GE and BAC print at 20 after earnings

Imelt, CEO of GE said, "We saw encouraging economic signs, including increases in airline passenger miles and freight loadings, declines in receivables delinquencies, and growth in local advertising markets."  GE was touted at 7, on the day the market bottomed. It's now 20. It's the revenge of buy and hold!

BAC CEO Moynihan, "With each day that passes, the 2010 story appears to be one of continuing credit recovery, and our results reflect a gradually improving economy." BAC is now at 20, after first being touted at $4.79 on the day after the market botton on March 10. It's now 20. It's the revenge of buy and hold!

When you have a  once in a generation bull market, he that holds, and doesn't fold is the one that has the most chips!

The three stocks that I have been touting the most since the bottom last March have been MGM, GE and BAC.

Huge franchises that couldn't be duplicated, that will be around forever; yet Wall Street was continually conning folks to believe otherwise.

And all you had to do, was buy and sit.

Midwest fireball in the sky

What's cookin' with the restaurant stocks?

So now the Russell has moved 24% off of the lows on February 9. The S&P has tacked on 15% since then. Wouldn't it of been nice to get in at that low? Oh that's right. It was advertised here, when David ""I wasn't really that bearish" Rosenberg said we were heading for a test of 900. I said we already had the test of the downside to the day on February 9:

How is that going to happen? We already had the retest yesterday of the downside! There is ZERO chance of Rosie's scenario happening! With all his rigor and intellectual superiority, he highlights this as the salient proof that the rockin rally from 666 was just a bear market bounce.

The next day, Rosie said we peaked:

Rosie says equity markets have peaked. We'll see. I say they have just finished their latest correction.

Rosie wrong, Manna right. Again. What else is new.

But one of the biggest beneficiaries of the rally  has been the restaurant stocks.

Let's take a look at CAKE, and check out where it was in December of 2008.

Let's take a look at EAT, and check out where it was in December of 2008. Why December of 2008? Because that's when I advertised them:

Lower gas prices means the consumer will still go out to eat. Cheesecake Factory (CAKE 7.37), which also owns Gran Luxe and Brinker International (EAT 8.53), which owns Chile's, Maggiano's, Romano's Macaroni Grill and On the Broder are both plays, with good charts that have made a rolling bottom, that now look like they getting ready to head higher. Not a play you need to overthink. Everyone knows these stories, and yet nobody is interested. But today I saw good buying in both. 

Now let's shorten the time horizons. Let's take a look at CBRL:

Remember how this number was panned by the street? I know a great guy that manages a Cracker Barrel store. What he did, was hire more people, whereas the policy of the store was to cut back on help and squeeze out profits that way. His monthly overage on the store profits alone last month was $7,000. More help, allowed more people to eat, and the pie increased. Not only that, but they did better because the competitors folded up shop.

Look at Chipolte Mexican Grill.

Look at Darden's.

Now what we know is that gas prices have gone up, and foreclosures are increasing; and that's the demographic of the folk that eat out.

But what's the demographic of the folks that are buying these stocks up here? Is it value investors or performance chasers?

When these stocks were down in the toilet, supposedly no-one was ever going out to eat again. How did that work?

Now supposedly, no-one is ever going to buy a new house again either.

Check out Beazer.

Check out Lennar.

Maybe some day, people will want to start saving for a new home again. That bet, may still be premature. Because who worries about a mortgage when you're not paying it?

And its easier to pay for a meal out, than a mortgage payment!

But I think the restaurant stocks are now in the hands of traders. So maybe they can goose them some more, but I think they need some digestion. The traders are starting to gorge themselves!

I'll sell them to the bears covering!

They're hungry enough!

And that picture?

That's the picture the bears got when they should of been covering!

And these pathetic bears, laid out so many shorts, that their covering gave us this rally!!

And once again, it was advertised, as usual, ahead of time!

Elin Woods looking to divorce Tiger

Elin supposedly, is now moving on without Tiger.

