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It’s no coincidence I train #glutes on #humpday. Diet started this week… stay tuned for progress pics.
15 3
#gymjunkie,#fitfam,#selfie,#chickswholift,#asstograss,#fitchicks,#fitlife,#glutes,#girlswithmuscle,#godeep,#humpday,
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2014 has been an unusual year so far. The worst start for stocks in decades stunned many but has been saved by the best rally in a few years’ asset-gatherers proclaim it was the dip to be bought but volume never came back to buy that dip (despite its exuberant surge). So where is all the volume in 2014? Nanex has the answer… investors have been geting ‘high’ by weeding-out OTC stocks…
Where The Action Went…
1. Comparing shares traded per day between OTC stocks, NYSE listed stocks and Nasdaq Global Market stocks.
Trading volume in OTC has exploded (green line).
2. Comparing trade executions per day between OTC stocks, NYSE listed stocks and Nasdaq Global Market stocks.
This chart takes into account that the much lower priced OTC stocks will have higher volume per trade. Trading in OTC stocks is exploding.
3. Where is the increased trading activity coming from in OTC stocks?
So the real volume; the real action has been in Medical Marijuana OTC stocks… speculative bubble? not according to Janet Yellen…
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1nuyJ1B Tyler Durden
2014 has been an unusual year so far. The worst start for stocks in decades stunned many but has been saved by the best rally in a few years’ asset-gatherers proclaim it was the dip to be bought but volume never came back to buy that dip (despite its exuberant surge). So where is all the volume in 2014? Nanex has the answer… investors have been geting ‘high’ by weeding-out OTC stocks…
Where The Action Went…
1. Comparing shares traded per day between OTC stocks, NYSE listed stocks and Nasdaq Global Market stocks.
Trading volume in OTC has exploded (green line).
2. Comparing trade executions per day between OTC stocks, NYSE listed stocks and Nasdaq Global Market stocks.
This chart takes into account that the much lower priced OTC stocks will have higher volume per trade. Trading in OTC stocks is exploding.
3. Where is the increased trading activity coming from in OTC stocks?
So the real volume; the real action has been in Medical Marijuana OTC stocks… speculative bubble? not according to Janet Yellen…
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1nuyJ1B Tyler Durden
It seems yet another (luxury) car maker did not get the “but it’s the weather” memo. Following Mercedes record sales in January, Porsche has announced today that expects to hit a target of selling more than 200,000 sports cars next year, three years earlier than originally scheduled. As Reuters reports, Volkswagen-owned Porsche is entering the lucrative segment of compact SUVs with its new Macan model, which has already sold out about eight months of production ahead of its arrival at German dealerships on April 4. Wealth effect, of course, is all that matters… and the promise of higher minimum wages and a Maserati in every garage.
Porsche expects to hit a target of selling more than 200,000 sports cars next year, three years earlier than originally scheduled, as the brand keeps pushing into sport-utility vehicles, Chief Executive Matthias Mueller said.
…
Volkswagen-owned Porsche is entering the lucrative segment of compact SUVs with its new Macan model, which has already sold out about eight months of production ahead of its arrival at German dealerships on April 4, sales chief Bernhard Maier said.
The Macan, which competes with BMW’s X3 model and the Mercedes-Benz (DAIGn.DE) GLK, will replace the more roomy Cayenne SUV as Porsche’s top-selling model next year, research firm IHS Automotive said, pegging 2015 Macan sales at 81,025 units compared with 70,055 for the Cayenne.
Porsche originally set the 200,000 sales goal for 2018 when parent VW is aiming to overtake Toyota and General Motors as the world’s biggest carmaker. CEO Mueller has been saying for months that the goal could be met earlier.
Of course, as the luxury brands move ‘down-market’, management must balance cheaper costs (because who the hell can afford these) with “exclusive premium branding”…
“We must take those warnings (of over stretching the brand’s identity) serious, one can’t ignore them,” Hueck told Reuters on Tuesday.
