A.M. Links: Obama Open to Ebola Czar But Not Travel Ban, FBI Director Wants to Ban Cellphone Encryption, Royals-Giants World Series

  • Royals winPresident Obama says he’s open to an
    Ebola     czar but not a travel ban. The Dallas nurse who
    contracted Ebola from a patient she was treating arrived in

    Maryland     for treatment, while a Dallas lab worker on a cruise
    ship off the coast of
    Belize     has been quarantined because he handled the Ebola
    patient’s specimen.
  • FBI Director
    James Comey     is worried that Apple and Google allow users to
    encrypt their phone and called on Congress to pass a law to stop
    them from doing that.
  • The U.S. and
    Iran     remain cautiously optimistic about ongoing nuclear
    talks.
  • A poor economy and a plunging ruble don’t seem to be having
    much of an effect on the popularity
    Vladimir Putin     enjoys in Russia.
  • Venezuela, Spain, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Angola were
    elected to the
    United Nations Security Council     as non-permanent members.
  • The
    Kansas City Royals     completed their sweep of the Baltimore
    Orioles and will advance to the World Series to face the
    San Francisco Giants    , who are making their third appearance in
    the last five years.

Follow Reason and Reason 24/7 on
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can also get the top stories mailed to you—sign up
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Kurt Loder Reviews Birdman and Fury

Comebacks are hard. Twenty years ago, Riggan
Thomson (Michael Keaton) was an international movie icon—the masked
and feathered crime-fighting superhero Birdman. He bailed out of
the franchise after three pictures, but the typecasting damage to
his career was done. Now, low on dough and desperate for
redemption, he’s determined to stake a claim as a serious actor. He
has adapted a very serious Raymond Carver story and is bringing it
to Broadway, with himself as both director and star. It’s not going
well. New York theatre snoots dismiss him as a Hollywood has-been,
and tabloid jackals pepper him with off-topic questions like, “Is
it true you’ve been injecting yourself with semen from baby pigs?”
Worse yet, the Birdman—feathers and all—is making a comeback, too.
What a nightmare. Kurt Loder applauds
Birdman, writing that few movies attempt to do
anything this fresh.

View this article.

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60% Of California Will Remain In Drought Through Winter, NOAA Warns

Just wehn you thought it was safe to shower again, NOAA issues their US seasonal drought outlook and crushes dreams of wetter winter helping Californians. Hopes for heavy rain from El Nino will not be enough to change the drought situation for 60% of Californians, as MotherJones reports, NOAA forecasters warn, “While we’re predicting at least a 2 in 3 chance that winter precipitation will be near or above normal throughout the state, with such widespread, extreme deficits, recovery will be slow.”

 

60% of California will remain in drought over the winter…

 

As any El Nino effects are less than expected with a 50% chance of California’s winter being warmer than average…

 

Source: NOAA




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Americans Favor Airstrikes to Combat ISIS But Are Unsure How to Pay for It, As Usual

The latest
Reason-Rupe poll finds that a solid majority—66 percent—of
Americans favors
conducting air strikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
While 52
percent oppose sending ground troops to Iraq, 58 percent
believe sending at least a small number of troops (24%) or even a
large number (34%) will be necessary to successfully combat
ISIS.

While Politicians often wish to avoid discussing trade-offs, the
Reason-Rupe poll asked Americans how they would like to pay for
military against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Somewhat predictably, two
groups emerge: 35 percent say cut non-entitlement federal spending,
another 34 percent say raise taxes on wealthy people. Another 8
percent say we should raise taxes on all income groups, 6 percent
want to borrow the money, and 4 percent want to cut entitlement
programs to pay for military action.

If federal spending had to be cut to pay for military action,
Americans say they would first cut social safety net programs (19%)
like food stamps, unemployment benefits, and Medicaid, another 17
percent say they would cut infrastructure and transportation
spending. Nine percent would cut government-funded science and
medical research, 7 percent would cut entitlement programs, 3
percent would cut education, 2 percent would cut veterans programs.
In fact, a total of 8 percent actually volunteered another answer
that was not offered on the survey: cutting Congressional salaries.
Another three percent said there were literally no programs that
could be cut. One middle-aged man from Philadelphia said “none of
the programs” could be cut because “they are all vital to our
survival.” Twelve percent offered a variety of other smaller
programs to cut, and another 19 percent didn’t know what to
cut.