Anyone know any reasons why Tiger hung out with the porn stars?

Meredith Whitney revamps her website

And all those bearish research articles that were previously available?

Now they're firewalled.

Maybe now she'll come out and say she was "bullish!"

After all, on March 10, the day after the 666 bottom, Meredith came out proclaiming doom, with her report on credit card lines getting cut, pushing us into a bigger abyss.

How did that work?

A week after the 666 bottom, you had my take on Meredith here.

Which call made you money?

Mine or the maid's?

Site here.

Surprise! China GDP rises 11.9%; just like Reuters reported yesterday

Looks like China has adopted Goldman's techniques of a Chinese Wall. We had this story yesterday:

April 15 (Bloomberg) -- China’s gross domestic product may have climbed 11.9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, Reuters and China Business News reported, citing unidentified sources.

Consumer prices may have climbed 2.4 percent in March, the news agency and the Shanghai-based newspaper reported separately. The numbers will be released at 10 a.m. in Beijing today.

So China then prints 11.9%.

What a surprise!

But check out China's paper yesterday. And it's not Bo you need to check out.

China has so much clean water, that they only can sprinkle it at a water festival!

The Elliot Wave disciples are pimping their wares

Since the Dow is now up 6.66% YTD, in this 666 bull market, and since most everyone missed the bottom, but not here, because I had already named the 666 bull market beast on March 10, 2009!

So did anyone watch CNBC this morning? You get bearish at 950, and you still pimp the same story at 1211? And how about Prechter's super bearish call? How did the "wave" miss that?

Or maybe, why didn't this happen?

Q: What is it that people are unprepared for now?

Bob Prechter: The bear market will bring back nationalism, racial exclusion and perhaps even religious conflict. Thinking technically about events, that is, observing what they reveal about social psychology, prepares you for those changes, whereas trying to predict the future from the events themselves leads you to the opposite, and wrong, conclusion. It cannot be stressed enough, because life-or-death decisions can depend upon your assessment. Notice what marks the major bear market lows of just the last 200 years — the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War II. Those were buying opportunities.

That's Prechter, according to his "Idiot" Wave Bible. He also said that women will take over Wall Street:

Q: Women appear to be rising in dominance, as they did in the 1970s and 1940s. Although now it’s not Rosie the Riveter but Sally the Senator.

Bob Prechter: That’s because we’re approaching a bear market. In every field, women gain dominance in bear market periods, and depending upon how the top is formed, the trend can begin a bit before or a bit after the price peak registered on the New York Stock Exchange.

Oh really? So women have now taken over Wall Street? Lately, they haven't even been able to win a sexual harassment suit!

So that's the Elliot Wave Bible. But I gave you the Bible's version of the end of the world on March 15, 2009:
----------------------------------------
If people buy into the story, why won't they check it out? All those worried about apocalyptic prognostications, should then start looking around for the nephilim, and if they start seeing them, then they should start getting worried.

Genesis 6:2 and 4 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

What are the nephilim? That's when the fallen angels, (the sons of God in English-(the nephilim) bene elohim in Hebrew) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephilim) saw the hot women on earth (saw the daughters of men that were fair) married them (took them wives of all which they chose), had sex with them and had offspring (came in unto the daughters of men and they bare children to them) who were giants (they were giants in those days) and mighty (the same became mighty men of reknown).

Why would that matter? Because we need to look to Noah, to understand the apocalyptic future.

Matthew 24:37 But as were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming the Son of man.

So where are the nephilim? No nephilim, no end times!
-----------------------

Oh My! We have a new forecasting tool! And since no bears bought into that story, since they, of course, were drinking the Armageddon Kool-Aid, maybe they should check out the casket that the nephilim watchers have "found."

It's big enough for even the Elliot Wave Disciples!!

And soon, their bearish forecasts will be as scarce as the nephilim!

Who never showed their face!