“We must ensure that the Porsche myth is preserved. Whether this is the case with 200,000 or 250,000 units is something we will have to look at,” said Hueck, who also sits on the sports-car maker’s supervisory board.
The Macan
But what about the weather that is apparanetly affecting sales of GM, Ford etc..?
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1hcSgpG Tyler Durden
By the power of his pen… President Obama gives minimum-wage-earning Federal employees (and physically and mentally handicapped workers) a 39% pay hike to $10.10 (and there’s nothing you can do about it) to “benefit hundreds of thousands of people.” We assume this is paid for by the usual unicorn tears-for-dollars swap…
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1olLdfh Tyler Durden
By the power of his pen… President Obama gives minimum-wage-earning Federal employees (and physically and mentally handicapped workers) a 39% pay hike to $10.10 (and there’s nothing you can do about it) to “benefit hundreds of thousands of people.” We assume this is paid for by the usual unicorn tears-for-dollars swap…
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1olLdfh Tyler Durden
Many have opined that while the unemployment rate may be 6.6%, down from a peak of 10% three and a half year ago, the so-called recovery sure doesn’t feel like one: after all so many Americans are still struggling to find work and as so many complain, employers are simply not hiring.
But how is that possible if the establishment survey tells us that the 12 month cumulative change in payrolls is now back to its ~2 million pre-recession average? Well, as it turns out, all those who complain about lack of hiring, are absolutely correct.
As the chart below shows, using the most recent JOLTS data, while historically the hires and cumulative job change numbers have tracked each other almost perfectly, in the current environment, hiring is far below where it should be if one were to believe the headline job numbers.
As even Goldman notes, “the hiring rate fell one-tenth to 3.2% and remains notably depressed relative to pre-recession levels” and Convergex’ Nick Colas adds “employers added fewer new hires than in any month since June. A 2.0% dip in hiring was just the second monthly decline in the latter half of 2013, as 92,000 fewer workers started new jobs during December compared with the prior month.“
What does this mean?
Well, as SMRA summarizes, the uptrend in the net turnover numbers or the nonfarm payroll since the onset of recovery was based largely on to a decline in layoffs and other separations, as oppose to robust hirings.
In other words, the US jobs “recovery” is based on less firings (and quits) than actual hirings. And remember: a business is growing when it is hiring, not when it is afraid to fire for lack of finding a qualified replacement out of a systematically impaired labor force, in which millions of people have been without a job for so long they have forgotten the bulk of their work skills, until they simply stop looking altogether and drop out of the labor force entirely, and certainly not when an employer is terrified to quit for lack of finding a better job.
Which, incidentally, also explains the record number of Americans out of the labor force: it has everything to do with the fake “recovery” in which companies refuse to hire, and virtually nothing to do with the demographics of the US population, as we (and the BLS once upon a time) have shown time after time.
And finally, for those who still harbor some hope that the last year’s job prints were weather impacted, and may have been dragged lower due to cold weather in the survey week, here is a shock: the JOLTS net turnover chart which measures hires less separations, and traditionally matches the Establishment’s survey as close to tick for tick as possible. Why is the net turnover number important? Because the Jolts data takes a snapshot of hires and separations for the full month, in contrast to the payroll numbers, which compares payroll counts for the pay period that includes the 12th in the month. In other words, if the weather was to blame for the atrocious December jobs print, the chart below would not show a dip. Instead net turnover was a meager 67,000 in the final month of 2013, following a 6-month string of job growth in the 150,000 to 250,000 range. It was the worst month for employment since the economy added 64,000 to payrolls in August 2012.
So much for the weather – again.