Overall, these data reflect a predictable pattern—Americans want
other people to bear the costs of various government activity,
either in form of taxing rich people or cutting social services for
low-income individuals.

The Reason-Rupe national telephone poll, executed
by Princeton Survey Research Associates International,
conducted live interviews with 1004 adults on cell phones (503) and
landlines (501) October 1-6, 2014. The poll’s margin of error
is +/-3.8%. Full poll results can be found here including
poll toplines (pdf) 
and crosstabs (xls). 

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Here Is Why The Russell 2000 Has Not Only Shaken Off The Market Rout, But Is Rising

One of the ongoing attempts to justify a bottom to the market selling rout and preempt a bounce in stocks, at least one that is more than just the Fed’s direct and indirect intervention in the capital markets, has been the pundits’ repeated highlighting that the Russell has been rising all throughout the past few days’ collapse, indeed during the longest, 6-day Dow Jones losing streak in over a year. The conventional thinking here goes that the small caps always presage a large cap inflection point, and this is precisely what the Russell ramp in the past few days has been heralding. In theory, this is absolutely correct, In practice, it is 100% wrong.

For those curious why the Russell 2000 has completely ignored this week’s broader market rout and is in fact higher now than last Friday, the answer comes from a recent technical note from Bank of America which says that as of the first week of the month, the “Russell net short positioning largest since 2008 after fifth consecutive week of selling.“

More:

Large specs sold Russell for a fourth week to increase net short position to a new five year high.

 

And:

Large speculators increased Russell 2000 net shorts to -$8.0bn from -$7.9bn notional.

 

 

Bottoming. Russell 2000 survives a probe below BIG support at 1082 last week. Regaining the August low of 1107 would help confirm a low in the Russell 2000 and the potential for a seasonal rally. Support is 1082-1075 (Feb/May lows, down channel / measured move from July high). Resistances: 1107 (August low), 1144-1151 (50- and 200-day MAs), and 1184 to 1214 (range highs)

Still confused why the Russell 2000, which until a week ago was the most shorted in 5 years, is rallying? Then call the margin clerks who have unleashed upon their over-leveraged hedge fund clients the most aggressive forced buy-in of RUT stocks in years.




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Friday A/V Club: Rock ‘n’ Roll Commie Werewolves

This 1982 SCTV sketch mashes up a monster movie with
the Red Scare and a bunch of ’50s moral panics, from the
rising tide of juvenile delinquency to the alleged evils of rock
‘n’ roll. The story also incorporates a musical number by former
Rockpile guitarist Dave Edmunds, and it’s interrupted midway
through so a tattoo-faced John Candy can advertise a sex shop. Oh,
and Eugene Levy is basically playing Lenin. In short, it just might
be the best 12 minutes of ’80s television ever aired:

(For past editions of the Friday A/V Club, go here.)

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Ebola-Handling Healthcare Worker Currently On A Caribbean Cruise Ship

It’s almost as if the administration is doing everything in its power to spread a panic (come to think of it, when is the last time there was any Ukraine civil war coverage, or ISIS for that matter?).

While one of the big Ebola updates overnight, in addition to Obama being open to appointing an Ebola czar – because clearly the CDC is unable to handle the epidemic, best to have one on top of it all -is that some schools in Ohio and Texas are closed today after students’ potential exposure to a nurse with Ebola furthered fears of the disease spreading, this is nothing compared to the just released revelation that a health care worker who may have handled a specimen from the Liberian man who died from Ebola in Dallas is on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.

Just in case an Ebola-infected nurse traveling coach cross country doesn’t do it?

From USA Today:

Industry giant Carnival says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified it late Wednesday that a passenger on the Texas-based Carnival Magic was a lab supervisor at the Dallas hospital where Thomas Eric Duncan died from the disease earlier this month.

 

Carnival says the unnamed woman has been placed in isolation on the ship and has shown no signs of illness.

 

“At no point in time has the individual exhibited any symptoms or signs of infection, and it has been 19 days since she was in the lab with the testing samples,” Carnival says in a statement sent to USA TODAY. “She is deemed by CDC to be very low risk.”

