[AP] – A look at Nasdaq 10 most-active stocks at 1 p.m.: Cirrus Logic Inc. fell 3.9 percent to $18.28 with 18,796,900 shares traded.
Stocks Slide Amid Profit Taking; AIG Jumps
September - 30 - 2010
[at CNBC] – Stocks declined Thursday as encouraging reports increased positive sentiment, but investors still chose to take profits going out of a strong quarter and the best September since 1939.
Sector Snap: Analyst sees nat gas consolidation
September - 30 - 2010
[AP] – Consolidation within the shale gas industry will likely ramp up in the U.S., a Wood Mackenzie analyst said Thursday. The emergence of shale gas as a dependable, long-term source of natural gas has put pressure on the industry to re-evaluate their strategic positions, analyst Luke Parker said in a report.
War Breaks Out in the Currency Markets
September - 30 - 2010
Graham Summers submits:
The first and most immediate item we need to note is the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) currency intervention.
Prior to this, all currency interventions were generally indirect (the Fed’s QE program) or not generally promoted (the Swiss banks numerous attempts to buy Euros and suppress the Franc).
Thursday Currencies Update: Europe, Australia and New Fed Governors
September - 30 - 2010
Marc Chandler submits:
The euro was already recovering from the bout of profit-taking in Asia that had seen a low recorded just ahead of support pegged at $1.3550, when news that the European banks borrowed considerably less from the ECB than anticipated and this sent the euro to $1.3675. Recall that 225 bln euro refi operations were maturing today.
These included the rump of the 12-month and 6-month facilities which no longer exist. The ECB offered 3-month funding yesterday. European banks took 104 bln, which was obviously on the light side, but dealers did not want to draw any hard and fast conclusions ahead of today’s 6-day funding made available today. However, banks only wanted to borrow 29.4 bln euros, a little more than half of what a Reuters poll suggested was likely. The combined 135 bln euro in the two days means that there is 90 bln euro less liquidity sloshing around the banking system. This will reinforce official perceptions that the banking system in general in Europe is healing and sufficiently so that it can continue to proceed with a further exit of some of its crisis measures.
Irish officials should be pleased. The government announcement about the cost of financial support was greeted with a strong bond rally that has seen the Irish 10-year yield fall 13 bp, fully recouping what it has lost in the past five sessions. On top of the 22.9 bln euros already provided to Anglo-Irish Bank, the government says another 6.4 bln euros is needed. On top of that, it under new stress conditions, an additional 5 bln may be needed and the sum is fairly close to the S&P warning that 35 bln euros may be needed.
FX Overview: Dollar on Its Back Foot
September - 30 - 2010
Marc Chandler submits:
The US dollar remains on its back foot. The main driver remains the contrast between the likely trajectory of Fed policy in contrast to the ECB.
Moody’s 1-notch downgrade of Spanish credit rating and news that Anglo-Irish needs another 6.4 bln euros on top of the 22.9 bln already injected, and possibly another 5 bln on top of that (in a stress case) has been shrugged off and the market has focused on news that European banks are relying less on ECB financing, strengthening the case for the exit that some officials indicated earlier this week.
Better than expected Nationwide house prices, month-end demand, no deterioration in the Q3 BOE credit condition assessment has seen sterling lead the charge today and briefly poked above the $1.59 level for the first time in seven weeks.
The dollar continues to edge toward the levels that were seen when the BOJ intervened. The low seen on Sept 14-15 was about JPY82.90 and today’s low thus far has been JPY83.16.
Disclosure: No positions
Falling dollar, rising market
September - 30 - 2010
John Dalt submits:
The end of the month looms and we wonder, what happens next? The market has risen almost 9% in September, one of the best one-month gains in years. Before you start high-fiving your wife tonight, you may be interested to know the UUP ETF lost 9.5% in the last month.
The USD dollar index started the month just over 83 and is closing the month at 79 for a 5% loss. Wow, at this rate it would take two years in a ten-year Treasury to make back ONE MONTH OF LOSS in purchasing power.
Biodel: Upside from Potential Linjeta Approval
September - 30 - 2010
Rockford Coscia submits:
I wanted to weigh in on the Biodel (BIOD) PDUFA for their rapid-acting insulin formulation, Linjeta. Many investigations have taken place here, here, and here (and my first article offered a play that has returned over 50% since July here), but I thought it would be worthwhile to provide a summary of what’s at stake.
Linjeta, to provide a little background, is a new formulation of rapid-acting prandial (meal-time) insulin. It is basically regular insulin that has been treated with EDTA to break the hexameric insulin into three dimers. The remaining dimers are treated with citric acid in order to break the dimers into monomers. What results is an insulin that goes to work faster (it doesn’t have to break down in the body from hexamer to monomer) and is supposed to more closely mimic the body’s natural insulin response.