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Saturday, March 27, 2010
Mortgage delinquencies rise to nearly 14 percent
Delinquencies on mortgages rose to nearly 14 percent in late 2009, led by a sharp increase in seriously overdue home loans held by the most credit-worthy borrowers, U.S. banking regulators said on Thursday.
The percentage of current and performing mortgages fell to 86.4 percent at the end of the fourth quarter of 2009, down 0.9 percent from the previous three months, marking a decline for the seventh consecutive quarter, the report by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision said.
It was also down 3.9 percent from a year earlier. (more)
A London trader walks the CFTC through a silver manipulation in advance
Additional Statement by Bill Murphy, Chairman
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee
to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Washington, D.C., March 25, 2010
On March 23, 2010, GATA Director Adrian Douglas was contacted by a whistleblower by the name of Andrew Maguire. Maguire is a metals trader in London. He has been told first-hand by traders working for JPMorganChase that JPMorganChase manipulates the precious metals markets, and they have bragged to how they make money doing so.
In November 2009 Maguire contacted the CFTC enforcement division to report this criminal activity. He described in detail the way JPMorgan Chase signals to the market its intention to take down the precious metals. Traders recognize these signals and make money shorting the metals alongside JPM. Maguire explained how there are routine market manipulations at the time of option expiry, non-farm payroll data releases, and COMEX contract rollover, as well as ad-hoc events. (more)
Whistleblower Exposes JP Morgan's Silver Manipulation Scheme
Earlier today the CFTC held a sham hearing in which, among other things, the organization discussed position limits in PM speculation, because, you know, it's the mom and pop speculators that destroy the precious metal market (not JP Morgan or the New York Fed mind you). The hearing could not have come at a more opportune time. GATA has just broken a major story, in which a London metals trader-slash-whistleblower exposes JP Morgan's silver price suppression/manipulation scheme. At this point none of this should be at all shocking, and the only thing that matters is when CFTC's ex-Goldmanite Gary Gensler will be fired for allowing hundreds of billions of dollars to be sucked out of the PM market on behalf of such major market manipulating entities as JP Morgan and the New York Federal Reserve, for whom it transacts. Don't worry - the answer to that rhetorical question is "never", as it is the administration's goal to make all the millionaires among the bulge bracket firms billionaires, via legalized theft from honest investors. Furthermore, if indeed the CFTC is complicit in these manipulative events, as GATA suggest, we hope our objective mainstream media readers enjoin GATA in seeking justice for this criminal breach of proper regulatory enforcement. (more)
Debt Fears Send Rates Up
A sudden drop-off in investor demand for U.S. Treasury notes is raising questions about whether interest rates will finally begin a march higher—a climb that would jack up the government’s borrowing costs and spell trouble for the fragile housing market.
For months, investors have focused their attention on the debt crisis in Europe, but there are signs the spotlight is turning to the ability of the U.S. to finance its own budget deficit.
This week, some investors turned up their noses at three big U.S. Treasury offerings. Demand was weak for a $44 billion 2-year-note auction on Tuesday, a $42 billion sale of 5-year debt on Wednesday and a $32 billion 7-year-note sale Thursday. (more)
Gross: Buy Canadian, German Bonds; Sell Greek, U.K. Debt
Pimco chief investment officer Bill Gross recommends that investors buy government bonds of countries with strong finances and sell government bonds of the weak.
“Investors should obviously focus on those sovereigns where fundamentals promise lower credit or inflationary risk,” he wrote in his latest commentary on Pimco’s Web site.
“Germany and Canada are amongst those at the top of our list while a rogues’ gallery of the obvious, including Greece, euro land lookalikes and the U.K. gather near the bottom.”
Gross has particularly scathing comments for the U.K., whose budget deficit totals about 12 percent of GDP. That almost matches basket case Greece, whose gap amounted to 12.7 percent of GDP last year. (more)
“Investors should obviously focus on those sovereigns where fundamentals promise lower credit or inflationary risk,” he wrote in his latest commentary on Pimco’s Web site.
“Germany and Canada are amongst those at the top of our list while a rogues’ gallery of the obvious, including Greece, euro land lookalikes and the U.K. gather near the bottom.”
Gross has particularly scathing comments for the U.K., whose budget deficit totals about 12 percent of GDP. That almost matches basket case Greece, whose gap amounted to 12.7 percent of GDP last year. (more)
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