July 10, 2009 ndash; Another mixed week of economic data, which left Wall Street in doubt about whether the economy is going to rebound any time soon. Fridayrsquo;s downtick in consumer sentiment was a stark reminder that Main Street is not doing well and isnrsquo;t particularly optimistic. middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Consumer Sentiment ndash; The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment (preliminary) index decreased to 64.6, the lowest level since March, from 70.8 in June. The forecast was for a reading of 70. With respect to Americanrsquo;s perceptions about their financial situation, and whether it is a good time to buy big-ticket items, the reading fell to 70.4 from 73.2. The index of consumer expectations for six months from now fell to 60.9, the biggest drop since October, from 69.2. middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; US Import and Export Price Indexes - The U.S. Import Price Index rose 3.2 percent in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of ...

Delinquencies on home equity lines of credit rose to 3.52% in the first quarter from 3.03% in the fourth quarter according to a report issued this week by the American Bankers Association. Also, delinquent credit card accounts were 6.60% of overall card balances, up from 5.52% in the fourth quarter. Both measures are records. Banks are responding by making fewer loans and issuing fewer credit cards. In the first four months of 2009, banks issued 9.8 million new cards, a drop of 38% from the year before. The key reason behind this is rising unemployment, which has gotten much worse in the second quarter than the first, so look for the numbers to continue to rise. Home equity loans are particularly problematic since almost all those loans have mortgages associated with them that are senior to the home equity lines. This means that when they go bad, ...

Idiocracy in action: Congress blocks bill to audit the Fed… No surprise: American loan defaults hit record… Surprise: Could Canadians be next? China takes another “World’s No. 1” from U.S. … Dan Denning, Byron King on recent triumph and tragedy in the oil patch…

Great news: The Federal Reserve will retain its right to operate in secrecy.

“Thank God for Rule 16!”

Late yesterday, the Senate majority put the kibosh on a last-hour provision in the 2010 spending bill that would audit the Fed. Not because it’s a bad idea… but because of the arcane Rule 16, which prohibits policy legislation from being added to spending bills. (The kind of “rule” that’s only evoked when the majority gets uncomfortable.)

“The Federal Reserve will create and disburse trillions of dollars in response to our current financial crisis,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, who spearheaded

...

The economy continued to show signs of recovery from the worst recession in 60 years as the total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits dropped for the first time since January, the Labor Department reported yesterday (Thursday).

The good news came in spite of a small jump in initial applications for state unemployment insurance, which rose by a more-than-expected 3,000 to 608,000 in the week ended June 13. Analysts polled byReuters were expecting claims to dip to 600,000 from a previously reported 601,000.

But analysts were largely focused on a trend in continuing claims, which tracks jobless workers who stayed on government benefit rolls.

Those claims plunged by 148,000 to a smaller-than-anticipated 6.69 million in the week ended June 6, the latest week for which data was available. That is the lowest number since May 9, and the largest one-week drop since November 2001, Reuters reported.

And in another sign the labor

...

[Editor’s Note: Is it a new bull market, or just a bear-market rally that’s going to separate investors from the last of their cash? For the shrewdest investors, it may not matter. A new offerfrom Money Morning is a two-way win for investors: Noted commentator Peter D. Schiff’s new book – “Little Book of Bull Moves in a Bear Market” – shows investors how to profit no matter which way the market moves, while our monthly newsletter, The Money Map Report, provides ongoing analysis of the global financial markets and some of the best profit plays you’ll find anywhere – including such markets as Taiwan and China. To find out how to get both, check out our newest offer.

To read a related story on how the long-term dismantling of U.S. banking regulations set the stage for the …

“The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government”, says Simon Johnson, a chief economist with the International Monetary Fund in 2007 and 2008. In an article entitled “The Quiet Coup” in the May, 2009 issue of the Atlantic magazine he (with James Kwak) goes on to say that “if the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform and if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time”.

America is in financial crisis but instead of the financial oligarchy being broken up to permit essential reform they are continuing to use their influence to prevent precisely the sorts of reforms that are …

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - February 16, 2009 - Zacks.com releases the list of companies likely to issue earnings surprises. This week's list includes Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), Tesoro Corporation (TSO), Apache Corporation (APA) and Cimarex Energy Co. (XEC). To see more earnings analysis, visit http://at.zacks.com/?id=3207.

Every day, Zacks.com makes 4 stock picks available, free of charge. To see them, go to http://at.zacks.com/?id=3567.

The Week's Events

Earnings season will shift to the retailers with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) releasing results on Tuesday morning. Nearly 1 out of every 10 reports will come from the retail sector.

We have confirmed earnings announcements from 277 companies, including 30 S&P 500 members. WMT and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) will represent the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DJI).

Minutes from the January Fed

...

Mortgage rates plunge to record lows… but are they at the bottom?… Overlooked details from Friday’s jobs news… troubling signs from retail and energy sectors… Rob Parenteau charts a different way to view the S&P… could the worst be over?… Russia/Ukraine gas conflict ends… who “won” the latest resource skirmish… Bill Gross’ sad-but-true guide to 2009… how to invest amid rife market manipulation.

If you’ve got money, credit and patience, today is your cheapest opportunity buy or refinance a house in at least 38 years.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage carries a rate of 5.01% this morning, the lowest rate of its kind since at least 1971, when Freddie Mac started keeping track. Since the peak of the credit crisis in late October, the 30-year mortgage has plunged almost 1½ percentage points, even past its 5.8% average this time last

...

By relaxing the US financial system’s mark-to-market accounting standards, the government is effectively deactivating the financial “early warning system” that let investors know that a global credit crisis was brewing, says Jennifer Yousfi in Money Morning.

By relaxing the U.S. financial system’s mark-to-market accounting standards, the U.S. government is effectively deactivating the financial “early warning system” that let investors know that a global credit crisis was brewing – and kept it from turning into a total global meltdown, professional investors warn. As part of the just-passed U.S. bailout bill, the government has reiterated the Securities and Exchange Commission’s authority to relax the mark-to-market standards. If the SEC actually follows through on that directive, many professional investors worry that we won’t catch on to the next leg of the ongoing credit crisis until it’s way too late. While politicians point to mark-to-market rules as the cause of the billions in write-downs and losses suffered by financial firms in recent quarters, in fact, it was mark-to-market accounting that first exposed the underlying problems in the complex markets for ...