 

The Carnival Magic is one of the largest cruise ships in the Caribbean with a capacity for more than 4,000 passengers. It sails with more than 1,000 crew members.

 

Carnival says it in close contact with the CDC, and “at this time it has been determined that the appropriate course of action is to simply keep the guest in isolation on board.”

So here’s hoping for the best. If, however, the worst case scenario unfolds, here is where the next Ebola hotspots may well be, deep inside Latin America:

The Carnival Magic is on a seven-night cruise to the Western Caribbean that began Oct. 12 in Galveston, Texas. The ship called at the island of Roatan, Honduras on Wednesday and Belize City, Belize on Thursday. It’s scheduled to visit Cozumel, Mexico today and return to Galveston on Sunday morning.

Finally we get the Breaking Bad joke:

Belize’s 7 News reports the Belize government refused a U.S. request Thursday to let the Dallas health care worker disembark in Belize so she could be flown home by air ambulance from a local airport.

How long until Americans, of which half already announced they would not fly international due to the ongoing Ebola scare, also decide to delay that holiday cruise until next year?




via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1sPS0AT Tyler Durden

Frontrunning: October 17

  • Obama open to appointing Ebola ‘czar’, opposes travel ban (Reuters)
  • Schools Close as Nurse’s Ebola Infection Ignites Concern (BBG)
  • How the World’s Top Health Body Allowed Ebola to Spiral Out of Control (BBG)
  • European Stocks Rise Amid Growing Pressure for Stimulus (BBG)
  • Putin Threatens EU Gas Squeeze Raising Stakes for Ukraine (BBG)
  • ECB to Start Asset Purchases Within Days, Says Central Banker Coeuré (WSJ)
  • Investors search for signs of end to stock market correction (Reuters)
  • Putin’s talks with EU and Poroshenko ‘difficult, full of misunderstandings’: Kremlin (Reuters)
  • Monaco Murders Reveal Six Hidden Real Estate Billionaires (BBG)
  • In Liberia, U.S. Soldiers Race Ebola (WSJ)
  • Islamic State training pilots to fly in three jets: Syria monitor (Reuters)
  • Venezuela Goes From Bad to Worse as Oil Prices Plummets (BBG)
  • Luxury Shoemaker Jimmy Choo Rises on London Trading Debut (BBG)

 

Overnight Media Digest

WSJ

* President Barack Obama, after a day of withering criticism over the government’s handling of the Ebola virus, said Thursday he may name a point person to oversee the administration’s response and is open to a travel ban but isn’t planning one. (http://on.wsj.com/11xafkr)

* Chiquita Brands International Inc said its board rejected a sweetened takeover offer from Cutrale-Safra, saying the new bid isn’t adequate and isn’t in the best interest of shareholders. (http://on.wsj.com/1vCEt20)

* Sam Nunn, one of the last Georgia Democrats to serve a full term in the Senate, had just finished watching his granddaughter win a soccer game when he turned his attention to a more pressing family contest: his daughter Michelle’s run for U.S. senator. (http://on.wsj.com/1CtIVPv)

* Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter was discharged from the Navy Reserve this year after testing positive for cocaine, according to people familiar with the matter. (http://on.wsj.com/ZH89x5)

* The likely collapse of AbbVie Inc’s $54 billion agreement to buy Shire PLC leaves two global drug companies in need of new, independent courses and investors and Wall Street bankers smarting from losses and fees they won’t collect. (http://on.wsj.com/1vkY6dw)

 

FT

State-owned Russian oil company NK Rosneft OAO and Arkady Rotenberg, judo partner of Russian President Vladimir Putin, have launched legal challenges against sanctions imposed by the European Union’s European Council over Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

Advertising group WPP PLC’s unit has taken legal actions against the UK government to stop it from passing a four-year advertising contract worth 400 million stg to WPP’s rival Carat, an agency owned by rival Dentsu Aegis.

Royal Bank of Scotland said it will talk to its customers about the higher interest rates, making the process transparent, after it was fined for mis-selling home loans.

Britain’s bankers have been warned by officials from the International Monetary Fund on Thursday that a battle between national and regional regulators will increase costs for banks and stop capital flowing between subsidiaries in different countries.

Bank of England countered the EU cap on banker bonuses saying the debate over bonuses was “misguided” and that variable pay should play a significant role in banker remuneration.

NYT

* BHP Billiton Plc said on Thursday it would proceed with a new listing in London for its planned spinoff of several assets into a new global metals and mining company. (http://nyti.ms/1xXl1uV)

* MMX Mineracao & Metalicos SA, a mining company owned by the troubled Brazilian businessman Eike Batista, filed for bankruptcy protection on Thursday, the third of his companies to do so. (http://nyti.ms/1wa3Upx)

* The ambitions of the Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman to build a new oil and natural gas company are being frustrated by the British government, which is declining to bless his purchase of a large gas field in the North Sea and other assets in British waters. (http://nyti.ms/1xXlHjR)

* Financial experts warn that a small group of giant asset managers that have amassed high-risk, high-yield bonds could find themselves unable to raise enough cash during a sell-off. (http://nyti.ms/1vkRsnN)

* Just one day after HBO said it would start an Internet-only offering, CBS Corp announced on Thursday its own subscription streaming service that lets people watch its live programming and thousands of current and past shows on demand. The moves signal a watershed moment for web-delivered television, where viewers have more options to pay only for the networks or programs they want to watch – and to decide how, when and where to watch them. (http://nyti.ms/1stYpjO)

 

Canada

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

** Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien is defending Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s controversial decision to oppose Canada’s air combat mission in Iraq, saying the fighter planes the Harper government is deploying are a “very marginal” response to the crisis caused by Islamic State militants. (http://bit.ly/1yJhfbD)

** Two employees at the Toronto hospital where Rob Ford is undergoing cancer treatment inappropriately accessed the mayor’s confidential medical records, a breach that led the hospital to mete out unspecified “action” against the staff members. (http://bit.ly/1sYX4V1)

** Thirty minutes into the 45th debate of Toronto’s race for mayor, front-runner John Tory squared off against rival Doug Ford, who until the most recent opinion poll had been nipping at his heels since he stepped into the race as a last-minute substitute for his brother Rob Ford. (http://bit.ly/Zxbwqc)

NATIONAL POST

** A new report by HSBC Global Research argues Canada’s oil and gas boom remains on course. The 20-page report, authored by HSBC Bank Canada chief economist David Watt, says the unprecedented boom in capital spending in Canada’s natural resources sector is here to stay, with major projects currently under way or planned in the next decade worth C$675-billion ($600.11 billion). (http://bit.ly/1qGZIJi)

** One year out from a scheduled October 2015 federal elections in Canada, none of the main federal parties has nominated even half of its candidates, although the opposition says it is preparing for the possibility of a snap spring campaign. (http://bit.ly/1waniCB)

** A Canadian survivor of the Nepal avalanche that killed at least 27 people has described a harrowing tale of being buried waist-high in thick, heavy snow on a “nightmare” of a day. Quebecer Sonia Leveque said she thought she was going to die and that she and her fellow trekkers are fortunate to be alive. (http://bit.ly/1sPkV8n)

 

China

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

– China’s related government departments are studying several policies to support the logistics industry, including the reduction of administrative fees and halving land taxes for building warehousing facilities.

– The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has approved three railway construction and expansion projects with an investment value of 95.9 billion yuan ($15.66 billion).

SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS

– The China Insurance Regulatory Commission is looking to introduce a rating system to improve corporate governance of the country’s insurance firms, the newspaper said citing sources.

CHINA DAILY

– Apple Inc on Thursday appealed a Beijing court ruling, which said the country’s intellectual property authority’s grant of a patent for an intelligent robot to a Shanghai technology firm was valid.

– Prices of smuggled iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units have almost halved in Beijing as Apple prepares to deliver authorised handsets on Friday.

Britain

The Times

MARKET TURMOIL PUTS EUROPE IN SPOTLIGHT

The threat of stagnation in Europe, a potential new eurozone crisis and weaker growth in the United States rattled markets for a second day, sending prices for everything from government debt to equities into convulsions worldwide. (http://thetim.es/ZwGPkN)

BUFFETT SELLS DOWN ‘HUGE MISTAKE’ TESCO HOLDING

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has revealed that it sold shares in supermarket chain Tesco Corp on Monday, reducing its stake from 3.6 percent to below the 3 percent threshold at which investors are obliged to declare their ownership. (http://thetim.es/1ucRFF6)

The Guardian

ABBVIE WITHDRAWS BID FOR SHIRE AFTER U.S. GETS TOUGH ON TAX

U.S. drugs group AbbVie Inc has pulled out of its proposed $54 billion (42.14 billion euro) takeover of Britain’s Shire Plc after the Obama administration introduced rules to clamp down on overseas acquisitions driven by tax avoidance. (http://bit.ly/1CsDsbC)

U.S. FACTORY FIGURES HELP BRING CALM TO MARKETS AFTER DAYS OF TURMOIL

Strong U.S. factory output growth and the intervention by James Bullard, the hawkish president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, brought some relief to markets following three days of turmoil that have knocked billions of pounds off the value of the FTSE 100. (http://bit.ly/1sWhM6V)

The Telegraph

WORLD BRACES AS DEFLATION TREMORS HIT EUROZONE BOND MARKETS

Eurozone fears have returned with a vengeance as deepening deflation across southern Europe and fresh turmoil in Greece set off wild moves on the European bond markets. Yields on 10-year German Bund plummeted to an all-time low on 0.72 percent on flight to safety, touching levels never seen before in any major European country in recorded history. (http://bit.ly/1DgybWI)

ANDREW BAILEY THROWS WEIGHT BEHIND GEORGE OSBORNE OVER BONUS CAP

Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority, told senior bankers that the bonus cap is “the wrong policy” which would lead to unintended consequences. His comments come just a day after the European Banking Authority launched a clampdown on banks using “role-based allowances” to get around the cap. (http://bit.ly/1F79vSz)

Sky News

BANK RAISES FIXED PAY AS CRACKDOWN LOOMS

Sky News has learnt that Nomura Holdings Inc, the Japanese bank which acquired the European operations of Lehman Brothers after its collapse in 2008, is poised to award backdated fixed salary increases to a handful of its most senior City-based employees. (http://bit.ly/1F31pdw)

PM APPEALS FOR ‘ONE LAST GO’ ON EU IMMIGRATION

British Prime Minister David Cameron has said the immigration system is not working and he wants “one more go” at negotiating a better deal with the EU to limit the number of incomers. (http://bit.ly/ZwInva)

The Independent

BP LOSES COURT BATTLE OVER MEXICO GULF OIL SPILL CLAIMS

BP Plc is facing a flood of legal claims from big British investors over the Gulf of Mexico spill after it lost a crucial courtroom battle in Texas to get their cases thrown out. The investors, which include pension funds for several London boroughs and BP’s arch rival, Shell, are suing in the United States, where they are likely to win far-bigger payouts than they could in Britain. (http://ind.pn/1sXX8V7)

BSKYB’S GERMAN STAKE COULD GET BIGGER ON EURO ZONE JITTERS

BSkyB Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch has signalled the British pay-TV firm could end up with a larger-than-expected stake in Sky Deutschland as concerns about the German economy may encourage shareholders to sell. (http://ind.pn/ZGPx0g)

 

Fly On The Wall Pre-market Buzz

ECONOMIC REPORTS

Domestic economic reports scheduled for today include:
Housing starts for September at 8:30–consensus up 5.4% to 1.01M rate
Housing permits for September at 8:30–consensus up 2.7% to 1.03M rate
University of Michigan consumer sentiment index for October at 9:55–consensus 84.0

ANALYST RESEARCH

Upgrades

AK Steel (AKS) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Nomura
AMD (AMD) upgraded to Sector Perform from Underperform at Pacific Crest
Atmos Energy (ATO) upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan
BorgWarner (BWA) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank
CA Technologies (CA) upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays
Calumet Specialty Products (CLMT) upgraded to Outperform at Wells Fargo
DHT Holdings (DHT) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Evercore
E-House (EJ) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman
Exelon (EXC) upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Citigroup
Fabrinet (FN) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at B. Riley
Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup
Foundation Medicine (FMI) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at William Blair
Goldman Sachs (GS) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette
Helmerich & Payne (HP) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS
Hilton (HLT) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at SunTrust
Hyatt Hotels (H) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie
IPG Photonics (IPGP) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Stifel
ITC Holdings (ITC) upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Leerink
Leju (LEJU) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman
Mattress Firm (MFRM) upgraded to Buy from Hold at KeyBanc
Nabors Industries (NBR) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS
Old Dominion (ODFL) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Longbow
PDC Energy (PDCE) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at SunTrust
Patterson-UTI (PTEN) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS
PrivateBancorp (PVTB) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie
QLogic (QLGC) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Summit Research
Reliance Steel (RS) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Topeka
Southwestern Energy (SWN) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James
SunEdison (SUNE) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Cowen
Toronto-Dominion (TD) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse
Triangle Capital (TCAP) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at JMP Securities
UnitedHealth (UNH) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Leerink
Viper Energy (VNOM) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Northland
Xilinx (XLNX) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo

Downgrades

AMD (AMD) downgraded downgraded to Hold from Buy at Canaccord
Urban Outfitters (URBN) downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley
Urban Outfitters (URBN) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman
Yara (YARIY) downgraded to Sell from Neutral at UBS

Initiations

Alibaba (BABA) initiated with a Buy at Brean Capital
AmerisourceBergen (ABC) initiated with an Outperform at RBC Capital
Arctic Cat (ACAT) initiated with a Hold at Wunderlich
Brean starts Alibaba (BABA) at Buy, calls core China Internet holding
Cardinal Health (CAH) initiated with an Outperform at RBC Capital
Clean Energy (CLNE) initiated with a Hold at MLV & Co.
Dot Hill Systems (HILL) initiated with an Overweight at Piper Jaffray
McKesson (MCK) initiated with an Outperform at RBC Capital
Nautilus (NLS) initiated with a Buy at Wunderlich
Polypore (PPO) initiated with a Buy at MLV & Co.
Quantum (QTWW) initiated with a Buy at MLV & Co.
Radiant Logistics (RLGT) initiated with a Buy at Sterne Agee
Signet Jewelers (SIG) initiated with an Overweight at Barclays
Smith & Wesson (SWHC) initiated with a Buy at Wunderlich
Tesla (TSLA) initiated with a Buy at MLV & Co.
Thor Industries (THO) initiated with a Buy at Wunderlich
Tiffany (TIF) initiated with an Equal Weight at Barclays

COMPANY NEWS

Yara (YARIY) announced termination of merger discussions with CF Industries (CF)
AMD (AMD) announced global headcount reduction of 7%
General Electric (GE) said on track to meet goal or $1B in structural cost-out for year, said on track to close sale of GE Money Bank in Q4
Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT) announced the publication of results from two single ascending-dose studies that demonstrated no clinical or toxicologic safety concerns with the company’s drug candidates for the treatment of Ebola and Marburg virus, respectively
Ampio (AMPE) announced results of open label portion of multiple injections study
Airbus (EADSY) cut production rate of A330 aircrafts to 9 from 10 per month
Cliffs Natural (CLF) said expects to record non-cash impairment of about $6B in Q3

EARNINGS

Companies that beat consensus earnings expectations last night and today include:
General Electric (GE), BNY Mellon (BK), Heritage-Crystal Clean (HCCI), Fidelity Southern (LION), Crown Holdings (CCK), Western Alliance (WAL), BancFirst (BANF), Xilinx (XLNX), QLogic (QLGC), WD-40 (WDFC), Associated Banc-Corp (ASBC), First Financial (FFIN), Cytec Industries (CYT), Schlumberger (SLB), SanDisk (SNDK), Independent Bank (INDB), Wintrust Financial (WTFC), Bridge Capital Holdings (BBNK), Stryker (SYK)

Companies that missed consensus earnings expectations include:
Google (GOOG), AMD (AMD), Fabrinet (FN), Capital One (COF)

Companies that matched consensus earnings expectations include:
People’s United (PBCT)

Textron (TXT) raises FY14 EPS cont ops to $2.05-$2.15 from $1.92-$2.12
Rolls-Royce (RYCEY) sees FY14 revenue 3.5%-4% lower vs. last year
AMD (AMD) sees Q4 revenue down 13%, plus or minus 3%, consensus $1.48B
SanDisk (SNDK) sees Q4 revenue $1.8B-$1.85B, consensus $1.88B

