iftttwall

Sometimes you just have to laugh… Chicago, it would seem, felt not just no bad impact from the government shutdown (that so many asset managers and CEOs have proclaimed as the reason for any slowdown – and the need to avoid a Taper) but it roared to its highest since March 2011. This blew expectations away by the most on record (8-sigma). New orders are at the highest level since October 2004. October’s advance in the Barometer was its biggest monthly increase in over 30 years and only the third time in the past decade the Barometer has risen for four consecutive months. US equities are not happy about this apparent ‘taper-on’ improvement (and have dropped 8 points on the release) – though it appears seasonals are playing a major part.

 

 

and in context – this is an 8 sigma beat:

 

MNI notes however that two reasons stand out for this surge:

1. Half the gains stem from seasonal adjustments, and
2. October is the time when pre-Chinese New Year orders hit

 

 

US equities are not happy at this “good” news…

 

Chart: Bloomberg

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/aMVB5gKCF88/story01.htm Tyler Durden

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. In a little over 12 hours, the unstoppable glory of all things 2013 dot-com bubble has collapsed over 20% from its highs. After being proclaimed as “cult” by many and a “must buy” by others only last night, the opening bell this morning sees little to no BTFD’ers coming to its rescue (for now)…

 

 

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/kx0QmfxkjF4/story01.htm Tyler Durden

The “wedge” between ‘market-perception’ and economic reality, that we discussed in detail last night, driven by Merkel’s enabling of Draghi’s excess, has never been more extreme. As Elliott’s Paul Singer noted, things are indeed “wrong and dangerous” when politicians are proclaiming victories, stocks are at record highs, bonds risk is at multi-year lows and yet unemployment rates (most specifically among the under-25 youth of the region) soars back to record highs. A stunning 24.1% of young people across the entire euro-zone is unemployed; Spain (having ‘exited’ its nominal recession) stands at a record 56.5% youth unemployment, topped only by Greece’s mind-numbing 57.3% youth unemployment record (as Greek bond yields hit 3 year lows). France and Italy also hit record highs and Cyprus’ broad unemployment level has exploded from 28% a year ago to 43% now. Amid all of this, Germany’s youth unemployment continues to improve to a 20 year low. Recipe for disaster?

 

 

Data: Bloomberg

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/wtk_0Uk-qf4/story01.htm Tyler Durden

The “wedge” between ‘market-perception’ and economic reality, that we discussed in detail last night, driven by Merkel’s enabling of Draghi’s excess, has never been more extreme. As Elliott’s Paul Singer noted, things are indeed “wrong and dangerous” when politicians are proclaiming victories, stocks are at record highs, bonds risk is at multi-year lows and yet unemployment rates (most specifically among the under-25 youth of the region) soars back to record highs. A stunning 24.1% of young people across the entire euro-zone is unemployed; Spain (having ‘exited’ its nominal recession) stands at a record 56.5% youth unemployment, topped only by Greece’s mind-numbing 57.3% youth unemployment record (as Greek bond yields hit 3 year lows). France and Italy also hit record highs and Cyprus’ broad unemployment level has exploded from 28% a year ago to 43% now. Amid all of this, Germany’s youth unemployment continues to improve to a 20 year low. Recipe for disaster?

 

 

Data: Bloomberg

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/wtk_0Uk-qf4/story01.htm Tyler Durden

This morning, like many other mornings in the last few months, precious metals prices are being pummeled lower in a vertical dumpfest (for no apparent sudden reason other than its opening time). What is ironic about this apparent lack of demand is that around the world, demand is extreme – and is most clearly evident in India, where thanks to government intervention, physical premiums push to new record highs yet do nothing to detract from Indians buying demand (as Reuters reports supplies of the precious metal disappear). Of course, the real reason why gold and silver prices have dropped since 10/28 is that none other than "the world renowned Gartman" went long again…

 

 

Via Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

I first reported on record high gold premiums in India a couple of weeks ago. Since then, the story has become even more interesting as Reuters reports that gold supplies have completely dried up just ahead of major gold buying festivals and despite continued record premiums. While it is clear that Indians are finding a way to buy gold anyway via black markets, this is still a very interesting story to keep an eye on.

