Here are the regular US open links + select article links: Greece seems to be the most pressing issue, and seems we are back in the good old risk on/risk off-pattern. You can get update notifications by following ‘MoreLiver’ on Twitter or Facebook.
Frontrunning:
May 8 – ZH
The Lunch
Wrap – alphaville
/ FT
EM New York
headlines – beyondbrics
/ FT
Daily Press
Summary – Open
Europe
New
Greek elections loom as coalition talks falter within hours; Necessary bailout
funding in jeopardy
Overnight
Sentiment: Straws Cracking – Bank
of America / ZH
Broker Note
Briefing: Tuesday – WSJ
Morning
Take-Out – DealBook /
NYT
AM Dear
Dairy: Honeymoon Over – Macro
and Cheese
Uncertainty
High, Dollar Firm – Marc
to Market
The T
Report: What do Natural Gas and Equities Have in Common? – TF
Market Advisors
Pre-market
Commentary – Marketwatch
Pre-Market
Trading – CNNMoney
Pre-Market
– NASDAQ
US Equity Preview – Bloomberg
Earnings
& Events – The
Street
MarketCurrents
– Seeking
Alpha
Debt
crisis: live – The
Telegraph
Europe Crisis Tracker – WSJ
FX Options
Analytics – Saxo
Bank
EURO CRISIS: GENERAL
How did the German press and blogosphere react
to the results of the French election?
Blowback from Sarkozy’s Election Finance
Shenanigans – Testosterone
Pit
Only Jacque Chirac, after he lost his immunity,
was rapped mildly and symbolically on his aging knuckles when, on December 15, 2011, a court found him guilty of diverting public funds and abusing public
confidence. He walked away with a two-year suspended sentence. So Sarkozy too
might escape unscathed. But French reporters will continue to dog him. And
voters have expressed their opinion—perhaps hoping that presidential history
would, this time, not repeat itself.
Are there any alternatives to austerity? Six
ideas for fixing Europe – Wonkblog
/ WP
1) More inflation from the ECB 2) More stimulus from euro zone countries that are in sound budget shape 3) Open the bailout fund for bigger countries 4) Eurobonds 5) More fiscal integration 6) Countries could just start leaving the euro zone
1) More inflation from the ECB 2) More stimulus from euro zone countries that are in sound budget shape 3) Open the bailout fund for bigger countries 4) Eurobonds 5) More fiscal integration 6) Countries could just start leaving the euro zone
Unless the EU adopts a growth compact soon... – Re-Define
Without a growth compact, the social and
employment crises in Europe will only get worse. With it, we have a fighting chance to emerge
stronger.
David Rosenberg's Take On Europe – ZH
This is quite a potent brew — financial insolvency, economic fragility and political instability… In sum, this is not the backdrop for sustained risk-on investment behavior… If we did a further overlay with respect to the most attractive "real yield" characteristics — low inflation and attractive coupons along with strong national balance sheets — we would find Norway, Australia and Switzerland leading the ack.
This is quite a potent brew — financial insolvency, economic fragility and political instability… In sum, this is not the backdrop for sustained risk-on investment behavior… If we did a further overlay with respect to the most attractive "real yield" characteristics — low inflation and attractive coupons along with strong national balance sheets — we would find Norway, Australia and Switzerland leading the ack.
Francois Hollande has ten weeks to avert a
French bond crisis –
The
Telegraph
There will be no speculative attack against
French bonds on Monday morning because François Hollande has been elected
president, the first socialist to take the Élysée since the Mitterrand debacle
of 1981.
Spain to Spend €7bn-€10bn (It Doesn't Have), Bailing Out Bankia, the Nation's
3rd Largest Bank; Liar, Liar Pants on Fire – Mish’s
The only way Spain will not need a
bailout is if it tells the Troika to go to hell, defaults on foreign-held bond,
then exits the eurozone. Moreover, that is exactly what Spain should do, right now.
Spain will eventually exit the eurozone anyway, so the sooner the better.
European Spreadwatch Alert As Italian Bank
Borrowings From ECB Rise To New Record – ZH
EURO CRISIS: GREECE
Greece’s future will not be decided in the next few days but the coming weeks
and months could well settle its place in the eurozone once and for all. This
election may not provide many answers, as we expected, but it could mark the
beginning of the end game in Greece.