The Feds finger Goldman director

Oh My! breaking news by the SEC. From the WSJ:

Wall Street's most powerful firm is being drawn into the government's sprawling insider-trading investigation.

Prosecutors are examining whether a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. board member gave inside information about the Wall Street firm to Galleon hedge-fund founder Raj Rajaratnam during the height of the financial crisis, people close to the situation told The Wall Street Journal...

As part of that focus, the government is examining whether Rajat Gupta—a current Goldman director, former head of McKinsey & Co. and close associate of Mr. Rajaratnam's—shared inside information about Goldman, the people close to the situation say.

No criminal charges or other allegations have been filed against Mr. Gupta, nor is there any indication that investigators are looking at his own stock trading. A spokesman for Mr. Gupta said, "Mr. Gupta is unaware of any examination of any such issue and has done nothing wrong."

Rajat Gupta was my Halloween surprise last year. I said he was as thick as thieves with Raj. You can read about it here.

And how about the side deal with Goldman and Raj, and the ex-Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia division, who decided to have their own inside party, with Goldman as the tipee?

What else is new. But really, it was common knowledge on the street that Galleon and Goldman operated, as JPMorgan would say, "in the grey areas of the market."

Let's see if the SEC can really bring it.

We'll see. They couldn't find anything amiss at AIG, even though $100 billion was thrown around like dollar bills at a strip joint; so now they'll bring a Goldman crony down?

And just like a strip joint, the SEC is selling a fantasy. But it's not wrapped up in a G-String, but G-men.

Getting Goldman!

What's the cost of that?

Regret shows her face on Wall Street!!!

How else are we going to get my 1440 meltup target by June?

But before I say that--does anybody notice the ingeniousness of the bankers who trumpet their hires, after they already have fired the people the new hires will replace? But instead of paying double the salary, they get someone else that is hungry, to do it at half the cost, and then they get a tax credit to boot for helping with the economy!!

Now 1252, is in the crosshairs of th ebulls--the pre-Lehman number, which like anything else oin this market, is just another target this is goiong to get stampeded through.

And you bears? Who weren't rigorous with your work? Who touted doom? Who thought that the market gods would allow them to cover their shorts, and in size? Who instead, believed their own siren song of bullsh*T?

I'm sorry my friends, but now the market is going to be as cruel to you, as the market was to the bears. The recovery back from 666 to 1211, was a slow grind, but the move from 666 to 840 was fast. What happens if we get that again?

Or wait--doesn't that, then, get us to 1440? The target trumpeted by only one person on wall Street; and the target trumpeted here on this blog?

It's going to happen, and its going to rip the heart out of the bears.

Who never had one with the bulls.

Payback's a b*tch!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Caterpillar screams again

Whoops--did you see that image before? Oh that's right. Back on March 16!

So Caterpillar is now at $61.

What happened to the bears?

And why wasn't Wall Street buying this name?

Apple was advertised on this blog at 80. How about Caterpillar? It was advertised here at 33 just a quarter ago. Ebay at 12 and tech stocks on March 16.

Why wasn't Wall Street involved in these names? How is it now, that they see something?

Because they just saw this?

How is it that after a 66% move in the NASDAQ names, does Wall Street now see something in this 666 bull market?

My next target on the S&P is 1440 by June. Look for it. But it would be nice if the bulls rest a bit first!

Because this bull isn't even pissed yet!

Wait until it looks like this!

Whoops--Did you see that image before? Oh that's right. Back on March 11!

As advertised!!

The Wall Street Theme Song

And the current version for bankers?

Bottle service!

Which still causes consternation amongst the women who want to date bankers!

"Clear and broad based improvement"

So said Jamie Dimon, the CEO of he nation's bank, which reported earnings of .74 versus expectations of .64.

( JPM also said that since they changed their overdraft policy on NSF checks, that it will cost the bank $500 million after tax)

Maybe the students from Syracuse will rethink their protests.

