EES announces Trader Incubator program

The EES FX Incubator is designed for traders who want to trade in an ECN environment for the specific purpose of developing their track records for capital allocation, either by EES or our partners.

http://eesfx.com/portal/partners/ees-fx-incubator-program.html

EU Preparing new aid package for Greece

European Union officials will focus on preparing a new aid package forGreece that includes a “voluntary” role for investors after the EU and the International Monetary Fund approved the fifth installment of Greece’s 110 billion-euro ($161 billion) bailout.

“I expect the euro group to agree to additional financing to be provided to Greece under strict conditionality,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said after meeting with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in Luxembourg on June 3. “This conditionality will include private-sector involvement on a voluntary basis.”

Papandreou agreed to 78 billion euros in additional austerity measures and asset sales through 2015 to secure the 12 billion-euro bailout payment and meet conditions for receiving an additional rescue package. He agreed to make “significant” cuts in public-sector employment and establish an agency to manage accelerated asset sales, according to a statement released in Athens on June 3. The plan is fueling popular opposition and protests across Greece.

Greek bonds gained on the prospect of a new aid plan, with the yield on the country’s two-year notes falling 172 basis points yesterday to 22.8 percent, the lowest since April 20. The agreements came at the end of a week when Greece’s fiscal crisis worsened enough for Moody’s Investors Service to raise the probability of a default to 50 percent.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-03/eu-preparing-new-rescue-package-for-greece.html

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NFP: Payrolls expanded by 54,000 last month

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-03/dollar-declines-against-yen-as-u-s-adds-fewer-jobs-damping-u-s-outlook.html

The dollar extended its decline against the yen after a report showed U.S. employers in May added the fewest number of workers in eight months and unemployment unexpectedly rose to 9.1 percent, increasing concern the U.S. economic recovery is slowing.

Payrolls expanded by 54,000 last month, after a revised 232,000 increase in April, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The jobless rate rose to 9.1 percent. Employment was forecast to grow by 165,000 last month, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

US Rating could be placed under review: Moody's

DEBT FEARS: US Rating Could Be Placed Under Review, warns MOODY'S...

Gives lawmakers until mid-July to show progress in talks...


Finally, a logical warning on US credit.

Moody's is out with a comment saying that if there's no imminent progress on the debt ceiling fight, the US credit rating will be cut.

This makes total sense, and we applaud Moody's for doing their job: Identifying an imminent (real) issue, and sensibly advising (ahead of time) about what could be a threat to US debt holders.

This should help put an end to this idea that a technical default would be just fine, and that somehow all this brinksmanship would be good for US credit somehow.

Back in January, we called on Moody's to do exactly this: Threaten a ratings cut as a way of warning about the harmful effects of this fight.

They've done exactly that.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/moodys-warns-on-us-debt-rating-2011-6#ixzz1O9JY6fGm

Sweeteners for Greek Debt Extension

European officials preparing Greece’s second bailout in two years may offer bondholders incentives to roll over maturing debt without triggering a credit-rating downgrade that would roil Europe’s banking system, two people with knowledge of the talks said.

Investors may be given preferred status, higher coupon payments or collateral as inducements to buy bonds replacing Greek debt maturing between 2012 and 2014, said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are in progress.

European leaders are trying to prevent the euro area’s first sovereign default. Last year’s 110 billion-euro ($159 billion) rescue failed to prevent an investor exodus from Greece, saddled with Europe’s highest debt load amid a three- year economic slump. The upgraded package would share costs with investors while skirting a technical default, the people said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-01/greek-aid-package-said-to-include-incentives-without-triggering-downgrade.html

Oil up, jobs down

Private Sector Jobs Grew By Only 38,000 in May...
Planned Layoffs Up...

Oil near $103 amid falling dollar...

Bond markets betting on QE3

Investors should prepare themselves for a third round of quantitative easing, Simon Maughn, co-head of European equities at MF Global, told CNBC Wednesday.

“The bond market is going in one direction which is up-falling yields which is telling you quite clearly the direction of economic travel is downwards. Downgrades. QE3 (a third round of quantitative easing) is coming,” said Maughn. “The bond markets are all smarter than us, and that’s exactly what the bond markets are telling me.”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43233866

EU bails out Greece

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-31/new-aid-package-for-greece-to-be-decided-by-end-of-june-eu-s-juncker-says.html

European Union leaders will decide on additional aid for Greece by the end of June and have ruled out a “total restructuring” of the nation’s debt, said Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the group of euro-area finance ministers.

