Chairman of the US Senate Banking Committee, Christopher Dodd porpose a new financial overhaul bill before the Congress. The bill includes the establishement of a financial regulatory administration that will take away the supervision authority of Federal Reserve and FDIC, and limit the FED’s lending. “The Federal Reserve will focus on monetary policy without being distracted by [...]

U.S. stocks surged Monday, with the Dow Jones industrial average storming to its highest level in more than 13 months as finance ministers from the Group of 20 industrialized nations pledged to continue economic stimulus measures to help the global economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average, which was well supported by strength in its all but one component, rose 203 points, or 2.0%, to a 13-month high of 10,227.  The S&P500 climbed 2.2% for its sixth straight session gain to 1093 and the tech-heavy NASDAQ gained 2.0% to close at 2154.  The market’s measure of volatility, the CBOE Vix, plunged 4.3% to 23.15.

All ten S&P500 industry groups ended in the green, led by gains in basic material shares (+3.5%) and financials (+3.5%).  Crude prices added $2.00 to close at $79.43 even as Hurricane Ida was downgraded to a tropical storm.  Gold prices went past the $1100 level, up

...

This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Mohamed El-Erian and Ramin Toloui (Financial Times): How to fill the gaps left by dollar decline, November 5, 2009. We should expect to see more discussion in the next few years on new types of reserve assets.

• James West (GoldSeek): Gold price is no bubble, November 4, 2009. The price performance of gold recently has all sorts of armchair economists waxing philosophical on the idea that this is the advent of a price “bubble”. While certainly everyone has and is entitled to their opinion, there are other features of humanity that we all possess, and much like many opinions, are best obscured from view. Declaring that gold is in a “bubble” demonstrates complete ignorance of or disregard for

...

“Words from the Wise” this week comes to you in a shortened format as I do not have access to my normal research resources while on the road in Europe (also see my post “Gone A.W.O.L. - to Slovenia and Switzerland“). Although very little commentary is provided, a full dose of excerpts from interesting news items and quotes from market commentators is included.

While investors’ hopes of an economic recovery might have got ahead of reality, the cartoonists continually reminded us of worrisome issues …

Source: Signe Wilkinson, Washington Post,  June 18, 2009.

The past week’s performance of the major asset classes is summarized by the chart below - a mixed bag so to speak.

Source: StockCharts.com

A summary of

...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - June 17, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Illinois Tool Works (ITW), Honeywell (HON), Ingersoll Rand (IR), American International Group (AIG) and Citigroup (C).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday's Analyst Blog:

Slack in the Industrials System

If one digs deeper and looks at Capacity Utilization (CU) by stage of production, it fell at all three levels. There is the least slack in the system at the Crude level at 77.7%, but it was down from 78.5% in

...

Clearly with the financial meltdown experienced during the past year, too little regulation is a bad thing. However, the same could be said of too much regulation.Some concerns have been raised after President Obama stated that new rules will try to eliminate the kind of excessive risk-taking by financial institutions that proved "very dangerous to the American people." In the President's speech tomorrow, he will propose that the Federal Reserve take on the mantle of the US financial "Super Cop."Currently the Fed is the country's central bank. However, if the Fed's focus was expanded to also supervise large financial institutions considered "too big to fail" (ala American International Group [AIG) in order to prevent another financial meltdown, some assert that it might end up turning the Federal Reserve into an all-powerful entity that could in all eventuality slow down a major overhaul of banking ...

The Obama administration yesterday (Wednesday) continued its assault on highly paid Wall Street executives, announcing plans to appoint a “pay czar” to oversee compensation at financial firms receiving Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds.

The government also will create a new program to give shareholders at nonparticipating firms a vote on executive pay packages.

President Barack Obama has targeted executive pay practices as part of a larger effort to overhaul regulations and prevent a repeat of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Obama will unveil a “series of specific proposals” on June 17 designed to streamline and reorganize regulations, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told Bloomberg News.

The administration originally proposed regulations in early February to put a $500,000 per year lid on the salaries of executives at firms that tapped into the government’s $700 billion TARP rescue fund. The only exceptions would be in the form of restricted

...

The Obama administration yesterday (Wednesday) continued its assault on highly paid Wall Street executives, announcing plans to appoint a “pay czar” to oversee compensation at financial firms receiving Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds.

The government also will create a new program to give shareholders at nonparticipating firms a vote on executive pay packages.

President Barack Obama has targeted executive pay practices as part of a larger effort to overhaul regulations and prevent a repeat of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Obama will unveil a “series of specific proposals” on June 17 designed to streamline and reorganize regulations, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told Bloomberg News.

The administration originally proposed regulations in early February to put a $500,000 per year lid on the salaries of executives at firms that tapped into the government’s $700 billion TARP rescue fund. The only exceptions would be in the form of restricted

...

Fed’s Beige Book Shows Downturn Slowing; Home Depot Says Worst Is Over; ReFi Apps Slowest Since November; Senate Mulls Bigger Home Loan Tax Credit; U.S. Becomes Largest Shareholder in Citi; Rising Energy Costs Could Stunt Global Recovery; Top Economist Considering Senate Run

The U.S. economic downturn may be slowing, but conditions remained weak in almost half of its regions, the Federal Reserve reported in its Beige Book business survey. “Contacts from several districts said that their expectations have improved, though they do not see a substantial increase in economic activity through the end of the year,” the central bank said in the report. But the words “stable” or “stabilize” appeared in some form more than 60 times in yesterday’s (Wednesday’s) report,according toBloomberg. Many district banks reported that homebuilding “appeared to have stabilized at very low levels,” and some regions said “manufacturing employment levels may soon stabilize.” The Fed report ...

Fed’s Beige Book Shows Downturn Slowing; Home Depot Says Worst Is Over; ReFi Apps Slowest Since November; Senate Mulls Bigger Home Loan Tax Credit; U.S. Becomes Largest Shareholder in Citi; Rising Energy Costs Could Stunt Global Recovery; Top Economist Considering Senate Run

The U.S. economic downturn may be slowing, but conditions remained weak in almost half of its regions, the Federal Reserve reported in its Beige Book business survey. “Contacts from several districts said that their expectations have improved, though they do not see a substantial increase in economic activity through the end of the year,” the central bank said in the report. But the words “stable” or “stabilize” appeared in some form more than 60 times in yesterday’s (Wednesday’s) report,according toBloomberg. Many district banks reported that homebuilding “appeared to have stabilized at very low levels,” and some regions said “manufacturing employment levels may soon stabilize.” The Fed report ...