Financial News

[cabiness42]

Good news is bad news. Heck of an employment report with a nice massive dip in the "part time worker looking for full time" work demo.

 

This of course means stock market crashes with fear of rate hike.

 

As of noon, Dow down .15%, S&P down .42%. Not exactly a huge crash.

[bmags]

good god nevermind.

[jasonxctf]

Getting close to full employment. Gotta say, its kind of remarkable where we've come from since 2008.

 

In remarks prepared for delivery to Congress, Yellen also said the market is close to the central bank's goal of full employment, and that drags on inflation will diminish next year.

 

Read more at: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/economy/f...rce=ref_article

[jasonxctf]

Getting close to full employment. Gotta say, its kind of remarkable where we've come from since 2008.

 

In remarks prepared for delivery to Congress, Yellen also said the market is close to the central bank's goal of full employment, and that drags on inflation will diminish next year.

 

Read more at: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/economy/f...rce=ref_article

 

 

And to add to this, my company has had 2 job openings in sales posted on Monster for 2 weeks, Craiglist for a month and 2 local colleges for a month too. Received a whopping grand total of 4 resumes.

[bmags]

Yellen signaling rates to rise in december. sub 2% inflation.

[kevo880]

And to add to this, my company has had 2 job openings in sales posted on Monster for 2 weeks, Craiglist for a month and 2 local colleges for a month too. Received a whopping grand total of 4 resumes.

 

What's your company?

[jasonxctf]

What's your company?

 

A financial services company in the western burbs

[StrangeSox]

210k jobs added, unemployment holds at 5%.

 

[Jake]

Seems to me that it's time to raise the rates, would be great if we could manage our federal budget in such a way to counteract some of the short-term negative impacts of the rate "hike."

[bmags]

If inflation and unemployment were really high, would you lower the rates to counteract the unemployment?

[southsider2k5]

If inflation and unemployment were really high, would you lower the rates to counteract the unemployment?

 

Lower rates would actually not stop inflation and would serve to accelerate it unless something else was going on. Higher rates are used to tame inflation, ala the early 1980's. The combination of high unemployment and high inflation would probably mean a real recession as it isn't easy to fix one without screwing up the other.

[bmags]

Lower rates would actually not stop inflation and would serve to accelerate it unless something else was going on. Higher rates are used to tame inflation, ala the early 1980's. The combination of high unemployment and high inflation would probably mean a real recession as it isn't easy to fix one without screwing up the other.

 

Right, this is my point though. We have low unemployment and below target inflation, and everyone has been chomping at the bit to raise rates. Basically, the fed has a dual mandate but only cares about inflation.

[NorthSideSox72]

Rates will go up soon. They need the wiggle room back and start the preemptive work against the inflation snapback, and this is about as good a chance at it as they've seen in a long time.

 

[StrangeSox]

Otoh wages are still pretty much flat since forever

[southsider2k5]

Otoh wages are still pretty much flat since forever

 

The job market numbers were interesting this time around.

 

First time claims were 269k last week, while 211k jobs were created in Nov.

[southsider2k5]

Fed gives us the first interest rate in almost 10 years, raising 25 Bps, mentions gradual increases going forward.

[StrangeSox]

Larry Summers on the Fed taking away the punch bowl just as the party was getting started:

http://larrysummers.com/2015/12/15/what-sh...-and-have-done/

[bmags]

Fed raises rates, projects inflation below target through 2018.

 

 

[StrangeSox]

Seems contradictory, no?

[bmags]

Fine with .25. Just annoyed they allowed zero "heating up" when wage growth continues to be meh.

[StrangeSox]

Shkreli, CEO Reviled for Drug Price Gouging, Arrested on Securities Fraud Charges

 

A boyish drug company entrepreneur, who rocketed to infamy by jacking up the price of a life-saving pill from $13.50 to $750, was arrested by federal agents at his Manhattan home early Thursday morning on securities fraud related to a firm he founded.

 

Martin Shkreli, 32, ignited a firestorm over drug prices in September and became a symbol of defiant greed. The federal case against him has nothing to do with pharmaceutical costs, however. Prosecutors in Brooklyn charged him with illegally taking stock from Retrophin Inc., a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it to pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. He was later ousted from the company, where he’d been chief executive officer, and sued by its board.

 

In the case that closely tracks that suit, federal prosecutors accused Shkreli of engaging in a complicated shell game after his defunct hedge fund, MSMB Capital Management, lost millions. He is alleged to have made secret payoffs and set up sham consulting arrangements. A New York lawyer, Evan Greebel, was also arrested early Thursday. He’s accused of conspiring with Shkreli in part of the scheme.

 

KaloBios recently acquired the license for benznidazole, a standard treatment for Chagas, a deadly parasitic infection most common in South and Central America. The firm announced plans to increase the cost from a couple hundred dollars for two months to a pricing structure like that for hepatitis-C drugs, which can run to nearly $100,000 for 12 weeks.

 

eta: kinda sucks that theft via price-gouging by massive amounts on rare and life-saving drugs is completely legal but theft via securities fraud is what would get you thrown in jail.

Edited December 17, 2015 by StrangeSox

[cabiness42]

Really dumb markets question: Why do super-low oil prices drag down all of the markets? Very annoying that I can't get cheap gas and 401k growth at the same time.

[StrangeSox]

There were a couple of good posts from ss2k5 and NSS a couple of weeks back in the Repub thread on this:

 

They are good for the economy, but a sign of weakness in the economy typically. I would say in this specific example a oil is being hit by more external forces and isn't going to be exhibiting typical behavior because of the supply war going on, and the decade of the 2000's push to drill as much as possible all coming together at once in the last year or so.

 

[Y2HH]

Really dumb markets question: Why do super-low oil prices drag down all of the markets? Very annoying that I can't get cheap gas and 401k growth at the same time.

 

They really shouldn't. It's out of date thinking that pegs oil prices to the sign of economic strength. It's nothing more than short term market manipulation.

 

It's exactly like "analysts" making up "supply chain issues" to tank Apples stock every quarter leading up to earnings (which is when these same people buy the cheaper stock), only for Apple to demolish earnings and remind everyone that NOBODY understands their complex supply chain. The stock then rockets short term, until everyone forgets, they sell, and those same analysts tank Apples stock again by making up the same false rumors. I think these people should be investigated.

 

The thought that if people aren't spending their money at the pump that they'll simply save it is stupid...if I only spend 20$ on gas, it means I have 20$ to spend elsewhere, it does NOT mean that I'm not ever going to spend that saved 20$.

[southsider2k5]

Really dumb markets question: Why do super-low oil prices drag down all of the markets? Very annoying that I can't get cheap gas and 401k growth at the same time.

 

Many of the main Dow and SP components are oil based companies, such as XOM and CVX. Those are blue chippers that are also coming from the dividend paying sector. Honestly if it were me, I would be buying the s*** out of these companies now, because once oil goes back up, these will get expensive again, much like banks did in 2008.