Inspectors from the EU, the International Monetary Fund and theEuropean Central Bank are set to wrap up a review of Greece’s progress in meeting the terms of last year’s 110 billion-euro ($158 billion) bailout in the next few days. The EU will then formulate its plan for further aid to Greece, which remains shut out of financial markets a year after the rescue.

“We are waiting for their final judgment,” Juncker, who is also Luxembourg’s prime minister, said yesterday in Paris after meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. “Their position will partly determine our position, so it’s too early. We will try to solve the Greek problem by the end of June.”

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-25/ready-to-erase-whiteboards-ideapaint-lands-1-700-lowe-s-stores.html

Ready to Erase Whiteboards, IdeaPaint Lands 1,700 Lowe’s Stores 

Digital advertising shop HUGE has close to two-thirds of its Brooklyn, N.Y., office’s walls covered with IdeaPaint. “You can feel free with your ideas, and not all of them are going to be great. That’s okay -- you can just erase it and start all over,” says HUGE partner Michal Pasternak. Promising sketches are photographed before they are erased, then shared like documents. Flexible office space facility Cambridge Innovation Center in Boston started using the paint expansively last fall; much of its 130,000-square-foot space is covered now. “It definitely has the ‘cool factor’ that we strive to include to make our space unique and keep our clients coming back,” says Anna Whitlock, a customer ‘relationship manager’ at the space.

Domestic Spying, Mainstream Source - NSA, Internet Spying, AT&T

Dollar Drop Boosts Tourist Spending in U.S.

The price is right for foreign shoppers in the U.S. as the sagging dollar boosts their purchasing power on everything from jewelry to vitamins.

“When I come to New York, it feels like I am getting great deals,” said Molly Lewis, a 40-year-old nurse from Manchester,England, who spent an afternoon last week hunting down bargains on Louis Vuitton handbags in Manhattan. “Things are much cheaper here than back home.”

The British pound had climbed 13 percent against the U.S. dollar in the past year, along with gains in the euro and Canadian and Australian dollars. That’s given travelers a zest for spending, which may help U.S. retailers make up sales as budget-wary U.S. consumers stick to the sidelines. Travelers from abroad spent $8.9 billion on food, lodging, gifts and entertainment in the U.S. in February, up 7 percent from last year, according to the Department of Commerce.

The Mall of America, the biggest shopping center in the U.S. with 520 stores, is reporting a surge in international visitors, hitting retailers from Columbia Sportswear Co. (COLM) to Coach Inc. in search of American goods.

The dollar has weakened by about 4 percent this year, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indices. The measure of 10 developed-nation currencies has fallen 15 percent in the past year amid concern the Federal Reserve’s accommodative monetary policy will debase the value of the dollar and spur inflation.

IMF Strauss-Kahn Setup alleged

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/dominique-strauss-kahn/8517387/Dominique-Strauss-Kahn-conspiracy-theories-mount.html 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703421204576329690735300066.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

From the Media Research Center

While reporting on the sexual assault case against International Monetary Fund Chairman Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Tuesday's Today, NBC correspondent Jeff Rossen noted how the would-be Socialist Party candidate for the French presidency had "worried his political opponent, current French President Nicolas Sarkozy, would try to frame him with a fake rape..."

Rossen further added that Strauss-Kahn once told a French newspaper that the rape victim would be "promised 500,000 or a million euros to invent this story" by Sarkozy. Following Rossen's report, correspondent Michelle Kosinski highlighted French outrage over Strauss-Kahn's arrest: "I would say that the reaction ranges from disbelief to outright disgust. To see their VIP paraded before cameras, the socialists are calling it 'inhumane'....they're saying that this looks like a humiliating public exhibition like something from ancient times."

The headline on screen during the segment read: "French Conspiracy Theories; Was Banker Set Up as Part of Political Plot?"

After Kosinski's report, co-host Meredith Vieira discussed the case with the former head of the New York City Sex Crimes Unit, Linda Fairstein. Vieira began by touting: "There are some people in France who are speculating that this could be a political set-up." The headline on screen at that time had changed to read: "Sexual Assault or Political Plot?; The Case Against French Banker Strauss-Kahn."