01Dec2015 Market Close: USA Markets Up Strongly

Exxon taps high-profile lawyer to fight N.Y. climate change probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Exxon Mobile Corp has hired a star attorney in an aggressive response to mounting scrutiny over the company’s climate change disclosures, according to people familiar with the matter.

Wall St. rallies on consumer, auto lift

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks started December stronger on Tuesday as health and consumer shares bounced back while auto sales suggested upbeat growth in November.

Gundlach’s DoubleLine Capital posts 22nd straight month of inflows

NEW YORK (Reuters) – DoubleLine Capital, the investment firm with $80 billion in assets overseen by widely followed co-founder Jeffrey Gundlach, posted net inflow of $1.08 billion in November, the 22nd month it has attracted new money.

New York proposes banking rules to prevent illicit financing

(Reuters) – New regulations proposed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday would require banks operating in the state to adopt rigorous measures to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorist groups.

Bosch sued over alleged role in VW diesel emissions scandal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – German auto supplier Robert Bosch GmbH has been accused of conspiring with Volkswagen AG to evade diesel emissions standards in at least 11 million vehicles worldwide in a class action lawsuit filed late on Monday.

Fed should be explicit in spelling out gradual pace of rate hikes: Evans

EAST LANSING, Mich. (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve should use the communication tools at its disposal at its December meeting to spell out a gradual pace of rate increases, Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans said on Tuesday.

Schlumberger to cut more jobs as drilling downturn bites

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil service company Schlumberger announced another round of job cuts on Tuesday, adding to 20,000 already this year, as low oil prices and a slowdown in drilling was expected to continue into next year.

U.S. manufacturing contracts, but rest of economy humming along

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. manufacturing contracted in November for the first time in three years as the sector buckled under the weight of a strong dollar and deep spending cuts by energy firms, but robust automobile sales suggested the economy remained on solid ground.

Amazon gadget sales more than triple over Thanksgiving weekend

(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc said sales of its electronic gadgets more than tripled over the Thanksgiving weekend from last year, with the Fire tablet the top-selling product.

Seeking A Savior

Submitted by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,

It’s an unfortunate truth that, when people are worried about the future, they often put their faith in politicians to somehow make everything better.

Politicians, of course, are famous for promising panaceas for whatever is troubling voters, and they even invent new troubles to worry about, presenting themselves as the only ones who can solve these woes.

Not surprising then, that, over time, any nation may slowly deteriorate into a population of nebbishes who turn to their government to do their thinking for them and take responsibility for their futures.

In the last year, the world has seen many elections in which the top spot (president, prime minister, premier, etc.) was contested. In Brazil, socialist President Dilma Rousseff was returned, but almost immediately ran into trouble over a failing economy, scandals, and corruption charges. In less than a year, her popularity sank to the lowest level for any Brazilian president on record.

In the UK, conservative Prime Minister David Cameron was returned, which immediately triggered riots in London by the anti-austerity crowd. He will soon be facing increasingly angry voters of all stripes who are boiling over with the dramatically worsening immigration question. In addition, he’ll soon be facing a referendum on the UK’s membership in the EU – an eventuality he’s been postponing for quite some time.

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Are These The Tankers Bilal Erdogan Uses To Transport ISIS Oil?

Regular readers are by now well acquainted with Bilal Erdogan, the son of Turkish autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Although Erdogan senior masquerades as President of a democratic society, he is in reality a despot who just weeks ago, capped off a four-month effort to nullify an undesirable ballot box outcome by scaring the electorate into throwing more support behind the ruling AKP in a do-over vote designed specifically to undermine the pro-Kurdish HDP, which put up a strong showing in the last round of elections, held in June.

Fourth Turning – Our Rendezvous With Destiny

Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

In Part 1 of this article I discussed the catalyst spark which ignited this Fourth Turning and the seemingly delayed regeneracy. In Part 2 I pondered possible Grey Champion prophet generation leaders who could arise during the regeneracy. In Part 3 I focused on the economic channel of distress which is likely to be the primary driving force in the next phase of this Crisis. In Part 4 I assessed the social and cultural channels of distress dividing the nation. In Part 5 I examined the technological, ecological, political, military channels of distress likely to burst forth with the molten ingredients of this Fourth Turning, and finally in this final part, our rendezvous with destiny, with potential climaxes to this Winter of our discontent.

We are now in the seventh year of this

Pedro Da Costa Has The Courage To Review Ben Bernanke’s Memoir, Finds A Few Gaping Holes

Pedro da Costa may no longer be asking Janet Yellen uncomfortable questions on behalf of the WSJ, but that doesn’t mean the Peterson Institute’s latest editorial fellow can’t opine on his favorite topic: central bankers.

In the following review of Ben Bernanke’s memoir “The Courage To Act”, Pedro has done just that, and while his review of what is contained in the book is enlightening for those who are still waiting for the deflated, “fair value” priced copy, it is Pedro’s “courage to write” what Bernanke conveniently forgot to add in his memoir, that makes this review so much more memorable than the generic sycophantic tripe written by his “access journalism” peers.

Yet the ongoing manipulation of key benchmark interest rates—which falls within the direct purview of the Fed—does not get a mention in the book. Neither do illegal foreclosures, the lack of transparency on Wall Street, banks’ concentrated political power, the revolving-door nexus of Wall Street and the regulatory world, or even the global banking system’s increasing vulnerability to financial crises (think Greece, China, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Turkey—and that’s just in the past year).

Bernanke does accept some blame for having missed the signs of looming financial disaster on his watch. But he stops well shy of a mea culpa. He says he was merely echoing the conventional wisdom of the time: that the housing bubble wouldn’t burst spectacularly and that, even if it did, the economic damage would be limited.

But at least Bernanke had the “courage” to cover everything else…

Stocks Continue to Climb

U.S. stock indexes on Tuesday notched their biggest gains in almost two weeks, as investors snapped up stocks ahead of key economic data and the prospect of additional stimulus from the European Central Bank.

Bank of England to Ease Capital Pressure on U.K. Banks

The Bank of England said it would ease pressure on U.K. banks to hold more capital, drawing a line under years of post-crisis reforms aimed at making the banking sector safer.

Oil Glut: How to Tell When It’s Really Time to Worry

Record global oil inventory has sparked fears of a further sharp price drop as storage is exhausted, but futures prices suggest those fears are premature since widespread use of floating storage isn’t yet viable.

Bond Report: Treasury yields fall after weak ISM data

U.S. Treasury yields fall on Tuesday after manufacturing data came in weaker than expected, raising concerns about continued contraction in some parts of the economy in an environment of rising interest rates

Capitol Report: House, Senate agree on long-term highway bill

House and Senate negotiators agreed Tuesday on a five-year highway bill that would also reauthorize the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

Valeant shares jump almost 10% to highest close in a month

Stock is still down sharply on the year after a scandal about its accounting practices.