NEWSPAPERS/WEBSITES

Clinton group urges Atlantic Power (AT) to restart sale process, Reuters reports
LVMH (LVMUY) could pair with a tech company to launch smartwatch, WSJ reports
Wells Fargo (WFC) to shut ‘dark pool’ as demand drops, Reuters reports
HP (HPQ) dismisses concerns about drop in global notebook market share, DigiTimes reports
NPD: Sony PlayStation4 (SNE) outsells XBox One (MSFT) in September, GameSpot reports
Goldman Sachs (GS) looks like a buy, Barron’s says

SYNDICATE

Tetraphase (TTPH) 3.95M share Secondary priced at $19.00
Zayo Group (ZAYO) 21.052M share IPO priced at $19.00




via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1qHCYJa Tyler Durden

New York Spent a Record $1.1 Billion on Jail Last Year, and Got Even More Violence

New York City’s criminal justice system
continues to have severe problems. Rikers Island prison, New York
City’s primary jail facility, has more staff and fewer inmates than
in previous years—and yet it also has sky-high costs and increasing
levels of violence, according to a forthcoming comptroller’s report

reviewed in an article in The New York Times.

The cost is higher than ever, and way out of proportion with
comparable urban areas. The City of New York spent $1.1 billion to
run its jails last year, a record sum, according to the report.

Housing a prisoner for a year in New York cost the city’s
Corrections Department $100,000 last fiscal year. That’s a huge
increase from a few years ago, and much higher than in other major
metro jail systems. As the Times notes, the cost “is 42
percent higher than seven years ago and more than twice the amount
spent per inmate by correction departments in other large cities
like Chicago and Los Angeles.”

Those cities have larger jail populations but significantly
lower costs per person housed:

New York spends far more on its jails than other large American
cities, even those with much larger inmate populations. Los
Angeles, for instance, has an inmate population of nearly 19,000,
about 7,000 more than New York. But taxpayers there spend only
$44,965 a year per inmate, nearly half what New Yorkers spend,
according to the report. 

But the skyrocketing costs haven’t resulted in a more peaceful
prison system. In fact, the city’s jails have become even uglier
even as spending has ramped up. During the fiscal year that ended
in June, the Times says, “there was a 124 percent increase
in assaults on the staff by inmates at city jails, and triple the
number of allegations of use of physical force by guards.”

The violence at Rikers is horrific, and the city has tried to
hide it from public view. A July
report from The New York Times is chilling:

[The Times] found that over an 11-month period last
year, 129 inmates suffered “serious injuries” — ones beyond the
capacity of doctors at the jail’s clinics to treat — in
altercations with correction department staff members. The report
cataloged in exacting detail the severity of injuries suffered by
inmates: fractures, wounds requiring stitches, head injuries and
the like.

The report was based on information that the city health
department refused to make public. 

Union representatives for prison guards have long argued that
the solution is more guards. And it’s true that the number of
guards in the city’s jail system has declined somewhat, from about
9,200 in 2007 to 8,922 this year.

But those guards are also tasked with guarding a declining
prison population, and so the ratio of guards to prisoners
has actually increased by 19 percent, according to the report. In
other words, each guard now has fewer prisoners than ever to look
after.

That hasn’t helped. According to the Times, “a vast
majority of the cost in New York, about 85 percent, goes to pay for
personnel.” Much of the excess spending can be
attributed to overtime, which is apparently not being limited the
way it’s supposed to.

The improved staffing and lower inmate population have somehow
produced a counterintuitive result, translating into a rise in
overtime costs to $139 million in 2014 from $101 million in 2007,
the report said.

Correction Department regulations are supposed to limit the
amount of overtime a guard can work to 57 hours a month. But
Elizabeth Crowley, a City Council member who oversees corrections,
said that some officers worked as much as 80 hours a
month. 

Scott Stringer, the comptroller who put together the
report, was blunt when he spoke to the Times
about the situation in the city’s jails,
saying: “We’re spending more money on inmates and
we’re getting worse results.“

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