More Greek elections? – MacroScope
/ Reuters
So new elections next month are likely which
leaves a very compressed timeframe and who knows what political landscape will
result second time around. The EU/IMF/ECB troika is supposed to return in June
and can’t negotiate on the next bailout tranche if there is no government. In
any case, Athens is supposed to find 11 billion euros of extra cuts as part of the aid
programme and none of the parties are in a position to do that as things stand.
The Greek crisis will fast expose Mr Hollande – Gideon
Rachman / FT
The Greek problem is now so acute that it cannot be “fixed” through a few cleverly-drafted clauses, added to an EU treaty. It demands real, crunchy and dangerous decisions. Specifically, will Greece press ahead and make further billions of euros worth of budget cuts, within months, as demanded by its most recent bailout deal? If Greece refuses to do this, then the IMF has made clear that it will not authorise the release of the next tranche in aid to Greece.
The Greek problem is now so acute that it cannot be “fixed” through a few cleverly-drafted clauses, added to an EU treaty. It demands real, crunchy and dangerous decisions. Specifically, will Greece press ahead and make further billions of euros worth of budget cuts, within months, as demanded by its most recent bailout deal? If Greece refuses to do this, then the IMF has made clear that it will not authorise the release of the next tranche in aid to Greece.
FLASH CRASH ANNIVERSARY
Two Years After The Flash Crash, Are Markets
Any Safer? – Forbes
…a cataclysmic plunge that seemed to defy all
reason and pulled back the curtain on high-frequency trading for millions of
investors who had no idea that computer-driven strategies account for the
lion’s share of daily market volume.
The Flash Crash, Two Years On – New
York FED blog
What Caused the “Flash Crash”? - Trying to Make
Sense of the Crash
“Where is Everybody?” – The
Reformed Broker
Allow me to be of assistance as to why there's
no recovery in stock trading like there was after past recessions and crashes: They
sold us out. The NYSE and Nasdaq decided
to go for-profit under the auspices of raising the money necessary to compete
with foreign exchanges and other upstart trading pools.
FACEBOOK
The Maturation of the Billionaire Boy-Man – New York
Magazine
Incredibly, Mark Zuckerberg has grown up to
become an ace CEO—one whose way of thinking might drive Wall Street nuts.
Facebook at 99 Times Profit Exceeds 99% of
S&P 500 Index –
BB
Facebook Inc. is betting its growth prospects will persuade investors to pay 99 times earnings for its initial public offering, a higher multiple than 99 percent of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
Facebook Inc. is betting its growth prospects will persuade investors to pay 99 times earnings for its initial public offering, a higher multiple than 99 percent of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
I Went to the Facebook Roadshow and I All I Got
Was a Brownie – TIME
The Facebook roadshow — the ritualistic presentation to potential institutional investors, a customary prelude to any initial public offering — came to New York City today, and with an impressive posse of security. “I’ve never seen anything like this — even at the White House,” one investor emailed from inside the ballroom.
The Facebook roadshow — the ritualistic presentation to potential institutional investors, a customary prelude to any initial public offering — came to New York City today, and with an impressive posse of security. “I’ve never seen anything like this — even at the White House,” one investor emailed from inside the ballroom.
“Wah, Zuckerberg is Snubbing Us, Waaaaahhh” – The
Reformed Broker
Wall Street crybabies need to STFU about the
whole "Zuckerberg is snubbing us" thing. Of course he is. Because he doesn't need you, dawg. You are an inconvenience, a necessary evil on
his way to where he's headed. An
irritating little tax he has to pay, in both time and a little bit of money.
OTHER
Weekly Market Commentary: Unbalanced Risk – Hussman Funds
With regard to current conditions, there is an
absence of redeeming instances where things worked out well, coupled with an
abundance of starkly negative market outcomes that have accompanied similar
conditions.
Fortune 500 – Chart Porn
The 2012 Fortune 500 is out (which basically
rates companies by revenue). I like this presentation of sales vs profits
Dave Altig from the Atlanta Fed recently compared
sectoral employment growth in the US during two
recoveries: the 2001 dot-com recession and the 2007 financial crisis.