presented to Obama on September 30. The bill had failed to pass the senate on two previous occasions, but spurred on by last-minute wrangling by senators Pat Leahey (D-VT) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) the measure passed the senate without debate on a voice vote by unanimous consent. No record of the vote in either house was recorded, so the criminal congress, which gets much of its funding from the criminal enterprise known as the Too Big To Fail Banks, gets a free pass on this one with plenty of plausible deniability.
Though the bill was unlikely to ease the pain of the banks as they wade through hundreds of thousands of foreclosures, many of which will now be contested since their paperwork has been exposed as faulty at best and outright fraudulent at worst, the President opted to send the bill back to the congress, citing, in Press Secretary Robert Gibbs' words, "unintended consequences," obviously referring to the foreclosure scandal that's been accelerating over the past two to three weeks.
That was big news for homeowners in foreclosure in the 23 states that are defined as "judicial" foreclosure states, who will likely be allowed to remain in their homes without having to pay their mortgage nor be hounded by the servicing banks for up to a year or longer, according to sources such as Business Week.
Originally downplayed by the banks, the extent of the fraud - with much of the underlying paperwork in the affidavits referring to title and ownership, and thus, standing in foreclosure at fault, attorneys general from a handful of states have already called on the banks to halt foreclosures. Ohio AG, Richard Cordray, has already started a lawsuit against Ally Bank (formerly GMAC) and is close to suing Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase.
Late Wednesday, US Attorney General Eric Holder, after being prompted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other prominent Democrats, has ordered an investigation into foreclosure practices under the auspices of the financial fraud enforcement task force, formed last year in the aftermath of the market meltdown, TARP and the associated issues stemming from the original subprime crisis in 2008.
All of this didn't move markets much at all, though both JP Morgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) were lower at session's end.
For the most part, traders were patiently awaiting the release of the September Non-Farm Payroll report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, due out Friday morning at 8:30 am ET. Consensus estimates are for a gain of 60,000 jobs between the private and public sectors. On Wednesday, ADP reported a September loss of 39,000 private sector jobs in their monthly survey.
Dow 10,948.58, -19.07 (0.17%)
NASDAQ 2,383.67, +3.01 (0.13%)
S&P 500 1,158.06, -1.91 (0.16%)
NYSE Composite 7,425.01, -23.32 (0.31%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,856,212,625
NYSE Volume 4,056,364,500
Declining issues held a small edge over advancers, 3114-2568. New highs led new lows, 423-37. Volume was anemic, the worst in two weeks, and the past two weeks haven't been particularly strong. Equities have been hovering around their highs for most of the week, so the jobs report Friday may provide some direction to this listless market, though it would be no surprise to see it just languish within a tight range until after the midterm elections on November 2nd, which also coincides with a FOMC meeting at which the Fed is widely assumed to announce some new QE plan, thrusting billions of dollars into the moribund credit system.
After weeks of rallying higher, commodities performed an abrupt change of direction on Thursday, with crude oil futures hammered $1.56 lower, to $81.67 at the close on the NYMEX. The latest print for gold was at $1333.60, down $15.50, though it traded as high as $1365 on the day. Silver also took a header, losing 69 cents, to $22.50.
Chartists and fundamental analysis predicted some kind of easing in the precious metals especially, as they have been on an historic tear since the middle of August without so much as a 3% pullback. Oil also had escaped its longtime range between $70 and $80, though the move above the high end might be nothing more than naked speculation as supply-demand dynamics do not support higher prices. Mostly, the move up in oil was tied to the decline of the US dollar, which has fallen 14% in the past three months against other major currencies.
Not bad for a slow news day.
In the midst of a foreclosure moratorium by Ally Bank, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America, the timing of the passage of the bill raised eyebrows and brought forth derision from homeowner advocates.
The bill was passed by the House and Senate and presented to Obama on September 30. The bill had failed to pass the senate on two previous occasions, but spurred on by last-minute wrangling by senators Pat Leahey (D-VT) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) the measure passed the senate without debate on a voice vote by unanimous consent. No record of the vote in either house was recorded, so the criminal congress, which gets much of its funding from the criminal enterprise known as the Too Big To Fail Banks, gets a free pass on this one with plenty of plausible deniability.
Though the bill was unlikely to ease the pain of the banks as they wade through hundreds of thousands of foreclosures, many of which will now be contested since their paperwork has been exposed as faulty at best and outright fraudulent at worst, the President opted to send the bill back to the congress, citing, in Press Secretary Robert Gibbs' words, "unintended consequences," obviously referring to the foreclosure scandal that's been accelerating over the past two to three weeks.
That was big news for homeowners in foreclosure in the 23 states that are defined as "judicial" foreclosure states, who will likely be allowed to remain in their homes without having to pay their mortgage nor be hounded by the servicing banks for up to a year or longer, according to sources such as Business Week.
Originally downplayed by the banks, the extent of the fraud - with much of the underlying paperwork in the affidavits referring to title and ownership, and thus, standing in foreclosure at fault, attorneys general from a handful of states have already called on the banks to halt foreclosures. Ohio AG, Richard Cordray, has already started a lawsuit against Ally Bank (formerly GMAC) and is close to suing Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase.
Late Wednesday, US Attorney General Eric Holder, after being prompted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other prominent Democrats, has ordered an investigation into foreclosure practices under the auspices of the financial fraud enforcement task force, formed last year in the aftermath of the market meltdown, TARP and the associated issues stemming from the original subprime crisis in 2008.
All of this didn't move markets much at all, though both JP Morgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) were lower at session's end.
For the most part, traders were patiently awaiting the release of the September Non-Farm Payroll report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, due out Friday morning at 8:30 am ET. Consensus estimates are for a gain of 60,000 jobs between the private and public sectors. On Wednesday, ADP reported a September loss of 39,000 private sector jobs in their monthly survey.
Dow 10,948.58, -19.07 (0.17%)
NASDAQ 2,383.67, +3.01 (0.13%)
S&P 500 1,158.06, -1.91 (0.16%)
NYSE Composite 7,425.01, -23.32 (0.31%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,856,212,625
NYSE Volume 4,056,364,500
Declining issues held a small edge over advancers, 3114-2568. New highs led new lows, 423-37. Volume was anemic, the worst in two weeks, and the past two weeks haven't been particularly strong. Equities have been hovering around their highs for most of the week, so the jobs report Friday may provide some direction to this listless market, though it would be no surprise to see it just languish within a tight range until after the midterm elections on November 2nd, which also coincides with a FOMC meeting at which the Fed is widely assumed to announce some new QE plan, thrusting billions of dollars into the moribund credit system.
After weeks of rallying higher, commodities performed an abrupt change of direction on Thursday, with crude oil futures hammered $1.56 lower, to $81.67 at the close on the NYMEX. The latest print for gold was at $1333.60, down $15.50, though it traded as high as $1365 on the day. Silver also took a header, losing 69 cents, to $22.50.
Chartists and fundamental analysis predicted some kind of easing in the precious metals especially, as they have been on an historic tear since the middle of August without so much as a 3% pullback. Oil also had escaped its longtime range between $70 and $80, though the move above the high end might be nothing more than naked speculation as supply-demand dynamics do not support higher prices. Mostly, the move up in oil was tied to the decline of the US dollar, which has fallen 14% in the past three months against other major currencies.
Not bad for a slow news day.
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