I Have No Idea What this is But Somebody Does
I have seen the videos and the pictures of the "mysterious" object that was in the air of the coast of southern California. I don't know what it is to be 100% honest, but I am leaning towards it not being a simple contrail from an airplane.
Great write up here:
NORAD: Er, we’re still not sure what the mystery missile is; Update: Looks like a plane, say defense analysts
Now maybe I am mistaken but I am pretty sure we have dedicated launch surveillance satellites in the sky that look for a missile launch 24 hours a day 7 days a week. There should not be this kind of confusion as to what is going on. This did make the Nightly News and that is not good.
Here is what I mean for detection capabilities:
General Ballistic Missile Defense
PAVE PAWS Radar System
Just check them and then we will know if it was a plane or what.
Rising Costs Hit Bottom Line
The Reformed Broker covers some stories about rising input prices having an effect on bottom lines. While prices has been on the uptrend since summer, only now is that making it's way into reports. From TRB:
The Cow in the Coal Mine
How do dairy and packaged foods companies like Endless Zero interest rates and the dollar/commodity one-way seesaw? Well, they do not like it at all judging by their big earnings misses. Commodity costs are now eating up their profits....
...My pal Barbarian Capital notes that the company saw its EBIT margin drop by 40% in Q3 vs. Q3 last year: 3% vs. 5%. As someone who knows this industry cold, it's not encouraging to hear him say "Thanks for playing and welcome to QE2 wonderland."
"And That's the Bottom Line, Cuz Stone Cold Said So!"
Silver Isolated for Higher Margin Requirement
As we all know speculation in stocks and houses = AWESOME and speculation in gold and silver = Not Funny. The dichotomy is a puzzler because I am sure metal holders will feel more wealthy and spend their money in the economy should prices rise so what is the difference? I think you know the difference. Via Zero Hedge:
When JPM/HSBC Don't Like The Results, The CME Just Changes The Rules: Full Revised Silver Margin Schedule
Hypocrisy, hallowed be thy name.
Great Post for Right Now
Spotted a great write up over at Fund My Mutual Fund. Small excerpt:
Thrilled with This Morning's Sale of Silver Wheaton (SLW), Wish I had Shorted
Trader Mark made a great exit on a stock going bananas this morning. What caught my eye:
Back to SLW - it's fast approaching that gap at $30, but the whole commodity complex to be is one big Silver Wheaton. When these trades reverse this market is going to enjoy very ugly skid marks... all shorts have been eviscerated (hence they cannot provide support by 'short covering' i.e. buying on the next downturn) & huge air pockets exist on countless charts. I can only find one blogger out of about 40-50 blogs I scanned this weekend (ex daytrader types) who is actively shorting this market on the intermediate term...Spot on.
The farther we go up, in non stop fashion, the higher the risk for people who are buying with no thought process and little risk control. Maybe the selloff will be from here... or S&P1300 or 1800 or 2500; I don't know because this type of market is foreign to me - but once again we live in an artificial atmosphere, no different from NASDAQ 99 and housing 2006. The only question is, are these days more like April 1999 or February 2000. I wonder how many Fed induced wealth destruction cycles we need to go through before anyone not named Ron Paul points at the Fed.
Hubble Capture
An edge-on look at the Galaxy NGC 4452:
Great stuff.
Have a good night.
two things -
ReplyDelete1)I own Kinross Canadian warrants. I sent my buddy an email today that said "Why the FK don't I own SLW warrants?" as I'd just found out they existed. the stock went into a freefall immediately! Random story. anyway.
2) the CME is so f'n stupid - because they have fixed margin requirements. Ie, why on earth would you have a margin requirement that doesn't correspond directly (ie, a percentage!) with the contract price? Now, they're changing the margin requirements, which makes PERFECT sense, because the price of SLV has skyrocketed, and it gives ammo to the conspiracy theorists.
Intelligent commentators will notice that the current margin on SLV as a % of the price is lower than it was 6 months ago.. LOWER... think about that! (but don't try to argue with the ZH zealots about it!)
KD,
ReplyDeleteI guess it makes sense to raise margin when the price has moved so far, especially if there is data to suggest plenty of margin operation. Why not raise it on ll things, most things have been on a tear since the summer. I will have to check, maybe they have. made this happen for other things. I still think this was a purposeful move, but I am a tin foil hat type by nature!
Don't get me started, when I sold off my last paper silver position at my target I thought I was so freaking smart. At $22.84. Brilliant!