Oh my--the big bad bankers! Give me a break. Did those students really think that banking was honorable? Most banking, is just legalized theft, helped with asymmetrical information!

So then, what does it mean when even the bankers can sound optimistic?

So what does it mean when GOOG ratchets 15 points higher like it did yesterday?

Or ISRG tacks on 13 points and change?

Or that the small over-shorted spec names can double or triple? Doesn't it mean then, that anyone can recognize the recovery?

Except for the bears?

And then, don't stock prices soon have to reflect growth?

So we are at 11,000 on the Dow, and 1200 on the S&P. That means nothing. Stock prices at those levels only reflect less than fair prices. Those prices just reflect that we have come back from the brink.

Stock prices do not even reflect current growth expectations.

Look at Alcoa. Did their "miss" mean anything in the market? It only neant enough, for those dumb enough to sell in yesterday's first 15 minutes. Last time, AA missed you had selling for 15 days!

Now look at INTC. INTC had a great quarter. last time they reported a good number, they sold the stock off, as if all the good news was already reflected in that name. Will they do that now? Now there is no chance, because even Wall Street is not that stupid.

Look at Disney. Remember when this number reported? Jon Najarian was on the tube, telling people he was taking profits. At 30. Supposedly the good news was baked in that name also. So now its at 36. So much for that theory.

And three months from now, you'll look back at the averages, and say the same thing. What was I thinking? How could I be so stupid? Why did I think stock prices reflected the current good news?

The answer to that is easy. If you think the stock market, at these levels, already reflects, and already has discounted the recovery, then you would of said the same thing at S&P 840, 970, 1040, 1100, and 1150.

Even Bernanke can now say the financial problems are behind us!

So now, at Dow 11,000 and S&P 1200, we hear that Newsweek's cover means the news is priced in, blah blah blah, when in fact, we are now entering the phase where the market gets more exciting, because it will even allow the public to make some money!

And then, you'll hear, how the pros are already selling their stock to the public.

Well, think about that. 73% of all the volume on the exchange is already high frequency trading. Those people can't hold stock longer than 10 minutes.

Morgan Stanley, announced today, that in their private equity $8.8 billion dollar fund real estate, that the losses in their will top $5.4 billion.

That's because in that fund, in some cases, they can't just jingle mail the keys because they have offered guarantees!

Now hasn't Morgan Stanley been afraid of this market? Hasn't MS not been aggressive like the other banks? Didn't they represent to the street that they were back doing just plain vanilla business?

Maybe that's because they knew what they had in their side pocket!

And maybe you don't want my opinion. So I'll give you what the WSJ said:

Morgan Stanley has told investors in its $8.8 billion real-estate fund that it may lose nearly two-thirds of its money from bum property investments, according to fund documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

That would likely make it the biggest dollar loss—$5.4 billion—in the history of private-equity real-estate investing...


The soured investments made by the $8.8 billion fund, Msref VI International, continue to be a distraction for Morgan Stanley as it tries to extricate the fund from complex deals around the world. In many cases, the company can't walk away from foundering investments because the fund made billions of dollars in guarantees.

So now that Morgan Stanley misses the biggest rally in the history of the stock market, because of a distraction, maybe now, even the folks at MS will start getting a bit more bullish!

And they'll start deploying some of their firm's money in the market!

Grant's version of The United States of America prospectus

Grant's Interest Rate Observer - Prospectus for US Bonds Due 2040 Dated March 5 2010

Oh My! America's back!

Oh My! The market must be coming down because Newsweek had this cover! Oh My!

Come on, really--How dumb is that? The folks on Wall Street, who couldn't even see the 666 bottom, now see a top in a Newsweek cover?

Then what does this say?

That Eliot "bareback" Spitzer will be back?

Without his cover?

Oh my!

What were circumstances behind WaMu's sale?

WSJ
More than 18 months after the largest bank failure in U.S. history, federal regulators have disclosed few details about their handling of Washington Mutual Inc.'s collapse, including the decision to let J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. buy the doomed financial institution at a bargain price.