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1gqQeyJ Tyler Durden
If it wasn’t enough to see the
United States slide in four rankings of economic freedom, Internet
liberty, and government transparency last year, the Land of the
Brave and Home of the Free (except where prohibited by law) is off
to a swell start in 2014 by slipping 13 places on the World Press
Freedom Index. Compiled by Reporters Without Borders, the Index
keeps a running tally of governments’ respect for journalistic
freedomson matters ranging from legislative restrictions to
outright whacking of reporters. The U.S. has taken a hit largely
from the post-9/11 insistence on fetishizing claims of “national
security” (Rep. Mike Rogers now wants to
criminalize the publication of sensitive information like that
released by Edward Snowden) and from the Obama administration’s
crusade against whistleblowers.
As the Index
puts it:
Countries that pride themselves on being democracies and
respecting the rule of law have not set an example, far from it.
Freedom of information is too often sacrificed to an overly broad
and abusive interpretation of national security needs, marking a
disturbing retreat from democratic practices. Investigative
journalism often suffers as a result.This has been the case in the United States (46th), which fell
13 places, one of the most significant declines, amid increased
efforts to track down whistleblowers and the sources of leaks. The
trial and conviction of Private Bradley Manning and the pursuit of
NSA analyst Edward Snowden were warnings to all those thinking of
assisting in the disclosure of sensitive information that would
clearly be in the public interest.US journalists were stunned by the Department of Justice’s
seizure of Associated Press phone records without warning
in order to identify the source of a CIA leak. It served as a
reminder of the urgent need for a “shield law” to protect the
confidentiality of journalists’ sources at the federal level. The
revival of the legislative process is little consolation for James
Risen of The New York Times, who is subject to a court
order to testify against a former CIA employee accused of leaking
classified information. And less still for Barrett Brown, a young
freelance journalist facing 105 years in prison in connection with
the posting of information that hackers obtained from Statfor, a
private intelligence company with close ties to the federal
government.
The U.S, isn’t the only backslider on the Index. France and the
U.K. also lost position, though not by as much as the U.S. The
European Union, as a whole, is suffering because “Membership
negotiations are no longer necessarily accompanied by efforts to
increase respect for civil liberties.” As a result, several
governments have taken advantage of a lack of outside pressure to
crck down internally.
By contrast, Finland, the Netherlands, and Norway top the Index
in first, second, and third places respectively. Of Finland, the
Index notes the first-place ranking despite rarely enforced laws
that criminalize defamation, including potential imprisonment of
journalists, in certain circumstances. For perpetual complainers
about “corporate news,” the index also notes that, even though
three companies dominate Finland’s media, “there is a great deal of
media pluralism despite the concentrated ownership.”
Turkmenistan, North Korea, and Eritrea do a swell job of
anchoring the last three places on the Index.
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The Citizen’s John Munford reports Peachtree City police officers warn that Peachtree Parkway North was starting to get slick by 1 p.m. Wednesday. Officers are working with the city’s Public Works department to help keep roads cleared of downed tree limbs, as shown in this photo from the P.D.’s Facebook page. Downed power lines are still a problem, police said.
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The default cycle that should have occurred, given historical patterns of issuance cycles, has morphed (thanks to the Fed) into a refinancing cycle; but while DoubleLine’s Jeff Gundlach suggests that fundamentals are supportive, “the valuation of junk bonds as a category is at its all-time overvalued versus long-time treasury bonds.” So despite Yellen exclaiming that she sees no bubbles, one of the world’s largest bond fund managers has never seen corporate bonds (investment grade and high yield) more expensive. Gundlach goes on to note he has sold some Apple (but believes it will remain range-bound), is baffled by the valuation of Chipotle, and sees 10Y Treasury yields dropping to 2.5% or lower.
…a lot of companies that under normal circumstances might have defaulted got to refinance instead.
Gundlach likes EM bonds (on a valuation basis):
…the real risk in emerging market bonds seems to be the currency risk more than anything else. If you go dollar denominated obviously you don’t have that currency risk. Last year corporate junk bonds in the US had a 7% positive return and emerging market debt had a negative 5% return or so… and that kind of a divergence is historically very, very rare. There is something to mean reversion.
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1m8vLoe Tyler Durden