10Mar2015 Market Open Commentary: Closing Market Commentary: Markets Open Down 1% Now Trading Sideways And High U.S. Dollar Detriment To Growth According To White House

Here is the Market Open from CNN Money

North and South American markets are broadly lower today with shares in Brazil off the most. The Bovespa is down 3.59% while U.S.’s S&P 500 is off 1.21% and Mexico’s IPC is lower by 0.99%.

Credit Suisse poaches Prudential’s Thiam for Asia push

ZURICH/LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Credit Suisse has swooped on Prudential boss Tidjane Thiam to replace chief executive Brady Dougan – seen to have failed in reforming the Swiss bank fast enough – in order to push into wealth management of a growing multi-millionaires club in Asia.

Square Feet: Bon Appétit Moves to a New Home and Into the Kitchen You’ve Always Wanted

Condé Nast, which owns the magazine, last year began relocating some brands from 4 Times Square to 1 World Trade Center, which includes a 2,126-square-foot kitchen.

U.S. small business confidence ticks up in February

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. small business optimism edged up in February amid signs of tightening labor market conditions, bolstering the view that a recent slowdown in economic activity will be temporary.

February 2015 CBO Monthly Budget Review: Deficit Is $10 billion More than the Shortfall Recorded in the Same Span Last Year

from the Congressional Budget Office

The federal government ran a budget deficit of $386 billion for the first five months of fiscal year 2015, CBO estimates-$10 billion more than the shortfall recorded in the same span last year. CBO expects that, if lawmakers enact no further legislation affecting spending or revenues, the deficit in 2015 will end up at about $486 billion, roughly the same as the deficit incurred in 2014. (For more details about CBO’s most recent budget projections, see Updated Budget Projections, 2015 to 2025.)

Apple Watch not yet setting Chinese pulses racing

BEIJING (Reuters) – Apple Inc had China front and center at the San Francisco launch of its smart Apple Watch, trumpeting a new store in Hangzhou city and demo-ing hit Chinese messaging app WeChat.

White House Admits “Strong Dollar Is Headwind For Growth” As Greenback Surges At Fastest Pace In 34 Years

Forget 2013’s “taper tantrum”, FX markets are roiling over a full-blown “rate-hike-rage” as the USD Index surges to a new 12 year high, rising 23% in the last 8 months – the fastest surge since 1981. Not only is this dramaticaly bad for the US equity earnings picture but the carnage being unleashed across developed and emerging market currencies is almost unprecedented. Despite reassurance from The Fed that a strengthening dollar is positive for US jobs, The White House has now issued a statement that a “strengthening USD is a headwind for US growth.”

The USD Index has risen at the fastest pace in 34 years…

Despite previous reassurances from Bullard, Fisher et al.

Sharp gains in the U.S. dollar are good for the U.S. labor market, a top Federal Reserve official said on Friday, downplaying a crescendo of complaints from top executives over the dent to their profits.

“CEOs that have international operations complain about it,” Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher told Reuters in an interview. “I hear from every one of them – it offsets their powerful earnings here domestically.”

Fisher takes those complaints with a grain of salt.

“It brings to my mind the vision of Edward Munch’s painting ‘The Scream’,” he said, adding, “It’s not the end of the world.”

Fisher, who plans to retire from his post in March, holds views that …

Bookstore chain Barnes & Noble’s profit rises 14 percent

(Reuters) – Barnes & Noble Inc , the largest U.S. bookstore chain, reported a 14 percent rise in quarterly profit, helped by cost cutting in its Nook digital business.

Eurozone QE starts

After the drama of Friday, we saw a relatively subdued start to the week in FX markets. The two main events of the day, namely the start of QE in the eurozone and also further tension surrounding Greece look to be more “slow burn” affairs, rather than having an instant impact. Indeed, both have many unresolved issues. For the ECB’s QE program, it is how to deal with buying bonds with negative yields and the resulting losses that risk ending up hitting the central bank’s bottom line. This is most pertinent for Germany, where yields are negative out to the 6 year maturity. We also have to find out to what degree overseas sellers are going to be selling bonds and repatriating cash, with the resultant downward push on the single currency.

We saw a pause in dollar strength yesterday, which allowed sterling and the dollar bloc currencies (CAD, AUD, NZD) to recover the most. Most of this has been given up overnight, with the dollar index making new highs (once again). The Aussie is closest to making new lows for the year, with USDJPY exploring new territory, having pushed above the December highs. There are no major data releases for today, although several UK MPC members are scheduled to speak later in the day. Greece is also not likely to be far from the headlines. Note that the kiwi rate decision will happen overnight tomorrow, where rates are seen holding steady at 3.50%. The kiwi has declined for the past four sessions, but remains above the year’s lows of 0.7177.

Read the rest of the article Eurozone QE starts

Wikipedia Founder Sues NSA, Demands “End To NSA’s Dragnet Surveillance Of Internet Traffic”

By Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, is a board member of the Wikimedia Foundation, of which Lila Tretikov is the executive director, first posted in the NYT.

Stop Spying on Wikipedia Users

TODAY, we’re filing a lawsuit against the National Security Agency to protect the rights of the 500 million people who use Wikipedia every month. We’re doing so because a fundamental pillar of democracy is at stake: the free exchange of knowledge and ideas.

Our lawsuit says that the N.S.A.’s mass surveillance of Internet traffic on American soil — often called “upstream” surveillance — violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects the right to privacy, as well as the First Amendment, which protects the freedoms of expression and association. We also argue that this agency activity exceeds the authority granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that Congress amended in 2008.

Most people search and read Wikipedia anonymously, since you don’t need an account to view its tens of millions of articles in hundreds of languages. Every month, at least 75,000 volunteers in the United States and around the world contribute their time and passion to writing those articles and keeping the site going — and growing.

On our servers, run by the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, those volunteers discuss their work on everything from Tiananmen Square to gay rights in Uganda. Many of them prefer to work anonymously, especially those who work on controversial issues or who live in countries with repressive governments.

These volunteers should be able to do their work without having to worry that the United States …