Shale oil bonanza to cost refiners billions http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/19/us-oil-refineries-shale-idUSBRE86I0J220120719
<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8zEQhhaJsU4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Steve Ballmer is a teflon idiot. He has been destroying value at MSFT for years. Where MSFT should have been a cash cow value stock with a comfortable sunset horizon of decades, Ballmer shoveled untold billions into a furnace - and is still shoveling, having recently declared "all out war" on AAPL - in a futile and stupid effort to be competitive in areas where MSFT has no edge, out of sheer pig-headed vanity. I've never traded or invested in MSFT, but long marveled at what an awful, ham-fisted goon Ballmer is. I first pegged him as a remarkable value destroyer in 2005. Believers in MSFT have pointed to the power of the franchise, arguing the company is such a cash juggernaut not even Ballmer can dent it. Maybe... or maybe not. The below from Vitaliy Katsenelsen sounds like Windows 8 is a total clusterfuck... which, in turn, would be a disaster for MSFT if true and potential lights out for Ballmer. http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/Article/3061233/Why-Windows-8-Made-Me-Sell-MSFT.html p.s. John Dvorak on Windows 8: "Unmitigated disaster" http://articles.marketwatch.com/201..._1_windows-phone-windows-vista-desktop-screen
Nasty timing: Oil hits 7-week high on Middle East tension (even as economic data comes in fugly today). http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/19/us-markets-oil-idUSBRE83H17O20120719 You want a spike through the heart of the bulls? Let shit w/ Iran and Israel get real...
Spain's 5 and 10 year spreads to Germany hit record wides. No bueno http://soberlook.com/2012/07/spanish-spreads-hit-record.html
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised retaliation. "This is an Iranian terror attack that is spreading throughout the entire world," he said. "Israel will respond with force." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444464304577534922286189802.html#mod=most_viewed_day
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5_H-LY4Jb2M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Theme song for today's tape...
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CWsJcg-g1pg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> THE BURRITO HAS LANDED CMG falls 11% after hours - another bullet-proof concept story bites the dust. Friday looking more and more like a good day to blitzkrieg weakened longs. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-19/chipotle-tumbles-as-sales-trail-analysts-estimates.html
The little growth engine that could is deflating, as the bullish hot air hisses out of this tape... S&P down ~9 handles in early trade, gold, silver, oil all extremely weak. Let the bear raid begin! Can there be any doubt now that synchronized global slowdown fears -- and the specter of deflation -- are dominating this tape? Bridgewater Q212 commentary excerpt sums up well: Given the lack of private sector credit creation, the world's economies remain highly reliant on government support through monetary and fiscal stimulation. Now that the most recent round of global monetary stimulation has ended, world economic growth has slowed and central bankers are in the process of stimulating again. We estimate that in the past few months, global growth has slowed from about 3.3% to 1.9% and that 80% of the world's economies have slowed, including all of the largest. The breadth of this slowdown creates a dangerous dynamic because, given the inter-connectedness of economies and capital flows, one country's decline tends to reinforce another's, making a self-reinforcing global decline more likely and a reversal more difficult to produce.
A few good LIBOR adjustments via Dan Davies Deputy Governor, we live in a world that has interest rates. And those interest rates have to be set as the average of a panel of banks... Who's gonna do it. You? You, Deputy Governor? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for the financial system and you curse the rates traders. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know - that distorting the LIBOR, while tragic, probably saved banks. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves banks. You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that LIBOR panel. We use words like "bid", "offer", "quote". We use these words as the backbone to a life spent trading something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who sleeps under the blanket of the short term funding I provide - then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a telephone and submit a quote. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!