Top California high school class student whose family originally came from India is suing saying students of Obama’s and Hispanic race are getting pre

U.S. Supreme Court case to consider challenging racist preferences for blacks and Hispanics in college admissions. A top California high school class student whose family originally came from India is suing saying students of Obama’s and Hispanic race are getting preferential treatment at Harvard and Princeton. Farmers of Obama’s race got $billions based on Obama’s executive orders thus by-passed court scrutiny after Obama was elected. Obama is using executive orders to favor people of his race in housing, jobs, and education. Like Jews in the first half of the 20th century, who faced quotas at Harvard, Princeton, and other Ivy League schools, Asian-Americans and Caucasians, must meet a higher standard than other applicants based on measures such as test scores and high school grades, according to several academic studies.

Planned Parenthood received pledges of $400,000 from 6,000 donors as of 2 p.m. yesterday. Three large donors also surfaced: The Amy and Lee Fikes’ Foundation, run by the head of closely-held Bonanza Oil Co. in Dallas, pledged $250,000; New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he’ll match the next $250,000 given and Credo, a mobile-phone company, promised $200,000.

The Obama administration plans to surrender five Afghan Taliban prisoners from U.S. military detention to curry Taliban support, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said.

World markets
Economists including Holger Schmieding of Berenberg Bank in London say that Greece will still be saddled with too much debt, too little growth and too large a budget hole to do without even more bailouts if they remain on the euro. Forcing Greek bondholders is telling bondholders to start dumping Portugal’s and Italy’s bonds before they get 70% hair cuts (70% defaults). Portugal’s bond-market rout suggests investors are concerned about a Greek-style reduction in debt repayments.

MALEV, the state-owned Hungarian airline founded in 1946, ceased flying after the government withdrew support.

Panasonic Corp. almost doubled its annual loss forecast to a record 780 billion yen ($10 billion).


Shilling said that China’s economy is headed for a ‘hard landing’ this year.

Sharp, Japan’s largest maker of LCD panels, forecast its worst annual loss since its founding a century ago, with its president saying exporting is “nearly impossible” with the current demand.

Germany’s largest bank, Deutsche Bank AG, said fourth-quarter profit fell 76 percent as Europe’s debt crisis cut trading and the company wrote down losses.

The USA and the Free-World stock markets posted their highest gains in over 15 years while the highest proportion of European companies on record are missing profit estimates. “I am not optimistic about Hong Kong’s export performance in the first half of this year,” John Tsang said today. “If exports of goods were to plunge in the first quarter, the overall economy might take a downturn in that quarter.” The euro weakened versus the yen and the dollar as Greece struggled to reach an agreement with bondholders on cutting the nation’s debt burden, stoking concern Europe’s crisis will deepen.

Singapore Airlines’ profit tumbled 53% on rising competition and costs.

The U.S. government considers a Japan plan to allow negative interest rates at government debt auctions.

French consumer spending fell 0.7 percent from November in December as surging joblessness and concern about looming tax increases prompted households to cut back spending. Before the 1970’s transaction costs helped prevent stock market flash crashes.

France is in favor of a financial transaction tax. We think it will happen.

The Juan was poised for its worst monthly loss in 18 years earlier before rallying after Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said progress had been made in talks with creditors.

The World Bank cut its forecast for global growth including China, by the most in three years.

We expect the markets will all form head-and-shoulder sell signals after breaking their 200 DMA. World trade “Bulk Shipments” have collapsed to the lowest world bulk trade level that existed since Obama declared the USA was in a depression in one of his 2007-2008 campaign speeches. Asian markets (especially China) are failing to break out some on the second and third times at resistance levels. China’s stocks could fall 50% from here if Obama’s announced “Great Depression” spreads there too.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ta?s=000001.SS&t=2y&l=on&z=l&q=l&p=e200%2Ce100&a=&c=

Germany broke through the resistance levels: Choose 2 or 5 years
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=%5EGDAXI+Interactive#chart2:symbol=^gdaxi;range=2y;indicator=ema(200,100)+volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on

The Swiss broke through the resistance levels. Choose 2 or 5 years http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=%5ESSMI+Interactive#chart1:symbol=^ssmi;range=2y;indicator=ema(200,100)+volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

Emerging markets show strength. Brazil broke through
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=^BVSP+Interactive#chart1:symbol=^bvsp;range=2y;indicator=ema(100,200)+volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

American Economy
Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke said the central bank would do everything it can to prevent Europe's financial woes from damaging the U.S. economy.

Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX), the second-biggest cardiac-device maker, fell 4% after fourth-quarter earnings plummeted 55 percent.

Cigna Corp. (CI), the U.S. health insurer that acquired Medicare managed-care provider Healthspring Inc., reported fourth-quarter earnings below estimates and forecast growth below estimates.

AMR to cut 13000 jobs.

This week
Personal Income Dec 0.5% up from 0.1% A 6% per year increase (big bonuses?)
Personal Spending Dec 0.0% down from 0.1% No increase last Xmas NG
AM PCE Prices - Core Dec 0.2% up from 0.1% 2.4% core inflation rate OK
Employment Cost Index Q4 0.4% up from 0.3% Higher production costs NG
Case-Shiller 20-city Index Nov -3.7% dropping faster than October’s -3.4% NG
Chicago ProductionMI Jan 60.2 dropped from 62.5 production declined NG
Consumer Confidence Jan 61.1 a big drop from 64.5 not good
MBA Mortgage Index 01/28 -2.9% declines yet again -5.0% terrible
ADP Employment Change Jan 170K down from 325K Terrible
ISM Index Jan 54.1 up from 53.9 improved
Construction Spending Dec 1.5% up from 1.2% still depressed
Crude Inventories 01/28 4.175M up from 3.558M declining oil consumption

Yesterday
Challenger Job Cuts is a report, released monthly, that provides information on the number of announced corporate layoffs. Jan +38.9% up from+30.6% layoffs up is not good
Initial Claims 01/28 367K down from 377K good
Continuing Claims 01/21 3437K down 3554K good
Productivity-Prel Q4 0.7down from 2.3% Terrible
Unit Labor Costs Q4 1.2% increased -2.5% Bad

Today
Feb 3 8:30 AM Nonfarm Payrolls Jan
Feb 3 8:30 AM Nonfarm Private Payrolls Jan
Feb 3 8:30 AM Unemployment Rate Jan
Feb 3 8:30 AM Hourly Earnings Jan
Feb 3 8:30 AM Average Workweek Jan
Feb 3 10:00 AM Factory Orders Dec
Feb 3 10:00 AM ISM Services Jan

Market outlook February 3, 2012

Market looks ready to peak.

The VIX indicates extreme complacency now. A sharp computer sell-off could end the current rally any time now and trigger stop-losses with huge losses.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5EVIX&t=2y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=

Bulk shipments continue to fall. It is now lower than any time since Obama took office, even lower the Obama lows of 2008. It collapsed to the lowest world bulk trade level that existed since Obama started the Obama Great Depression in one of his 2007-2008 campaign speeches to defeat his opponent. It is now less than 5% of the international trade that existed just before Obama was elected. It has been a leading economic indicator for many years while it went up. In the past, a precipitous decline in this index, which measures the cost of shipping bulk freight like grains, coal, and metal around the world, would have set off alarms around the financial world because it implies supply exceeds demand and something has to give.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=BDIY:IND

Stock market update:
Asian Stock markets were up slightly last night. China up 0.8%, Hong Kong up 0.1%, India up 1%, and Japan down -0.5%

European markets are up slightly today in a range 0.1% to +0.7% half way through their day. Italy is an outlier today, up 2.9% at the moment.

American market futures are flat about +0.2% in after hour trading at 8:00 AM EST.

We estimate the peak will be soon in a head-and-shoulders sell signal.