13Oct2015 Market Close: DOW Closed Down 50 Points, Oil Slips After Bearish Report And The US Dollar Steady Ahead Of Major Earnings The Week

Wall St. falls on worries about China growth, earnings

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks edged lower on Tuesday on renewed fears of slowing growth in China and worries about upcoming earnings reports.

Fed’s Tarullo against 2015 rate hike amid Fed split over timing

(Reuters) – Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo on Tuesday said the Fed should not hike interest rates this year, in comments that point to sharp divisions within the U.S. central bank over America’s readiness for higher rates.

Eight Fed banks call for discount rate hike: minutes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Federal Reserve banks pushing the central bank to raise the rate it charges commercial banks for emergency loans rose to eight in September from five in July, minutes from the Fed’s discount rate meeting showed.

Pipeline Politics: Russia, Turkey Clash Over Energy As Syria Rift Shifts Focus To German Line

In June, we noted that Russia had signed an MOU with Shell, E.On and OMV to double the capacity of the Nord Stream pipeline, the shortest route from Russian gas fields to Europe.

Here is a helpful visual:

What you’ll note from the above is that the Nord Stream allows Gazprom to dodge Ukraine, which is desirable for obvious reasons.

Of course that’s not good for the Eastern European countries (like Ukraine) who derive revenue from the flow of gas. Late last month, Slovak PM Robert Fico had the following to say about the Nord Stream project:

“They are making idiots of us. You can’t talk for months about how to stabilize the situation and then take a decision that puts Ukraine and Slovakia into an unenviable situation.â€

To which we said the following:

When it comes to making grand public declarations about “stabilizing†unstable geopolitical situations and then turning around and doing something completely destabilizing, the West (and especially the US) are without equal, as evidenced by all manner of historical precedent including Washington’s efforts to help sack Viktor Yanukovych whose ouster precipitated the conflict in Ukraine in the first place. And make no mistake, to the extent there’s energy and money involved, that’s all the more true which is why it isn’t at all surprising that Western …

FATCA: The Dumbest Law In History Just Went To The Next Level

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

The Road to Ruin, as they say, is paved in good intentions.

So I suppose the road to hell is paved in the best of intentions.

And that’s how most laws often start: with the BEST of intentions. That was certainly the case when Barack Obama signed the HIRE Act into law in 2011.

It was intended to spur job growth in the Land of the Free while the wounds of the financial crisis were still fresh.

But always remember the rule of thumb with legislation: the more noble-sounding the name of a law, the more destructive its consequences. The HIRE Act did not disappoint.

Deep within its bowels fell the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA for short. It was a sort of ‘law within a law’, and one of the dumbest in US history.

FATCA effectively commanded every single bank on the planet to enter into an information-sharing agreement with the IRS.

(Well, not so much ‘information sharing’. More like ‘information giving’. Because the US government doesn’t share anything with anyone.)

It all started based on a phony assumption that millions of Americans were hiding trillions of dollars in secret offshore accounts. And given how broke the US government is, they wanted every penny they were entitled to.

So the plan was to turn every bank in the world into a global spy network.

Any bank that didn’t comply was threatened with a crippling 30% withholding tax on every dollar that went in, out, and through the Land of the Free.

Banks complied. And FATCA was rolled across the world.

Eventually foreign governments stepped in and negotiated government-to-government information sharing agreements.

U.S. Stocks Waver Ahead of Key Earnings Reports

U.S. stocks bounced between slight gains and losses as investors looked ahead to major earnings reports this week.

Debt-Fueled Bond Buying in China Raises Concerns

Buying stocks with borrowed money drove the boom and bust in Chinese shares. Now the strategy has shifted to the bond market, where investors are borrowing record amounts of money using bonds as collateral, and some are buying more bonds with the cash.

Why So Slow? A Gradual Return For Interest Rates.

from the San Francisco Fed

— this post authored by Vasco Curdia

Short-term interest rates in the United States have been very low since the financial crisis. Projections of the natural rate of interest indicate that a gradual return of short-term interest rates to normal over the next five years is consistent with promoting maximum employment and stable inflation. Uncertainty about the natural rate that is most consistent with an economy at its full potential suggests that the pace of normalization may be even more gradual than implied by these projections.

UBS To Pay 19.5 Million Settlement Involving Notes Linked To Currency Index

from the Securities and Exchange Commission

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that UBS AG has agreed to pay $19.5 million to settle charges that it made false or misleading statements and omissions in offering materials provided to U.S. investors in structured notes linked to a proprietary foreign exchange trading strategy.

Emerging Markets Report: Disgruntled Chinese investor stabs CEO after losing investment

In a graphic example of the toll the Chinese stock market’s selloff is taking on some investors, a disgruntled Chinese man attacked the chief executive of an asset management firm after learning that he will not get back nearly $50,000 he invested with the company.