09Jun2015 Market Close: Mixed Indicators Leaving Concerned Investors Ready To Sell, Tomorrow Expected To Be Up

HSBC to shed 50,000 jobs in quest for higher payouts

HONG KONG/LONDON (Reuters) – HSBC pledged a new era of higher dividends on Tuesday, laying out plans to slash nearly one in five jobs and shrink its investment bank by a third to combat sluggish growth across its sprawling empire.

U.S. Stocks Little Changed

U.S. stocks were little changed Tuesday, with gains in energy companies helping to offset declines in transportation stocks.

Exclusive: Facebook earns 51 percent of ad revenue overseas – executives

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Overseas markets bring in more advertising revenue than the United States for Facebook Inc, amounting to 51 percent of global ad sales in the first quarter, with growth in Asia the fastest in the world at 57 percent, company executives told Reuters.

“That’s An Interesting Conspiracy Theory”

One of the reasons we don’t mind (and often enjoy) being labeled “conspiracy theorists” is that as consistently happens, the theory becomes fact, usually with a delay of anywhere between 6 months and 6 years.

A great example is one of our very first posts from January 2009: “This Makes No Sense: LIBOR By Bank” in which we first alleged Libor manipulation.

An even better example comes courtesy of the WSJ which reveals that one of the biggest perpetrators of Libor rigging, the same bank that was raided earlier today for reasons still unknown, namely Deutsche Bank had a quick and easy response to allegations of interest rate rigging: call it “conspiracy theory” and promptly sweep it under the rug.

From the WSJ:

A Deutsche Bank AG executive whose employees have been accused of rigging interest rates told a British trade group that such manipulation was nothing more than a “conspiracy theory,” a London court heard on Tuesday.

David Nicholls, who oversaw a group of employees that included some who have been fired for trying to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, had a 2008 phone call with a British Bankers’ Association official to discuss mounting concerns about the integrity of Libor.

In the recorded call, which was played to a London jury on Tuesday, Mr. Nicholls repeat …

Greek leader seeks party backing as EU warns on cash deal hopes

ATHENS/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called on his fractious Syriza party to rally behind the government on Tuesday as time runs critically short to unlock funding from international lenders and avert a debt default.

Dow, S&P 500 inch higher with financial, energy shares

(Reuters) – The Dow and S&P 500 edged higher late Tuesday afternoon following three straight days of declines, as energy shares rose with oil prices and financial shares gained.

Global Glut Crops Up in Cotton

Cotton traders are bracing for a global glut of the fiber, as supplies from the world’s biggest growing regions are set to rise amid waning demand from China.

After Three Days of Losses, Wall St. Advances

Global stocks were lower, with weak Chinese economic data adding to investors’ gloom.

New effort to ease travel anxiety: assuring your bag fits in bin

MIAMI (Reuters) – Air travelers are all too familiar with carry-on bag anxiety: the feeling sparked by last-minute and sometimes seemingly arbitrary decisions that a piece of luggage is too large to fit in the overhead bin.

3 Hours and 47 Mins After Obama Says He’ll Sign Law BANNING Bulk Collection, DOJ Asks Secret Court to CONTINUE Bulk Collection

Spencer Ackerman reports in the Guardian:

The Obama administration has asked a secret surveillance court to ignore a federal court that found bulk surveillance illegal and to once again grant the National Security Agency the power to collect the phone records of millions of Americans for six months.

The legal request, filed nearly four hours after Barack Obama vowed to sign a new law banning precisely the bulk collection he asks the secret court to approve, also suggests that the administration may not necessarily comply with any potential court order demanding that the collection stop.

Ackerman details the timeline in a tweet.

Marcy Wheeler notes with frustration:

DOJ, however, doesn’t much give a shit about what USA [Freedom Act] actually amends.

The government will pretend it doesn’t matter.

The bottom line is that the NSA is a rogue

Box Is Far From Waterproof

Ahead of the Tape: After stumbling in its first earnings release, Box Inc. looks less vulnerable. But big questions remain.

Blurred Lines: Where Finance Ends And The Real Economy Begins

Submitted by Jeffrey Snider via Alhambra Investment Partners,

It is exceedingly difficult these days to detect where finance ends and the economy begins. That was intended, of course, as it was believed that greater intrusiveness on the part of the financial ends were consistent with greater, and better, economic control. Certain strains of economics have been obsessed since the dawn of the discipline with finding “optimal” outcomes. More recently, especially since the 1960’s, that has been transformed into not just understanding them or their potential but actually creating them through commandment of finance.

The generalized view of the current global predicament is simply that those seeking “optimal” outcomes through “optimal” control don’t have any real appreciation for how their efforts have transformed pretty much everything. The Federal Reserve in the United States still operates as if the US dollar were the US dollar, applying narrowly to just the circumstances within the US. Only recently (somehow it took until 2010!! for them begin thinking of unifying federal funds and eurodollars; one of many massive mistakes in 2008) has the eurodollar system become even a small topic of interest.

But even now, central bankers are perplexed by the state of finance as well as the global economy. Janet Yellen still declares the financial system “resilient” when in fact she and …

Meet China’s New ‘Investor’ Class: “It’s A Lot Easier To Make Money From Stocks Than Farmwork”

After a very modest drop last week, outstanding margin trading balances in China have resurged to record highs this week as ‘correction’ dip buyers rampage back into the markets, hopeful of China’s inclusion in (and devastation of) the MSCI indices.

With China’s market cap now nearing $10 trillion (40% of USA’s, up from just 14% last year)…

…we thought a profile of just who is buying Chinese stocks – from plastic umbrella makers up 3000% this year to ponzi schemes like Hanergy. As one middle-aged rural Chinese chap exclaimed jubilantly, “it’s easier to make money from stocks than farmwork.”

So – do you really want this kind of volatility in the MSCI indices? If China corrects now it will wipe out trllions of wealth from the average Chinese person… at a time when regulators are urging professional asset managers NOT to speculate in stocks.

U.S. job openings hit record high; small businesses upbeat

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. job openings surged to a record high in April and small business confidence perked up in May, suggesting the economy was regaining speed after stumbling at the start of the year.