Get out your waders and try to avoid the $h**-$hoveling avalanche coming from the corporate pre$$ and elite wealth:
"Robust growth in jobs, wages forecast in Mass." by Megan Woolhouse Globe Staff October 14, 2015
And my football picks for the week are....
The Massachusetts economy is creating jobs at its fastest pace in 15 years, pushing wages and spending higher and indicating solid employment growth in coming years, according to a forecast by a group of academic and business economists....
Honestly, I'm really sick of this slop.
“Massachusetts is experiencing a burst of economic growth reminiscent of the 1990s,” said Alan Clayton-Matthews, a Northeastern University economics professor and an author of the report. The tech boom of the late 1990s fueled one of the most prosperous periods in the state’s modern history as the unemployment rate fell below 3 percent — until the dot-com bubble burst.
Related: Massachusetts Economy Mirrors Brazil
With some nice quips and quotes from the professor in there.
The forecast, to be released Thursday at a conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, predicts that the broader New England economy will also continue to improve.
Oh, it's a f***ing $elf-$erving report from the private central bank. Pfffft! It's not even worth the paper on which it is written.
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In a separate report on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve said its survey of economic conditions found business activity increasing in New England, with manufacturers, retailers, and advertising and consulting firms reporting higher sales from a year ago. Home sales and prices were on the rise across the region, but hiring was mixed, the Fed said in the report, known as the Beige Book.
Isn't beige also the color of sh**?
Job growth in Massachusetts and New England as a whole has been strongest in the business and professional services, leisure and hospitality, and education and health care sectors, according to the New England Economic Partnership.
Related: The Death of Labor
Must have been premature.
Unemployment in Massachusetts and New England is expected to remain below the US rate, which is forecast to slip to 4.6 percent in 2018 from an average of 5.3 percent this year.
You know, last I checked the jobs situation was a bit ominous here, but that's all been ignored for this feel good fluff.
Forecasters, however, warned that their projections could change significantly if China’s economy, the world’s second-largest, continues to slow; the strengthening dollar, which makes US goods more expensive overseas, hurts exports; and stock markets around the world continue to slide.
Such developments, the forecasters said, “can adversely impact the investment climate and threaten sustained growth in New England.”
In other words, this article is pure propaganda from the pre$$.
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And right beside it is this:
"Walmart forecasts flat sales, lower profits" Associated Press October 14, 2015
NEW YORK — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. expects its profit to take a hit as the world’s biggest retailer works to fend off intensifying competition by perking up customer service and adapting to changing shopping habits.
The company, known for its low prices and sprawling supercenters, also forecast sales for its full fiscal year to be flat, hurt by unfavorable currency exchange rates....
The disappointing guidance comes as Walmart works to fix its US business amid pressure from rivals including traditional grocers, dollar stores, and Amazon.com. At its annual meeting in New York Wednesday, chief executive Doug McMillon sought to reassure investors that the company is changing to keep up with a rapidly evolving retail landscape.
Look at all the excuses they give to obfuscate a collapsing economy.
‘‘We all know that retail has changed and will continue to change at an accelerating pace,’’ said McMillon, who took the job in February 2014.
Under McMillon, Walmart has opened more smaller stores, which tend to be more conveniently located and let customers get in and out faster. The company is also stepping up its e-commerce efforts. On Wednesday, it said it was expanding its online grocery with free pickup to 10 additional markets, making the service available in a total of 20 US markets.
Such moves, along with a push to improve the cleanliness of its US stores, are expected to help attract more higher-income customers. But McMillon noted the company would also remain focused on shoppers who are driven by value.
HA-HA-HA!
And what is with the unclean part? Walmart stores are dirty and dingy sh** pits? That doesn't come through in the cute commercials.
Btw, that SECOND CLASS of shoppers has already been conditioned. Happy Holidays!
Walmart is under pressure on that front, as well, with smaller discounters posing a greater threat. The company said its store brands will play a key role in addressing the ‘‘price gap’’ between itself and discounters.
Walmart attributed a big portion of the decline to its investment in raising wages and providing more training, which it hopes will improve service.
???????????
And Walmart had sh**ty service, too?
Walmart, facing pressure from worker groups, increased its minimum wage for US employees to $9 per hour in April. The figure will rise to $10 per hour by February 2016.
While the company’s increased investments have helped to perk up sales and traffic, they’ve squeezed profits. In early October, 450 workers at corporate headquarters were laid off. More than 18,000 people work at the headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.
Not a good sign.
The company also authorized a $20 billion share buyback program for the next two years....
See: Buying Back Stock
It's a RIGGED MARKET not based on reality, but at least the EXECUTIVES and CORPORATE will see FAT PAYCHECKS and PROFITS!!
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With all due respect, this crap is leaving me kind of cold.
Related:
Walmart drags stocks lower
Staples said to be exploring asset sales
That's never good.
As for the rest of the section, I won't be tweeting anything. It doesn't make me a Square, either. That's nothing but elite talk and most of it is really getting under my skin and making me angry. Must have been the billboard I saw. Maybe a boat ride might chill me out, although I doubt it. Just watch out for rocks. I said just watch out for rocks! Or maybe it was the missing talking points.
Twitter names a top Google officer as executive chairman
It's all ince$tuous at thi$ point.