Washington Mutual has largely faded from the headlines as the U.S. banking industry gets back on its feet, helped by massive infusions of taxpayer-funded capital and intervention in the financial markets. But the decision-making process by regulators as the thrift teetered remains a mystery, showing the continued reluctance of government officials to release details about some of the biggest crashes of the financial crisis.

Oh that's right! All the money went to JPM. Therefore, no details will be provided!

Where are the Alcoa hand wringers?

Remember that in January? How the smart folks on Wall Street sold every material, every industrial, and every cyclical stock after Alcoa reported? Oh my!

The second derivative trade of a bad company, reporting lousy earnings was to dump anything they could get their hands on.

How did that work out? How smart was that?

It was just stupid.

So once again, the WSJ tees it up with their latest story:

Sure, the flurry of profit-and-loss reports issued every three months is truly kabuki theater, as management usually finds a way to outperform anemic forecasts. Even so, investors should have plenty of questions if they are going to toss more money into this market, with the S&P 500 up 75% since March 2009 lows.

1.) Will sales be strong?
2.) Will they hire?
3.) Is the worst over for the banks?
4.) How healthy is the consumer? 
5.) Whither business spending?
And yet, you still have people fretting over Alcoa's earnings, not realizing that the market has grown up, and their stories now don't matter.

Oh my. Is Alcoa the precursor or the harbinger of things to come?

Oh please, give us a break from this nonsense.

What is 16X 2011 estimates of $95? Isn't that 1520?

So now the bears are so desperate, they want to create a story, because they can't even get the market to come down a couple percent!

But check out US Steel. That number has pulled back, give it a bit more room, and then that number should be ready again.

And Potash--that stock has been accumulated, while the price has been coming down.

Options expire Friday, and they just needed to finish the rinse, wash and repeat of the call buyers!

Lehman's Castle of Sand

The NYT has a story about how Lehman shuffled paper into Hudson Castle. And the wizards at Hudson, also had an appetite for the worst of Lehman's dreck:

Hudson Castle created at least four separate legal entities to borrow money in the markets by issuing short-term i.o.u.’s to investors. It then used that money to make loans to Lehman and other financial companies, often via repurchase agreements, or repos. In repos, banks typically sell assets and promise to buy them back at a set price in the future.

One of the vehicles that Hudson Castle created was called Fenway, which was often used to lend to Lehman, including in the summer of 2008, as the investment bank foundered. Because of that relationship, Hudson Castle is now the second-largest creditor in the Lehman Estate, after JPMorgan Chase. Hudson Castle, which is still in business, doing similar work for other banks, bought out Lehman’s stake last year. The firm’s spokesman said Hudson operated independently in the Fenway deal in the summer of 2008.

Hudson Castle might have walked away earlier if not for Fenway’s ties to Lehman. Lehman itself bought $3 billion of Fenway notes just before its bankruptcy that, in turn, were used to back a loan from Fenway to a Lehman subsidiary. The loan was secured by part of Lehman’s investment in a California property developer, SunCal, which also collapsed. At the time, other lenders were already growing uneasy about dealing with Lehman.

Further complicating the arrangement, Lehman later pledged those Fenway notes to JPMorgan as collateral for still other loans as Lehman began to founder. When JPMorgan realized the circular relationship, “JPMorgan concluded that Fenway was worth practically nothing,” according the report prepared by the court examiner of Lehman.

Now that the NYT is looking at this, when are they going to check out R3 Capital Partners, who Lehman also invested in, and who also took $5 billion of Lehman's assets with him.

Here's the trail. Rick starts the fund, takes Lehman's dreck, is already on board with DTC before that, and no-one needed to check him out since then he was Vice Chairman of the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee. Maybe just a bit too close to home for Turbo Tim and Bamboozled Ben, who had the folks looking at Lehman's books, when they weren't really looking.