More from Reuters:

India has imposed several restrictions on imports of gold, the biggest non-essential import item, to curb a record trade deficit. Gold imports in September fell to 7 tonnes from 162 tonnes in May.

 

Of course, if additional demand wasn’t being met via black markets the price of gold would be far lower than it is.

 

“Still gold is not available, and they are charging $120-130 (an ounce) of premiums,” said Bachhraj Bamalwa, director with the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation.

 

Most of the demand is being met by recycled gold or through unofficial or illegal supply channels, traders said.

 

“Sales have dropped by 50 percent… and everything is happening according to the wishes of the government,” said Harshad Ajmera, proprietor of Kolkata-based wholesaler JJ Gold House.

I’m sure this will all work out just as the government anticipates…

Full article here.

 

but here is the real reason for this…

 

In what has become a neck-to-neck race between the two best contrarian indicators in the world, Goldman's FX antiguru Tom Stolper and, well, nobody's Dennis Gartman, recall that it was October 15 when Gartman infamously told CNBC that " "Gold Is Acting Crappy… Looks Weak… Looks Awful". The logical result was a $100 gold price ramp in the days that followed. So fast forward ten days, to October 28 when Gartman, again on CNBC, intoned his suddenly bullish stance on gold, telling CNBC " that he was now looking at another trade. " That prompted us to quickly note that logical trade to be made:

 

Gartman now long gold apparently. Time to sell it all

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 28, 2013

 

And sure enough, after hitting $1360 on the day of Gartman's interview, gold has since tumbled.

It goes without saying that we would urge readers to wait for the author of the "world famous Gartman letter" to start bashing gold again before going all in the yellow metal

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/ZVkYtFdEDA4/story01.htm Tyler Durden

This morning, like many other mornings in the last few months, precious metals prices are being pummeled lower in a vertical dumpfest (for no apparent sudden reason other than its opening time). What is ironic about this apparent lack of demand is that around the world, demand is extreme – and is most clearly evident in India, where thanks to government intervention, physical premiums push to new record highs yet do nothing to detract from Indians buying demand (as Reuters reports supplies of the precious metal disappear). Of course, the real reason why gold and silver prices have dropped since 10/28 is that none other than "the world renowned Gartman" went long again…

 

 

Via Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

I first reported on record high gold premiums in India a couple of weeks ago. Since then, the story has become even more interesting as Reuters reports that gold supplies have completely dried up just ahead of major gold buying festivals and despite continued record premiums. While it is clear that Indians are finding a way to buy gold anyway via black markets, this is still a very interesting story to keep an eye on.

More from Reuters:

India has imposed several restrictions on imports of gold, the biggest non-essential import item, to curb a record trade deficit. Gold imports in September fell to 7 tonnes from 162 tonnes in May.

 

Of course, if additional demand wasn’t being met via black markets the price of gold would be far lower than it is.

 

“Still gold is not available, and they are charging $120-130 (an ounce) of premiums,” said Bachhraj Bamalwa, director with the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation.

 

Most of the demand is being met by recycled gold or through unofficial or illegal supply channels, traders said.

 

“Sales have dropped by 50 percent… and everything is happening according to the wishes of the government,” said Harshad Ajmera, proprietor of Kolkata-based wholesaler JJ Gold House.

I’m sure this will all work out just as the government anticipates…

Full article here.

 

but here is the real reason for this…

 

In what has become a neck-to-neck race between the two best contrarian indicators in the world, Goldman's FX antiguru Tom Stolper and, well, nobody's Dennis Gartman, recall that it was October 15 when Gartman infamously told CNBC that " "Gold Is Acting Crappy… Looks Weak… Looks Awful". The logical result was a $100 gold price ramp in the days that followed. So fast forward ten days, to October 28 when Gartman, again on CNBC, intoned his suddenly bullish stance on gold, telling CNBC " that he was now looking at another trade. " That prompted us to quickly note that logical trade to be made:

 

Gartman now long gold apparently. Time to sell it all

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 28, 2013

 

And sure enough, after hitting $1360 on the day of Gartman's interview, gold has since tumbled.

