10 Countries that will survive the credit meltdown of next year.

10.Switzerland – Probability of Default 3.9%
9. Belgium – 3.8%
8.Australia – 3.2%
7. USA – 2.9%
6.Denmark – 2.6%
5.Netherlands – 2.5%
4.France – 2.2%
3.Finland – 2.1%
2.Germany – 1.9%
………………
1.Norway – with cumulative probability of Default = 1.4%…. The Statistics Norway announced that the trade surplus stood at NOK 29.8 billion in November, down from NOK 38.29 billion surplus recorded a [...]

Home Sales Up in November

Existing home sales were up 7.4% in November and the mortgage rates have risen. Current sales are at the highest level since Feb 2007. Some economists claim that this rise was expected due to the first time buyers looking to benefit from the tax credit. Not surprising NAR (National Association of Realtors) reported that 51% [...]

FINRA Alert

FINRA has issued Alert to warn the public about scam that promises investors compensation from ARS which are auction rate securities, in exchange for personal information.  Please see real life example of what the email sent to investors looks like.
More information here.

Lawmakers looking to extend deadline

Last month we saw a record long extension of federally paid benefits. Both the House and Senate are looking to push this same deadline to 2011, or  we would see 1Million jobless people loose their benefits beginning January and another 3Milion as reported by the National Employment Law Project will stop receiving checks by March. [...]

Disappointing Retail Sales

November had lower than expected sales numbers. According to ICSC report “These data suggested that the holiday season got off to a weak start in November for retailers–though the tail-end of the month saw relatively strong sales for electronics and online spending, but that seemed to be at the expense of some in-store performance and [...]

More jobs cut

ADP reported that job cuts were more than estimated in November. Last month roughly 169,000 jobs were eliminated as supposed to the 150,000 expected. Reports show that the job market will continue to worsen in the upcoming 2010 even as the economic conditions are improving. 
 
Read more here.

Improper Soft Dollar Payments

FINRA has fined Terra Nova Financial $400,000 for making over $1Million in improper soft dollar payments to five hedge fund managers. The charges were also due to poor supervision and failing to retain its business-related electronic instant messages.
 
“Broker-dealers that collect soft dollars and make payments for their hedge fund clients must possess and implement adequate [...]

$11 Billion Shortfall

This is what AIG may face. The shortfall is in insurance reserves, which would property-casualty claims. “Todd Bault said that AIG may have cut back on its use of reinsurance and become too “aggressive” in pricing workers’ compensation and professional liability policies.” Price target is cut down from $20 to $12.
 
Read more here.

Shop, Shop, Shop until you drop

Consumer confidence jumped in November 0.8% since October, from 48.7 to 49.5. Not a surprise since Holiday Season is right around the corner, as well as Black Friday.  The Expectation Index increased to 68.5 from 67.  “The Consumer Confidence Survey® is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households. The monthly survey is conducted [...]

Stocks up

Since March’s lows stocks have climbed close to 65% and significantly surpassed fair values. The chart suggests that stocks have gotten fairly ahead of themselves especially considering the economic struggle. Many still argue whether the enormous stimulus and near zero interest rates will lead to “V-shaped” or more of a “U-Shaped” recovery. One thing is [...]

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