Twitter's Pre-IPO Euphoria: So Deja Book

This morning’s announcement of the 25% rise in the IPO price of Twitter raised a few eyebrows across Wall and Main Street. Most will argue that investors have all learned many lessons in the 18 months since Facebook IPO’d to a clarion call for retail money large and small from every form of media that exists… The following headlines from the pre-IPO suggest, unfortunately, that we learned absolutely nothing

 

In the week leading up to the Facebook IPO:

  • Facebook to Set IPO Price Range High $20s to Mid $30s: WSJ
  • Facebook has set a price range of $28 to $35 for IPO: AP
  • Facebook Close to Pricing IPO at $38/Shr, WSJ Says
  • Facebook Indicated at $44-$45 on Nasdaq IPO Cross: CNBC

and then this week – ahead of the Twitter IPO:

  • *GORMAN EXPECTS ‘CLEAN’ OPENING TRADE ON TWITTER IPO
  • *TWITTER SEES IPO PRICE $23-$25, HAD SEEN $17-$20
  • *TWITTER IPO SAID TO BE OVERSUBSCRIBED SEVERAL TIMES AT $25/SHR
  • *TWITTER SAID LIKELY TO PRICE IPO ABOVE INCREASED OFFERING RANGE
  • *TWITTER RATED NEW BUY AT TOPEKA CAPITAL, PT $54

and so where did Facebook end up before embarking on its explosive price trajectory…?

Sure enough, the low end of the initial pre-IPO range…

 

But, of course, it’s different this time…


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/DA-dt_hI6DE/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Twitter’s Pre-IPO Euphoria: So Deja Book

This morning’s announcement of the 25% rise in the IPO price of Twitter raised a few eyebrows across Wall and Main Street. Most will argue that investors have all learned many lessons in the 18 months since Facebook IPO’d to a clarion call for retail money large and small from every form of media that exists… The following headlines from the pre-IPO suggest, unfortunately, that we learned absolutely nothing

 

In the week leading up to the Facebook IPO:

  • Facebook to Set IPO Price Range High $20s to Mid $30s: WSJ
  • Facebook has set a price range of $28 to $35 for IPO: AP
  • Facebook Close to Pricing IPO at $38/Shr, WSJ Says
  • Facebook Indicated at $44-$45 on Nasdaq IPO Cross: CNBC

and then this week – ahead of the Twitter IPO:

  • *GORMAN EXPECTS ‘CLEAN’ OPENING TRADE ON TWITTER IPO
  • *TWITTER SEES IPO PRICE $23-$25, HAD SEEN $17-$20
  • *TWITTER IPO SAID TO BE OVERSUBSCRIBED SEVERAL TIMES AT $25/SHR
  • *TWITTER SAID LIKELY TO PRICE IPO ABOVE INCREASED OFFERING RANGE
  • *TWITTER RATED NEW BUY AT TOPEKA CAPITAL, PT $54

and so where did Facebook end up before embarking on its explosive price trajectory…?

Sure enough, the low end of the initial pre-IPO range…

 

But, of course, it’s different this time…


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/DA-dt_hI6DE/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Navy Commander Allegedly Swapped Confidential Info For Prostitutes, Brazil Acknowledges Spying on U.S. Diplomats, Negative Opinions of Obamacare Are Up: P.M. Links

  • According to court documents, Navy commander
    Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz
    passed confidential information
    to a company run by a Malaysian businessman nicknamed “Fat
    Leonard” in exchange for prostitutes and Lady Gaga tickets.
  • The Brazilian government, which has complained about the NSA’s
    behavior in the past, has acknowledged that
    Brazil’s intelligence agency has spied
    on American
    diplomats.

  • Only 35 percent
    of voters think that American elections are
    fair.
  • Negative opinions of
    Obamacare are up
    , with 53 percent of likely American voters
    saying they view the legislation at least somewhat unfavorably.
     

  • Twitter
    has raised the price range for its IPO to between $23
    and $25.
  • Some 1,500 pieces of artwork confiscated by
    the Nazis
    have been found in Munich. The collection reportedly
    includes pieces by Matisse and Picasso.

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from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/04/navy-commander-allegedly-swapped-confide
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Hillary's Speaking Fee Reminds Us of Clinton Business History, Says Ira Stoll

The news that Hillary Clinton has earned what the
Washington Post characterized as “close to $500,000” for
two recent speeches to Goldman Sachs is generating a certain amount
of excitement. Ira Stoll says that after the Obama presidency,
perhaps Americans would find it refreshing to have a president,
like Hillary Clinton, who doesn’t seem hostile to business. Still,
voters will seek reassurance that Mrs. Clinton’s enthusiasm for
profits extends beyond those earned by her clients, her husband,
and herself.

View this article.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/04/ira-stoll-says-hillarys-speaking-fee-rem
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Hillary’s Speaking Fee Reminds Us of Clinton Business History, Says Ira Stoll

The news that Hillary Clinton has earned what the
Washington Post characterized as “close to $500,000” for
two recent speeches to Goldman Sachs is generating a certain amount
of excitement. Ira Stoll says that after the Obama presidency,
perhaps Americans would find it refreshing to have a president,
like Hillary Clinton, who doesn’t seem hostile to business. Still,
voters will seek reassurance that Mrs. Clinton’s enthusiasm for
profits extends beyond those earned by her clients, her husband,
and herself.

View this article.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/04/ira-stoll-says-hillarys-speaking-fee-rem
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Gold Coin Sales In U.S. To October 2013 Top Total For 2012

Today’s AM fix was USD 1,314.25, EUR 972.94 and GBP 823.47 per ounce.
Friday’s AM fix was USD 1,314.75, EUR 971.73 and GBP 821.67 per ounce.

Gold fell $8.70 or 0.66% Friday, closing at $1,314.80/oz. Silver slid $0.04 or 0.18% closing at $21.84. Platinum edged off $0.26 or 0% to $1,448.24/oz, while palladium rose $1.51 or 0.2% to $736.51/oz. Gold and silver finished down on the week at 2.72% and 3.02%.


U.S. Gold Coins Sales 2012 and 2013 YTD – U.S. Mint via Bloomberg

Gold eased for a sixth straight session today, trading near two week lows as the 3% price fall last week led to further selling by more speculative momentum players.  If gold ends down today, it would be its longest losing streak since the seven days to May 17.

This will present a buying opportunity as we enter a seasonal sweet spot for gold from November to February. November is gold’s strongest month in the last ten years and it has returned 4.93% on average since 2003. Since 1975, gold has returned nearly 1.5% on average in November (see table above).

Physical demand in China and India appears to have fallen from the incredibly strong levels seen recently but store of wealth, physical buyers in the west continue to accumulate physical bullion in order to hedge against considerable macroeconomic and geopolitical risk.

This is seen in the U.S Mint data which showed that gold coin demand in the first ten months of 2013 has already surpassed total demand for 2012.

Indian demand was tame during the biggest gold buying festivals of Dhanteras and Diwali, celebrated on Friday and over the weekend. Indians are opting for cheaper silver due to high gold premiums and the scarcity of physical gold on the domestic market. This bodes well for silver in the coming months as buyers internationally see silver as undervalued and undervalued against gold.

Many believe new record highs for silver are only a matter of time and we concur.

With regard to western physical gold demand, sales of American Eagle gold coins by the U.S. Mint so far in 2013 have surpassed the total for all of 2012. In 2013, 755,500 ounces of the coins were sold as of last Friday and the end of October, compared with 753,000 ounces in all of 2012.

In the month of April 2013, sales surged to 209,500 ounces, the most since December 2009, after COMEX futures posted the biggest two day slump in three decades. The mint suspended sales of gold coins weighing a 10th of an ounce from April 23 to May 28 because of a lack of inventory.

Gold prices on the Comex in New York have climbed 11% from a 34 month low of $1,179.40 an ounce at the end of June, partly as demand for coins, bars and jewelry increased in Asia, the
Middle East and internationally. China’s imports of the metal from Hong Kong more than doubled to 826 metric tons in the nine months ended September 30 from a year earlier.

Store of value, gold coin buyers more than tripled their purchases from the U.S. Mint in October from the prior month, U.S. Mint data confirmed.

The U.S. Mint sold 48,500 ounces of the American Eagle gold coins in October, up from 13,000 ounces in September. It was the second straight increase in monthly purchases and came as coin sales continue to recover from August’s low of 11,500.
Sales of the American Buffalo bullion coin, which only comes in the one ounce version, rose to 18,000 in October from 10,000 in September.

The Mint sells gold coins to dealers, who in turn make them available to the public. Market participants consider the Mint data as an indicator of retail investors’ demand for physical gold.

However, ETFs may be a better indicator of retail investor demand and physical coins an indication of store of wealth or financial insurance demand.

This is an important distinction as retail investors tend to buy near highs and sell near lows. While store of wealth buyers are generally value buyers and tend to accumulate physical bullion on weakness and price dips. They are reluctant sellers and therefore do not tend to sell on price weakness rather they use their physical bullion as financial insurance and tend to only sell when they have a need for paper currency.