It goes without saying that we would urge readers to wait for the author of the "world famous Gartman letter" to start bashing gold again before going all in the yellow metal

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/ZVkYtFdEDA4/story01.htm Tyler Durden

For the 4th week in a row, initial jobless claims came in worse than expected. According to the BLS there are no special adjustments for “glitches” or shutdowns or any other caveats and in fact California (at the center of the software glitch that impacted everything) saw the biggest ‘drop’ in claims: 13,033 as fewer layoffs in service, wholesales trade, and retail trade industries supported the data. If this is indeed a clean number, it is still the highest level of jobless claims in over 3 months. It seems, post-FOMC, that the market needs moar bad prints to spark some more momentum and a mere 10k miss is just not enough to warrant another BFTATH ramp (for now).

 

 

Charts: Bloomberg

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/zvvFw1Dc7Qg/story01.htm Tyler Durden

If the “success” of Abenomics is measured by the soaring prices of food and energy, if little other inflation, by the exploding monetary base and by a wealth effect, pardon, stock market which has flatlined in the past 3 months, then it has so far done passable job of being considered good policy. If, however, one actually looks at the general improvement in living conditions measured most directly by that key metric –wages – then Abenomics has been the worst thing to hit Japan since the Fukushima tsunami, and an unmitigated disaster.

As the Japan labor ministry reported overnight, the nation’s salaries extended the longest slide since 2010, as regular wages excluding overtime and bonuses fell 0.3 percent in
September from a year earlier, marking a 16th straight month of decline. That this is happening even as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe “urges companies to raise workers’ wages as part of his bid to reflate the world’s third-largest economy” is merely the latest slap in the face of central-planners everywhere who believe that flipping an economy and deeply engrained behaviors can happen on a dime.

More from Bloomberg:

The data underline the difficulties Abe faces in getting companies on board in his drive to end more than a decade of deflation among nascent signs of price gains after the Bank of Japan’s unprecedented easing. Trade unions are demanding higher base pay, and the question now is whether firms will agree in wage negotiations early next year.

“The key for the success of Abenomics is whether companies will raise wages,” Norio Miyagawa, a senior economist at Mizuho Securities Research and Consulting Co. in Tokyo, said before the report. “Companies still aren’t confident enough that growth will be sustained and will probably hesitate to raise wages, especially base salaries, for the time being.”

Wages are falling behind price gains. National consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 0.7 percent last month from a year earlier, a fourth straight increase.
Expansion Forecast

The nation’s economy is forecast to grow until April, when a sales-tax increase is likely to cause a one-quarter contraction. Domestic demand is boosting production, and a survey of purchasing managers released today showed manufacturers this month at their most confident in more than three years.

Great: so Abe has another six months before the secular shift in fiscal policy makes wage growth virtually impossible

Kaoru Yosano, a former finance minister, said in an interview this month that wage gains hinge on a pick-up in demand, not just pleas by Abe for companies to do their part for a recovery.

 

Trade union negotiations with management on salaries in talks known as “shunto,” or the spring wage offensive — around March next year — will be key for pay increases.

 

The negotiations “will be one clear point at which there is a chance to either show that something new is happening or raise further doubts,” Jerry Schiff, the International Monetary Fund’s mission chief for Japan, said in an interview this week in Tokyo. “It’ll be important to get wages to begin to rise soon.”

 

The Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo, plans to demand pay increases of more than 1 percent in next spring’s labor talks — a move welcomed by Economy Minister Akira Amari.

Good luck with all that… especially following news that Japan’s tobacco conglomerate, Japan Tobacco, is firing some 20% of jobs at the parent company and is closing 4 plants.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/4mVQvYkOQnk/story01.htm Tyler Durden

The last time major explosions were reported near Damascus, it was in May when Israel and its air force did everything in their power to provoke the Assad regime to escalate military operations both domestically and abroad. It almost succeeded when three months later Obama nearly led a falseflag-driven “liberation” force facilitating Saudi and Qatari energy interests in the region and their pipeline ambitions below Syria. Since then Israel had been largely dormant, seething in its (and Saudi) disappointment that it was unable to play Obama like a fiddle.

