G.O.O.D

Via FT.com / Markets

Wall Street stocks fell in early trading on Wednesday after new data reinforced impressions that the broader US economy faces the prospects of a significant downturn.

Durable goods orders in February unexpectedly fell 1.7 per cent - and by 2.6 per cent excluding volatile orders for transport equipment - according to the Commerce Department.Wall Street shrugs off weak economic data - Mar-25
Financials pace Asian market gains - Mar-25

That follows a 4.7 per cent decline in January and suggests that businesses are significantly cutting back on equipment purchases as fears of a recession increase.

John Ryding, chief US economist at Bear Stearns, said: “This weaker than expected report points to declining capital spending in the first quarter, falling orders, and a significant pickup in inventories in relation to sales. This is another report that has a strong recessionary feel about it.”

Technorati Tags: economics, recession, depression

Full Story at Reuters

The earnings outlooks for the four largest U.S. banks have been slashed by Oppenheimer & Co analyst Meredith Whitney, who said there is “no clear end in sight” to downward pressure on the sector’s profits.

In a report late Tuesday, Whitney said Citigroup Inc (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the largest U.S. bank by assets, might lose $1.15 per share in the first quarter, four times her prior forecast for a 28 cents per share loss. She expects the bank to lose 15 cents per share in 2008, after earlier seeing profit of 75 cents per share.

Whitney in October correctly predicted that Citigroup would cut its dividend and raise $30 billion of capital.

Technorati Tags: durable goods, economics, recession, depression

Read the Full Article at Bloomberg.com

Orders for U.S. durable goods unexpectedly fell in February, led by the biggest slump ever in demand for machinery that indicates companies are becoming more reluctant to invest as the economy heads into a recession.

The 1.7 percent drop followed a 4.7 percent decrease in the prior month, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Excluding orders for transportation equipment, which tend to be volatile, bookings fell 2.6 percent, the most since January 2007.

Businesses are cutting back on equipment purchases as the biggest housing downturn in a quarter century hurts sales, and rising fuel costs erode profit. Improving demand from overseas is the only thing preventing manufacturing from declining even more.

Technorati Tags: durable goods, economics, recession, depression

Via Business Week

Costlier corn flakes, pricier pizzas and painful pump fill-ups share more than top billing among consumers’ worries.

They’re all riding a roller coaster of commodity market prices, where peaks are unusually high. Like oil futures, agricultural futures have experienced dramatic highs and lows in recent months as Wall Street investors flock to commodities for protection from the falling dollar and slumping stocks.

But the ups and downs in futures prices are giving grain sellers and farmers financial vertigo. Instead of finding predictable prices for wheat, corn and other crops in futures markets, they’re getting daily price jolts and no refuge from uncertainty.

That has prompted government regulators to examine what forces, if any, have thrown the markets off balance.

Technorati Tags: famine, wheat, economics, recession

It is not surprising, although rather sad and pathetic, to see that the average lacks basic financial wisdom, and has to resort to dealing with vultures such as these cash advance businesses.

When people are taught to consume they naturally are not taught to save money, live within their means, balance their accounts, and generally be good stewards, and so they end up in situations like the following. Blind consumerism and stewardship are polar opposites. I can imagine at some point that these cash advance places will be stormed by angry customers or firebombed in the night, but let’s hope that things never get that bad.

Via Reuters

As hundreds of thousands of American home owners fall behind on their mortgage payments, more people are turning to short-term loans with sky-high interest rates just to get by.While hard figures are hard to come by, evidence from nonprofit credit and mortgage counselors suggests that the number of people using these so-called “pay day loans” is growing as the U.S. housing crisis deepens, a negative sign for economic recovery.

“We’re hearing from around the country that many folks are buried deep in pay day loan debts as well as struggling with their mortgage payments,” said Uriah King, a policy associate at the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL).