Empiric Student Property Share Discussion Threads

[briarberry] 12/2/2008 19:06

GM Posts Record US Automotive Loss of $38.7B for 2007, Offers Buyouts to Hourly US Workers

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors Corp. reported a $38.7 billion loss for 2007 on Tuesday, the largest annual loss ever for an automotive company, and said it is making a new round of buyout offers to U.S. hourly workers in hopes of replacing some of them with lower-paid help.

[briarberry] 07/2/2008 19:07

January Sales...


With few exceptions, it is a miserable start to 2008 for U.S. retailers: Many of the biggest names in the sector on Thursday posted January sales numbers that were even worse than already-grim Wall Street forecasts

Target (TGT:target corp), saw a January same-store sales decline of 1.1%

Nordstrom Inc. (JWN:Nordstrom Inc) said that its January same-store sales fell 6.6%

For Limited Brands (LTD:limited brands inc), parent of Victoria's Secret, January same-store sales fell 8% from a year ago, while total sales declined to $625.8 million from $1.06 billion

Big Lots (BIG:big lots inc) said its fourth-quarter same-store sales fell 0.6%, with overall sales down 8.5% to $1.4 billion

J.C. Penney's (JCP:Penney (J.C.) Company, Inc) same-store sales fell 1.9%

Stein Mart (SMRT:Stein Mart Inc) said it would suspend its quarterly dividend in order to provide "more flexibility" to deal with worsening industry conditions. In January, the Jacksonville, Fla.-based retailer's sales fell almost 10% to $81 million, while same-store sales were down 2.5%.

Macy's (M:Macy's, Inc.) got the ball rolling in the wrong direction Wednesday when it announced that January same-store sales fell 7.1%

Ann Taylor (ANN:Ann Taylor Stores Corporation) had flat same-store sales in January

[briarberry] 07/2/2008 17:45

more money going to money heaven...


DJ Commercial Paper Outstanding Falls $8.6B On Week

DJ Asset-Backed CP Outstanding Falls $9.9B Week To Wednesday

[briarberry] 06/2/2008 19:30

Fed has 2nd thoughts about telling the truth...


2 charts, one before, one after

[briarberry] 06/2/2008 14:35

going into a recession, leisure and advertising always get hit first...


Walt Disney Co.'s first-quarter profit falls 27% compared with a year ago, which includes a gain from sales of its interests in E! Entertainment and Us Weekly,


Time Warner's fourth-quarter net income fell 41% in the face of the media and entertainment giant generating modestly higher revenue, financial results showed Wednesday.

[briarberry] 04/2/2008 22:30

MEW (lines of credit being withdrawn + post 1337 = looks bad)


Home equity loan defaults soar

As credit woes seep into prime home equity lending, a spigot of ready cash for some homeowners is turned off.

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- One of the last sources of ready cash for homeowners looking to get money from their house appears to be shutting down and the results aren't likely to be pretty for the economy.

To head off more defaults, Countywide sent out letters to 122,000 homeowners last week informing them that their home equity credit lines were shut down since their estimated home values had dropped below their loan amounts.

Right behind Countrywide was Chase Home Lending, which notified borrowers in Los Angeles, Imperial and Orange Counties that they could tap their credit lines for no more than 70% of the value of their house. Previously, the limit had been 90%.




About 60 percent of domestic banks responding to the survey indicated that they had tightened their lending standards for approving applications for revolving home equity lines of credit over the past three months, the Fed said.

The Fed's survey found that banks have tightened lending standards on a range of mortgages. They also have tightened lending standards for businesses.

[briarberry] 04/2/2008 12:20

American-made Car sales

Vehicle sales proved very weak in January, at an 11.7 million annual unit North American-made rate. The rate is the lowest since mid-year and otherwise the lowest since 1993. Previous 12.1 M

[briarberry] 03/2/2008 18:57

Credit bubble reflation, we've now got negative real interest rates, but history says it's very difficult to reflate a bubble, look at the Nasdaq since 2000. And now that US house prices are falling the entire credit bubble is in trouble.



IS IT SPEND RATHER THAN SAVE

"We have a negative real interest rate right now. When real interest rates are negative, the price of "stuff" rises faster than the interest rate on cash deposits.

Economists calculate real interest rates by subtracting inflation from nominal interest rates. Today, three-month Treasury bills have a nominal yield of 2.08%. In 2007, inflation ran at 4.10%, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Therefore, real interest rates are -2.02%.

Negative yields are a big disincentive to saving money... It's why gold... and real estate... do well when rates are negative. This is the real stimulus plan of the U.S. government. " Tom Dyson

[briarberry] 03/2/2008 13:39

Jesse Livermore - this version has photos at the start of the book...




Jesse Lauriston Livermore (July 26, 1877 - November 28, 1940), also known as Boy Plunger,[1] was a notable early 20th century stock trader. He was famed for making and losing several multi-million dollar fortunes and short selling during the stock market crashes in 1907 and 1929.