The unstable detente changed again overnight, when as Haaretz reports “a large explosion was heard at a Syrian army missile base in Latakia.  Eye witnesses told the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights that the explosion took place near Snobar Jableh, south of the city. It was not yet clear whether anyone was wounded in the strike.” And not surprisingly, it is once again Israel’ that was implicated in the latest regional provocation because as Haaretz adds, the “strike follows Lebanese media reports that Israeli aircraft circled above southern Lebanon.”

“The official Lebanese news agency reported that Israeli aircrafts were sighted on multiple occasions Wednesday in the south of the country. According to the report, which was based on a press statement by the Lebanese army, the airplanes entered Lebanese airspace at around 1:40 P.M. and circled over various places before leaving over the Mediterranean Sea near Tripoli and Naqoura at 5 P.M.”

From Haaretz:

A Facebook page run by Syrian rebels claimed that the strike occurred at around 7 P.M. According to the page, a missile was fired from the sea and struck the Syrian base but did not result in any casualties. Israeli sources declined to comment on the reports.

 

Last week, Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida reported that Israeli fighter planes had bombed a shipment of missiles in the border area between Lebanon and Syria. The report, which according to the paper was based on sources in Jerusalem, has no confirmation from any other source.

 

The source told the newspaper that the missiles that were destroyed were of an advanced model and were designated for Hezbollah, as part of the strengthening of the organization’s missile system. It is not clear whether the attack was carried out on Lebanese territory or on Syrian territory.

 

Israel refused to comment officially on the publication in the Kuwaiti newspaper, whose reliability is questionable.

While hardly surprising if Israel is confirmed as the offending party, a far bigger question is what are next steps: because unlike before, Putin has now very officially made Syria his protectorate, even as the US protective influence over both Syria and the region in general was waned substantially in the past few months. But perhaps more surprising is the desperation with which Israel is once again trying to destabilize the region. One thing that is clear: while such provocative actions may have yielded results as recently as half a year ago, Israel will need to put far more energy into comparable actions in the future, whether they target Syria or Iran, as the public opinion’s threshold for unwarranted Israel offensive action has dropped substantially since the bundled US foreign policy escapade in Syria which was an unmitigated disaster for the US-Saudi-Qatar-Israel axis.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/Il9u_-icd2U/story01.htm Tyler Durden

• US Blasts Germany’s Economic Policies (WSJ)
• Citigroup, JPMorgan Said to Put Currency Dealers on Leave (BBG)
• Watchdog: Syria Destroys Chemical-Arms Equipment (WSJ)
• Kynikos Alumni Start Hedge Fund Betting on Declining Stocks (BBG)
• China state media calls for stern action after Tiananmen attack (RTRS)
• IMF warns of financial shock risk to Africa (FT)
• Insurers Oppose Obamacare Extension as Danger to Profits (BBG)
• BoJ content to ignore Fed tapering and go its own way (FT)
• U.S. attorney wants DOJ to take civil action against BofA (RTRS)
• NSA Fallout Hits AT&T’s Ambitions In Europe (WSJ)
• Sony slashes profit outlook with TV business back in red (RTRS)
• Google Denies NSA Cooperation While Expanding Encryption (WSJ)
• End western deference to Saudi petrodollars (FT)
• Facebook Status: Big Gains, but Worries Ahead (WSJ)
• Polish journalist abducted in Syria escaped and is home (RTRS)

 

Overnight Media Digest

WSJ

* Fed officials emerged from a policy meeting with their easy-money program intact and no clear signal about whether they would begin pulling it back at their December meeting or continue it into 2014.

* The collapse of oil company OGX, Latin America’s biggest-ever bankruptcy, punctuates Eike Batista’s breathtaking rise and fall.