So Blackrock, Treasury's body burial hider acquires them a year ago, because Lehman had to "sell" their stake as part of the bankruptcy process for only $250 million, a stake they paid $1 billion for just four months earlier. Meanwhile, R3 gets acquired having just $1.5 billion of assets. Those $5 billion of Lehman's assets? I guess that was offset by the price they paid for an investment in R3! Lehman's version of pay to play, for offloading overpriced toxic assets!

Anyone for some rinse, wash and repeat?

Because if you are on the inside of Treasury, they'll make anything with dirt on it, lilly white.

And then bury it!

Hussman is at it again

Oh My! John Hussman the alarmist! Oh My!

I noted last week that at current valuations, the S&P 500 is priced to deliver a total return of only about 5.7% annually over the coming decade...We certainly would have achieved better returns over the past year had I ignored the risk of further credit risks as investors, in hindsight, have done.

I have a couple words to all those folk, who are so fearful, are so afraid, are so chicken, are so scared of their own shadow, or the shadow inventory of homes, who still can't come to grips with the new reality that now besets them--- that we were in a massive bull market! Now I know these folk are so much smarter than the rest of us, are so much more erudite, and they are paternalistic and condescending on the minions of the masses who believe otherwise, who don't heed their proselytizing siren call of doom, and believe instead the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people. I have a few words for those with their PHD's, dressed up in suits, and pimping out the economics they learned as a professor; and I will even couch those words in terminolgy, so the uneducated layperson, of who these folk lord themselves over, will be even able to understand.

Your market calls SUCK!

Because--didn't we hear this in January? You can read about it here. Then John was comparing our market to Lenin! Now he warns us again, and again....

And now we are at 11,000. Oh My! That wasn't supposed to happen!

Give me a break. Now we are at $90 or $95 for S&P 500 earnings for 2011, depending if we do bottoms up, or top down analysis!

The only bottoms up, top down approach that you should be checking out, is the one alongside this 65 Caddie Deville Convertible.

And toss Hussman's analysis out!

The inflation hand wringers

Less than a year ago, Bill Gross was giving this advice:

Do not be deceived by the euphoric sightings of “green shoots” and the claims for new bull markets in a multitude of asset classes. Stable and secure income is still the order of the day. Shaking hands with the new government is still the prescribed strategy, although it should be done at a senior level of the balance sheet. If the government indeed becomes your investment partner,  you should keep the big Uncle in clear sight and without back turned. Risk will not likely be rewarded until the global economy stabilizes and the Obama rules of order are more clearly defined.

After missing the biggest bull market rally in history, Bill Gross now tells us that inflation is right around the corner.

“Americans have assumed the roller coaster goes one way,” said Bill Gross, whose investment firm, Pimco, has taken part in a broad sell-off of government debt, which has pushed up interest rates. “It’s been a great thrill as rates descended, but now we face an extended climb.

The sale in bonds was here. January 1, 2009. Advertised at the exact low.Haven't we already had an extended climb?

The idea that massive inflation is now just around the corner is just lame. The only inflation we'll have is in stock prices, as PE's continue their expansion.

The desultory affect of foreclosures being finalized, will force those consuming households that are currently using their mortgage money to live, to start paying for housing. To bet on inflation, means you have to bet that enough jobs will be created so these folk can now start paying for housing again, while the foreclosure stimulus leaves the economy.

You want to be on inflation?

Bet instead on an inflating PE's.

It' still Goldilocks for the stock market.

And even though Goldilocks has been advertised since last July, only now has Wall Street recognized her.

Unless of course, you want the bear's fantasy instead!

Which is why the bears look like this.

They are desperate for any sort of action!

They see a bear in a teddy, and they think it's a Steiff!

Texas Stadium is now rubble

A great video of the implosion is here and also here!