Physical bullion buyers are savers rather than speculative investors. This attitude and prudent behaviour has served them well in recent years and will do so again in the coming months and years.


Download GoldCore’s Essential Guide To Silver Eagles here.

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via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/KhfopHrXnKo/story01.htm GoldCore

Trannies Melt-Up For 15th Of Last 19 Days On Lowest Non-Holiday Volume In Years

The Dow Transports continue their entirely sensible march to infinity as they have no risen over 11% in the last 19 days with only 4 marginally lower days in that period. The S&P tested lower around the open but that ‘dip’ was mandatorily bid and lifted the index back towards the highs (with a 330 Ramp off VWAP for good measure). Volumes in futures, options, and stocks were absolutely abysmal (S&P futures lowest non-holiday in a couple years). The USD decided to limp lower (led by EUR strength), gold and oil ended unch (silver and copper -1%), Treasury yields very modestly lower, and VIX was banged back under 13%. Credit remains un-impressed (though rallied modestly in the day).

 

With volume absent, the machines were running the show again – leverage tool of choice was VIX as the ramp off VWAP from 330 proved infallible once again…lifting ES 5 points on no news at all – just for the shits and giggles… 950,000 contracts at the cash close vs 1.4 mm average…

 

The major indices continue to rise… with Trannies topping the pack today was the Transports best day in 3 weeks!!!!

 

With Discretionary and Industrials leading (and asdide from Utes, Financials lagging)…

 

Gold and Oil faded back to unchanged as Silver and Copper lost ground…

 

Despite USD weakness…

 

But credit remains unimpressed…

 

Treasuries sold off for much of the day as stocks went higher – bucking the but it all trend from the EU session…

 

Dec VIX futures dropped to their lows…

 

 

Charts: Bloomberg


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/gI4oOheWMTA/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Treasury Scrambles To Raise $60 Billion Extra Cash Ahead Of Next Debt Ceiling Fight

By now everyone is aware that due to the pick up in tax revenues coupled with a cut in spending, US funding needs have been decreasing over the past year at least until the demographic inflection point hits in 2015 and the old trend reverts. That this is happening to the chagrin of the Fed, which is unable to trim its montly monetization of securities, i.e., taper, without crashing the market and is therefore forced to monetize more than the entire 10 Year equivalent net monthly issuance is also known to all except for the Fed it seems, which instead is forced to gobble up increasingly more high quality collateral.

Which is precisely what the moments ago released marketable borrowing estimates by the Treasury for Fiscal Q1 and Q2 revealed: funding needs for the October-December quarter declined from the prior $230 billion estimate to $204 billion, while the Q1 funding needs were set at $356 billion, in line with last year’s number. And yet, the Treasury also announced that despite a lower funding need in the current quarter, it would proceed with issuing $32 billion more in net Treasurys, or $266 billion, than previously estimated. Why? To push the quarter end cash balance from $80 billion to $140 billion at December 31, 2013. This is the highest quarter-ending cash balance since 2010.

Why is the Treasury scrambling to build up cash ahead of calendar 2014? Simple: as is well-known, the debt ceiling drama comes back with a vengeance in late January and early February, and this one promises to be just as theatrical and protracted as all prior ones. Which means that in order to push back the ultimate day of reckoning, the infamous X-Date, beyond which the Treasury truly has no cash, it is now stocking up on as much cash as it can get its hands on.

Based on rough estimates, the additional $60 billion in cash means the Treasury may have just bought itself at least 1 month of additional wiggle room before it runs out of emergency measures. And since the Treasury is indicating it will have that much extra cash going into 2014, it virtually assures that the theatrics surrounding this latest upcoming debt target hike, when Boehner again huffs and puffs before folding in a lawn chair of epic humiliation, will be on par with all prior such soap opera episodes.


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/yDIS8Hw9tGs/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Monday Humor: Forget Jimmy Kimmel; Meet "The Undying Chinese"

Following Jimmy Kimmel’s infamous kids roundtable where the solution proferred by one young chap was to “kill all the Chinese people” since they are the ones we owe money to, the Chinese people decided enough was enough and put together this brief tutorial on China, and how many ‘peoples’ have tried to kill them in the past… meet “The Undying Chinese”

 

Jimmy Kimmel’s “Kill everyone in China” skit:

 

 

And The Chinese response… (if nothing else, it’s a great introduction to the way they see themselves in under 4 minutes)…


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/KpgfpPm-fE8/story01.htm Tyler Durden