* The Treasury’s semiannual report says Germany’s export-led growth is creating problems for the euro zone and the global economy.

* Facebook’s revival continued Wednesday as its surging mobile-advertising business helped the social network post a third-quarter profit, making its bumpy initial public offering last year seem like a distant memory.

* Retailers and grocers are bracing for another drain on consumer spending when a temporary boost in food-stamp benefits expires Friday.

* London’s top traders and bankers could soon see a big boost to their monthly pay as part of an effort by banks to soften the blow of a new European Union law limiting annual bonuses.

* When 58.com Inc, China’s equivalent of Craigslist, starts selling shares in New York, it will offer the best indicator yet of whether U.S. investors have found a taste for Chinese stocks again after a two-year case of indigestion.

* As it prepared its workers to take on jobs at major U.S. companies, Indian outsourcing giant Infosys Ltd provided them with written instructions on how to deceive U.S. authorities about the type of work they would do, and furnished them with inappropriate visas to lower its cost of doing business, federal prosecutors allege.

* Comcast Corp lost more video customers in the latest quarter than in the year-earlier period amid intensified competition from AT&T Inc’s U-Verse and Verizon Communications’ FiOS, a sign that phone companies’ years long expansion into TV is continuing to exert pressure on the cable-TV industry.

 

FT

Google said it was “outraged” by allegations that the U.S. government attempted to siphon information about millions of its users from its network.

Intel has held talks with Verizon Communications about offloading the chipmaker’s web-based television streaming service just months before it was due to launch.

Big Four audit firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers said it would buy independent management consultant Booz & Co, in a deal understood to be worth at least the $1 billion that Booz makes in annual revenues.

Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista on Wednesday filed for bankruptcy protection for his oil exploration and production company OGX in Latin America’s largest-ever corporate default.

Nokia on Wednesday won a patent infringement case against Taiwan-based HTC Corp, which may no longer be able to sell various handsets – including its flagship HTC One – in Britain.

 

NYT

* While the secretary of health and human services apologized profusely for the troubled rollout of the Affordable Care Act, President Obama traveled to Massachusetts to offer a forceful defense of the law.

* Advocates of the digital currency bitcoin say it is ready to emerge from its fringe status and become a common method of retail payment.

* The Federal Reserve said it would keep its campaign of asset purchases and low interest rates intact. The central bank’s statement contained no surprises, and the stock market barely budged.

* Facebook profits doubled in the third quarter, and the social network reported that mobile ads now accounted for about half its advertising revenue.

* Unbeknown to Google and Yahoo, the National Security Agency and its British counterpart have tapped into the search engines abroad, where data collection faces less oversight.

* PricewaterhouseCoopers said on Wednesday that it had agreed to buy consulting firm Booz & Company, bolstering its advisory business, a chief source of growth for the firm.

* Investors now have an opportunity to bet directly on diamond mining, as the Russian government moves to spin off a 16 percent stake in Alrosa. When shares start trading Thursday afternoon on the Micex stock exchange in Russia, it will provide an opening to a long-cloistered and once highly secretive business.

* The staff of a U.S. attorney’s office plans to recommend that the Justice Department sue Bank of America over the packaging and selling of mortgage-related investments before the financial crisis of 2008, the firm disclosed in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

* The bankruptcy filing by petroleum company OGX was a stunning fall for entrepreneur Eike Batista, who was once a symbol of Brazil’s rapid rise as a global economic power but more recently has come to represent a Brazilian elite that views itself as above the rules that govern the most of the country.

* The Brixmor Property Group Inc sold more shares than it had expected in its initial public offering, reflecting strong demand from investors for commercial real estate.

 

Canada

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

* Suncor Energy Inc,
Canada’s largest energy outfit, has approved plans to build a new $13.5 billion oil sands mine – a decision that comes after years of delays.

* Alberta Premier Alison Redford defended Wednesday a new regional planning bill she says will help municipalities, but opposition leaders say the legislation will gut local authority and could be used to jail dissenting municipal elected leaders.