"Bank of America swung to a profit in the third quarter, helped by lower borrowing costs and legal expenses. Earnings were $4.1 billion, or 37 cents a share, versus a loss of $470 million, or 4 cents, a year earlier. The bank booked $6 billion in legal expenses last year to help cover part of a $16.65 billion settlement it reached with the Department of Justice. Revenue fell to $20.68 billion from $21.4 billion a year earlier. The bank’s lending business continued to improve in the third quarter. Lending costs fell, there were fewer delinquent loans, and more customers borrowed money. Loan totals were roughly unchanged, but the bank continued to dispose of troubled loans left over from the financial crisis. CEO Brian Moynihan (left) called the results solid. ‘‘The key drivers of our business — deposit-taking and lending to both our consumer and corporate clients — moved in the right direction,’’ he said. In the consumer banking division, by far the bank’s biggest business, earnings climbed 5 percent. The bank said consumer borrowing increased broadly, a positive sign for the US economy. The bank’s wealth and investment management division, Merrill Lynch, reported lower profits. Bank of America has been cutting costs. It had 215,193 employees at the end of the quarter, versus 229,538 a year earlier."
Related: Banks Didn't Filho
BoA's just was, even if revenues are down (bad sign).
Puerto Rico in talks with Treasury to restructure debt
Netflix adds 3.62m customers but US growth lags
Maybe I will watch a movie instead of doing this today.
UPDATE:
Sorry I missed these:
"JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest US bank, said its revenue fell 6.4 percent, driven by a slump in trading and mortgage banking. Net income rose 22 percent to $6.8 billion, but adjusted earnings per share were $1.32. That missed the $1.38 average estimate of 29 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. JPMorgan is the first big US lender to report results for the most recent quarter. It agreed to pay almost a third of a $1.86 billion settlement to end accusations that a dozen big banks conspired to limit competition in the credit-default swaps market, people with knowledge of the deal said this month. The accord averts a trial following years of litigation by investors. In July, regulators said JPMorgan will pay $166 million and change credit-card collection practices."
Too big to jail.
NDUs:
"Financial stocks surged Thursday, helping to push the market to its biggest gain in almost two weeks. Citigroup jumped after reporting that its quarterly earnings rose sharply as the bank continued to cut expenses and clean up its books in the wake of the financial crisis. KeyCorp also climbed after posting solid earnings. The reports cheered investors looking for good news since a summer sell-off roiled the markets amid worries about the Chinese economy and the possibility of a Federal Reserve rate increase. The optimism may be short-lived, though...."
"Stock officials told big drop may reoccur" by Beth Healy Globe Staff October 15, 2015
Stock exchange executives warned an advisory panel of the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday that events like the 1,100-point stock drop on Aug. 24 could happen again.
It's not a question of if but when.
“Do I call it an anomaly? Yes. Could it happen again? Absolutely,’’ said Chris Concannon, chief executive of BATS Global Markets, a trading platform that is now No. 2 in volume after the New York Stock Exchange.
Concannon and other industry specialists spoke at a public meeting the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee held on exchange-traded funds and the widespread pricing problems they had on Aug. 24.
On that day, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged nearly 1,100 points in minutes, causing numerous stocks and ETFs to halt trading temporarily. In hundreds of cases, when the ETFs reopened, their prices rose and fell chaotically.
There were 1,279 halts in total that day, Concannon said. ETFs accounted for a disproportionate 1,058 of those.
Exchange-traded funds track an index but trade like a stock. Similar to index mutual funds, they own a basket of stocks, bonds, or other securities. But they are priced throughout the day, while mutual funds are priced only at the end of the day.
See: ETF Entree
The $2 trillion industry has drawn closer scrutiny since summer from the SEC, which is now investigating what happened on Aug. 24 and the impact on ETFs. Chairwoman Mary Jo White said Thursday the agency is “paying close attention to pricing issues” in exchange-traded products.
Oh, what a relief!
She also said the agency’s rule responsible for trading halts is still being tested and could change.
ETFs made up 37 percent of the market’s trading volume on Aug. 24. The proliferation of new ETFs since the financial crisis has given these investments an enormous footprint, according to Eric W. Noll, chief executive of Convergex Group, a New York brokerage, in a separate session before the SEC panel Thursday.
It's all fraud wealth, folks. Numbers on a piece of paper, nothing more. That is upon what your very well-being and exi$tence is hinged.
They have become “the determiner of what happens in the marketplace on a daily basis,’’ Noll said. While not criticizing ETFs, Noll noted that the vast majority of investment money in the market is chasing after the top 100 stocks and the ETFs that own them.
Concannon was quick to defend ETFs, a large source of business for his exchange and the NYSE. He told the advisory panel that on Aug. 24, “ETFs were not the problem. Our markets failed ETFs.”
Didn't Dodd-Frank take care of all that?
Many things went wrong, according to Concannon and Brendon Weiss, co-head of government affairs at the New York Stock Exchange’s parent company. One fix they agreed on: The exchanges should collaborate on a single way to resume trading ETFs after halts.
Samara Cohen, a managing director at Wall Street’s BlackRock Inc., the largest ETF seller, said the resumption of trading “is really the problem we are trying to solve.”
But there were other issues too, panelists said. For one, market makers who fill buy and sell orders for investors stepped away when trading in various ETFs was halted and prices became hard to determine. Weiss, of the NYSE, said market makers may need incentives to stay active at volatile times.
Keep those Fed printing pre$$es going!
For the foreseeable future, Weiss said, “We could see more days like the 24th potentially occurring.”
Responding to questions from the panel, executives acknowledged that ETF trading problems were hardest on individual investors. More sophisticated investors “have backed away from trading in the first half hour of the market open,’’ when ETFs are most volatile, Weiss said.
It's called a rigged market, and that is how the "sophisticated inve$tors?" -- the Wall Street bank looters -- scheme you!
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Related: Millennial-geared financial adviser expanding nationwide
You are a Grownup now.