€30 Billion bailout for Greece

Greece to get bailed out:
WSJ
BRUSSELS—Euro-zone finance ministers agreed Sunday that if heavily indebted Greece were to get a bailout, it could receive as much as €30 billion in loans this year at about 5% interest from fellow euro nations.

The move puts Greece closer to a bailout as it heads into a week headlined by an auction of Greek treasury bills Tuesday. That is seen as a crucial test of whether Greece can still borrow from capital markets. If it can't, it would likely have to turn to the European Union package.

The ministers didn't decide to give Greece the aid; that step would require the unanimous assent of euro-zone leaders. But they laid out terms—especially an interest rate—in an attempt to convince wary financial markets that the European Union does indeed have a plan in place.

What's Tiger thinking about?

Goldman puts JCP on its conviction list

Shapira at the same time added JC Penney (JCP) to the Conviction Buy List, writing that while yesterday’s same-store sales results for March were only up 5.4% for JCP, below the average of 12.7% for the group, the company faces easy comparisons with last year. In the second half of 2009, same-store sales suffered significant declines, writes Shapira, setting up the company to beat estimates as profit rises in the second half of this year. Penney is to hold an analyst day on April 20, and that could be a catalyst.

Shapira maintains $37 price target on Penney.

Let's take a look at JCP's graph.

Where was Goldman two months ago?

Differing takes on the 10 year

Greek two year bond rate now 7.45%

WSJ
Greek bonds fell for the seventh straight session on Thursday and the Greece's benchmark stock index tumbled. The yield on Greece's 10-year bond, a reflection of both the country's borrowing costs and the risk investors associate with its debt, hit its highest level since the introduction of the euro.

More alarmingly, in a sign Greece may have difficulty finding money in the nearer term, investors drove the interest rate of the Greek two-year bond to 7.45% Thursday, 6.64 percentage points more than what Germany pays. That gap was 5.68 percentage points just a day earlier.
------
Not that Greece matters to Wall Street, but didn't Goldman help Greece do their own version of a "Repo 105?"

MGM finally breaks out

Goldman a few days ago said MGM was its highest risk/reward stock in their universe.

So what is their real target on this name?

I've been saying 22.

I'll stick to that for now.

And the negative chatter from UBS this morning on MGM?

Doesn't the news of a 32.9% spike in  Las Vegas Strip gaming revenue for February offset their useless chatter?

Big Banks Masking Risks

WSJ
Quarter-End Loan Figures Sit 42% Below Peak, Then Rise as New Period Progresses; SEC Review

Major banks have masked their risk levels in the past five quarters by temporarily lowering their debt just before reporting it to the public, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

A group of 18 banks—which includes Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc.—understated the debt levels used to fund securities trades by lowering them an average of 42% at the end of each of the past five quarterly periods, the data show. The banks, which publicly release debt data each quarter, then boosted the debt levels in the middle of successive quarters....

That practice, while legal, can give investors a skewed impression of the level of risk that financial firms are taking the vast majority of the time.

"You want your leverage to look better at quarter-end than it actually was during the quarter, to suggest that you're taking less risk," says William Tanona, a former Goldman analyst who now heads U.S. financials research at Collins Stewart, a U.K. investment bank.

Though some banks privately confirm that they temporarily reduce their borrowings at quarter's end, representatives at Goldman, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Citigroup declined to comment specifically on the New York Fed data. Some noted that their firm's financial filings include language saying borrowing levels can fluctuate during the quarter.
-------
Less than one month ago, Goldman Sachs was telling us this:

WSJ
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) said Friday that it has never used a transaction known as Repo 105. The examiner investigating the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEHMQ) said Repo 105 used a clause in accounting rules to classify repos as sales, even though Lehman was still obliged to repurchase the assets at a later date. That meant the assets disappeared from the balance sheet, and Lehman could use the cash it received to temporarily pay down other liabilities. This made Lehman look less leveraged than it actually was. "Goldman Sachs has never used this transaction," a spokesman for the investment bank said in an email to MarketWatch.

I guess they just call it something else.