Reports in the business section:

* Amazon.com Inc is launching online grocery and auto shops on Thursday, adding to an array of category additions this year that has included toys, beauty and home goods. The company is aggressively pushing into Canada, more than doubling its offerings this year, with 14 new kinds of products.

* Executives at Target Corp say they will spend the next year trying to reshape the habits of Canadian shoppers who have soured to the company’s roll-out north of the border.

NATIONAL POST

* Rising above a patch of flattened brown earth, the tallest structure in western Canada still has a neat gleam and that crisp new building smell. But that hasn’t stopped Calgary from announcing an even bigger and better one. Within four years, Brookfield Place, which had its official groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, is expected to eke ahead of the much-heralded Bow Tower.

* Canadian Conservative Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton came under fire in the House of Commons on Tuesday for his role in paying the legal bill for Conservative Senator Mike Duffy.

FINANCIAL POST

* After 18 months of telling consumers and markets that its key interest rate would eventually be lifted from 1 percent, close to rock bottom, the Bank of Canada shifted gears into neutral.

* Target Corp is still trying valiantly to turn around the perception that the new-to-Canada mass merchant is pricier than its rivals in this country – most specifically, Walmart.

 

China

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

– A total of 2,467 A-share listed Chinese companies have posted a 15.2 percent rise in their combined net profit for the July-September period from a year earlier, exchange data showed.

– China should take cautious steps to open up its capital account in the Shanghai free-trade zone, said Long Guoqiang, a senior official with the State Council’s Development Research Center, the government’s think tank, at a presser on Wednesday.

SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS

– China’s parliament said it would speed up amendments on laws regarding land regulation, environment protection and air pollution prevention.

SECURITIES TIMES

– China’s average cement price rose 1 percent to 338.84 yuan ($55.60) a tonne in the last week of October from the previous week, and analysts expect cement firm’s profits to improve in the fourth quarter.

SHANGHAI DAILY

– China issued rules to regulate incumbent and retired officials from working in companies or holding concurrent posts in government and commercial enterprises in order to avoid conflicts of interest.

CHINA DAILY

– Participants in medical drug trials are appealing for better treatment, while trial companies complain of “dirty tricks” by participants to earn more.

 

Fly On The Wall 7:00 AM Market Snapsot

ANALYST RESEARCH

Upgrades

Chuy’s (CHUY) upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform at Raymond James
Expedia (EXPE) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill
Hatteras Financial (HTS) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Compass Point
Hess Corp. (HES) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse
ICON plc (ICLR) upgraded to Strong Buy from Buy at ISI Group
Itron (ITRI) upgraded to Hold from Sell at Brean Capital
Microchip (MCHP) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Mizuho
Thoratec (THOR) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Canaccord

Downgrades

Boardwalk Pipeline (BWP) downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Barclays
Covance (CVD) downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy at Raymond James
Facebook (FB) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital
Garmin (GRMN) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James
Itron (ITRI) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Janney Capital
Ligand (LGND) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Brean Capital
MSC Industrial (MSM) downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at RW Baird
MedAssets (MDAS) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at ISI Group
Mobile TeleSystems (MBT) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup
Saia, Inc. (SAIA) downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy at Raymond James
Sealed Air (SEE) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies
Sealed Air (SEE) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup
Southern Company (SO) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo
United Microelectronics (UMC) downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA/Merrill

Initiations

Allscripts (MDRX) initiated with a Market Perform at FBR Capital
athenahealth (ATHN) initiated with a Market Perform at FBR Capital
Casella Waste (CWST) initiated with an Outperform at Imperial Capital
Cerner (CERN) initiated with an Outperform at FBR Capital
Computer Programs (CPSI) initiated with a Market Perform at FBR Capital
eHealth (EHTH) initiated with a Market Perform at FBR Capital
Essent Group (ESNT) initiated with a Buy at BTIG
FireEye (FEYE) initiated with a Perform at Oppenheimer
Omnicell (OMCL) initiated with an Outperform at FBR Capital
Prothena (PRTA) initiated with an Outperform at RBC Capital
Quality Systems (QSII) initiated with an Underperform at FBR Capital
Vocera (VCRA) initiated with a Market Perform at FBR Capital
Wabash (WNC) initiated with an Overweight at Piper Jaffray