Although untouchable trusts and cash assets at his death totalled over $5 million, Livermore had failed to regain his trading confidence before his death. A lifelong history of clinical depression had become the dominant factor in his final years.

[briarberry] 03/2/2008 11:55

CES Net Birth/Death Model - nonfarm payrolls, they've subtracted the last 6 months worth of additions, as a result of their year end review.

-378,000



mentioned on FSN

[briarberry] 30/1/2008 22:29

US GDP growth must be -5% by now if not worse, if they adjusted for the true rate of inflation...

US GDP growth + 0.6% and 2.6% inflation Q over Q

all governments fiddle the system now ???


Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Argentina's real inflation rate in 2007 was almost three times the official figure as a result of data manipulation, the union representing the National Statistics Institute's workers said in a report.

Consumer prices rose at least 22.3 percent last year compared with the 8.5 reported by the government, union leaders Daniel Fazio and Marcela Almeida said. Doubts about the official data first arose when then-President Nestor Kirchner replaced personnel at the institute, known as Indec, last January. The goal was to ``improve operations,'' he said.

[briarberry] 30/1/2008 16:43

Bank Reserves Go Negative

Given that the Fed is not in a credit tightening mode, we must look for a better explanation. Here it is: Banks in aggregate have now burnt through all of their capital and are forced to borrow reserves from the Fed in order to keep lending.

[briarberry] 30/1/2008 00:04

more and more borrowers are just walking away from their mortgages, the NYTimes called sending the keys in the post to the bank, jingle mail, here is one example...


New Trend In Sacramento: 'Intentional Foreclosure'

[briarberry] 30/1/2008 00:00

House Of Cards: The Mortgage Mess

"60 Minutes" Reports On How The Subprime Loan Crisis Is Shaking Markets Worldwide

(CBS) It was another nervous week for the world's financial markets and for Wall Street. In the last six months, Americans have seen their investments shrink, their property values plummet, and the country edge closer towards a recession. At the heart of the problem is something called the subprime mortgage crisis, which began last summer and continues to ricochet through the economy.

It sounds complicated, but it's really fairly simple. Banks lent hundreds of billions of dollars to homebuyers who can't pay them back. Wall Street took the risky debt, dressed it up as fancy securities, and sold it around the world as safe investments. It sounds like a shell game or Ponzi scheme; in some ways, it was a house of cards rife with corruption, greed, and negligence.

And as correspondent Steve Kroft reports, it started in places like Stockton, Calif.

[briarberry] 29/1/2008 22:17

DJ Fed Awards $30B 28-Day Credit Via Term Auction Facility

DJ Fed Term Auction Facility Awarded At Stop-Out Rate 3.123%

[briarberry] 28/1/2008 15:24

U.S. Dec. median new-home sales price down record 10.9%
U.S. Dec. new-home inventory 9.6-months, 26-year high
U.S. Dec. new-home sales below 645,000 pace expected
U.S. Dec. new-home sales fall 4.7% to 604,000 pace

U.S. 2007 new-home sales fall to 774,000, 11-year low
U.S. 2007 new-home sales fall record 26.4%

[briarberry] 25/1/2008 20:39

Bush and House in Accord for $150 Billion Stimulus - The New York Times

In a nod to the mortgage market problems, the plan would allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage-finance companies, to buy loans up to $625,500, from the current $417,000 limit. The Federal Housing Administration would be able to insure home loans of up to $725,000, from the current $362,000 ceiling.

The one-year increases would make it easier to obtain new mortgages or refinance loans in expensive markets.

In a major concession, the White House agreed to increase the conforming loan limits and stopped insisting on wider reform of the mortgage finance companies.

[briarberry] 25/1/2008 17:19

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Banks may need to raise as much as $143 billion to meet regulators' requirements should rating firms downgrade bond insurers, Barclays Capital analysts said.

Banks will need at least $22 billion if bonds covered by insurers led by MBIA Inc. and Ambac Financial Group Inc. are cut one level from AAA, and six times more for downgrades by four steps to A, Paul Fenner-Leitao wrote in a report published today.

[briarberry] 25/1/2008 12:54

UK - From The Times - January 25, 2008
Mortgage approvals hit by credit crunch
Grainne Gilmore and Rebecca O'Connor

The number of mortgages granted to new home buyers plunged to a record low last month as banks struggled with the credit crunch and potential buyers hesitated in the face of higher mortgage rates. Only 42,088 mortgages were approved for new buyers by banks in December, lower than at any time since records began in September 1997, figures from the British Bankers' Association (BBA) showed.

[briarberry] 24/1/2008 23:44

quote

The fact remains, most large money center banks and large regional banks have not admitted to their massive losses on heloc's, seconds or prime loans. The government and the banks are trying to run the clock out, but the fact remains these bad loans must be disposed of and that means they must be disclosed to shareholders. That day will come, but when is the real question.