HOT STOCKS

Visa (V) announced new $5B share repurchase
Weight Watchers (WTW) suspended quarterly cash dividend
Facebook (FB) said fewer daily users among younger teens
Starwood Hotels (HOT) sold San Francisco properties for $125M
FleetCor (FLT) acquired Epyx from HgCapital, acquired NexTraq from Francisco Partners

EARNINGS

Companies that beat consensus earnings expectations last night and today include:
Time Warner Cable (TWC), Iron Mountain (IRM), Cigna (CI), Pilgrim’s Pride (PPC), Churchill Downs (CHDN), Marriott (MAR), Williams (WMB), Williams Partners (WPZ), Weight Watchers (WTW), Jarden (JAH), FleetCor (FLT), Elizabeth Arden (RDEN), SunPower (SPWR), PerkinElmer (PKI), Owens-Illinois (OI), Hanesbrands (HBI), Bally Technologies (BYI), Allstate (ALL), Facebook (FB), Starbucks (SBUX), PriceSmart (PSMT), Silicon Graphics (SGI), Expedia (EXPE), Affymetrix (AFFX), Kraft Foods (KRFT)

Companies that missed consensus earnings expectations include:
Total (TOT), Buenaventura (BVN), SJW Corp. (SJW), International Shipholding (ISH), Murphy Oil (MUR), Curtiss-Wright (CW), Avis Budget (CAR), Oil States (OIS), Intrepid Potash (IPI), Enbridge Energy (EEP), Con-way (CNW), Vanguard Natural (VNR), MetLife (MET), Tile Shop (TTS), A.T. Cross (ATX), Molina Healthcare (MOH)

Companies that matched consensus earnings expectations include:
FreightCar America (RAIL), MaxLinear (MXL), Meru Networks (MERU), Premiere Global (PGI), Atmel (ATML), AXIS Capital (AXS), XL Group (XL), Visa (V), Crocs (CROX)

NEWSPAPERS/WEBSITES

• Facebook (FB) spooked investors with warnings that it may be nearing the limits of one of its most important areas of revenue growth. After reporting strong Q3 financial results, the company told analysts that they may not be able to cram any more ads into users’ news feeds, and that U.S. teens are spending less time on the site, the Wall Street Journal reports
• AT&T’s (T) ambitions to expand in Europe have run into unexpected hurdles amid the growing outcry across the region over surveillance by the NSA. German and other European o
  fficials said any attempt by AT&T to acquire a major wireless operator would face intense scrutiny, the Wall Street Journal reports
• Fiat (FIATY) CEO Sergio Marchionne said the company’s long-term goal is to own 100% of Chrysler, Reuters reports
• Warren Buffett, who aims to have $20B in cash at Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), isn’t investing fast enough to keep money from piling up. Even in a year in which the company has struck some of its largest deals and accelerated capital spending, Buffett still needs to find acquisitions, Bloomberg reports
• Baidu (BIDU), owner of China’s most-popular Internet search engine, is buying companies to accelerate its transition to mobile devices, where traffic is at least doubling annually, said CEO Robin Li, Bloomberg reports
• Morgan Stanley (MS) will take a 30% stake in Mitsubishi Financial Group’s (MTU) Japanese wealth-management business, sources say, Bloomberg reports

SYNDICATE

58.com (WUBA) 11M share IPO priced at $17.00
Discovery Labs (DSCO) files to sell common stock
Essent Group (ESNT) 19.7M share IPO priced at $17.00
Gas Natural (EGAS) files to sell 1.13M shares of common stock
Intercloud Systems (ICLD) 1.25M share Secondary priced at $4.00
Marcus & Millichap (MMI) 6M share IPO priced at $12.00
Western Digital (WDC) files to sell 10.9M shares for holder Hitachi Ltd
Yelp (YELP) 3.75M share Secondary priced at $67.00

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/paYoyA3qRIM/story01.htm Tyler Durden