Keyword: speculators
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It didn't take long for the non-scandal that allegedly threatened the reputation of Goldman Sachs to die of its own contradictions. As a public company whose sole constituent is its shareholders, evidence quickly revealed that Goldman was serving its owners well through investment vehicles meant to match the needs of both its bullish and bearish customers. Unfortunately, the non-controversy surrounding Goldman dredged up other, more dangerous notions about market speculation itself. To believe the naïve musings of commentators on the left and right, the oft-mentioned trades engineered by Goldman Sachs, along with others of the "speculative" variety, don't serve any...
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WASHINGTON — Oil consumption has fallen, demand from U.S. motorists for gasoline is flat at best and refiners that turn crude into fuel are operating well below capacity. Yet oil prices keep marching toward $90 a barrel, pushing gasoline toward $3 a gallon in many markets, and prompting American drivers to ask, "What gives?" Blame it on the same folks who brought you $140 oil and $4 gasoline in 2008: Wall Street speculators.
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Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will seek President Obama's support at the White House on Tuesday for a European campaign to crack down on global financial speculation that critics say has exacerbated Europe's worst debt crisis in decades. The U.S.-born Papandreou, who assumed Greece's highest office in October, is pushing a plan in Europe that would impose new limits and stricter monitoring on complex and largely unregulated financial bets. Officials in Europe have blamed investors for manipulating the price of Greek bonds, fueling higher borrowing rates across Europe and accelerating the euro's fall against the dollar and other currencies. "Together...
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Speculators are unfairly driving up Greece's borrowing costs, charged Prime Minister George Papandreou. He’s seeking U.S. support for having the G-20 take the lead in a crackdown. That follows French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who on Sunday called for a European crackdown. EU officials may meet on credit default swaps next week. Some would fault Greece’s huge deficit, history of poor finances and dodgy data. But as Megan McArdle points out, it’s so much more fun for politicians to blame shadowy speculators
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The Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether hedge funds might have banded together to drive down the value of the euro, people familiar with the matter say. In a letter last week, the department has asked hedge funds including SAC Capital Advisors LP, Greenlight Capital Inc., Soros Fund Management LLC and Paulson & Co. to retain trading records and emails relating to the euro, say people who have seen the letter. The letter was dated Feb. 26, the same day a page-one article in The Wall Street Journal outlined a large bet being made in recent weeks by...
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The big story this week: regulators considering setting limits on Wall Street speculators Forget additional position limits. Ceding that kind of authority to elected imbeciles is probably just as bad if not worse than the actual disease. It is a slippery slope, like allowing these buffoons to determine salaries. I think I would prefer to see the leverage abated. I have heard compelling arguments on the “pro” side of changing margin requirements but not too many “cons”. I don’t think that controlling copious quantities of commodities which are essential to human sustenance -with 10 cents on the dollar- is some...
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Gasoline markets exhibited the first signs that an extended rally in pump prices is nearing an end after 52 straight days on the rise. Gasoline futures started falling midweek after a government report showed a huge surplus. Already, wholesale gasoline prices in key markets like the Gulf Coast and Chicago had begun to fade. Should prices continue to fall on the New York Mercantile Exchange, cheaper gas may be on the way for motorists.
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Gasoline bottomed out at $1.75. Now it's $2.50. That's a 43% increase in a few months. Where's the howls of outrage from the MSMwhores? Where's the daily update on the previous days increase and the nationwide average? Where are the sob stories about people having to do without (fill in the blank) due to paying so much more for gas?
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Nick Snow OGJ Washington Editor WASHINGTON, DC, Feb. 11 -- Global petroleum demand will fall by another 400,000 b/d during 2009 as economic conditions worsen, the US Energy Information Administration said on Feb. 10 in its latest short-term energy outlook. EIA now projects that worldwide oil consumption will drop by 1.2 million b/d this year as a deteriorating world economy and a weak oil consumption outlook keep the market well supplied despite two downward revisions in the last 2 months by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Reduced demand and rising surplus production capacity through at least mid-2009 reduce the...
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With oil now at $50 a barrel, you no longer hear Congress complaining about oil speculators. The irony is there's probably more real speculation going on today than there ever was back in June and July. I'm talking about the type of speculation that involves hoarding oil today so it can be sold for more down the road. Today's speculators are actually buying oil. They're not merely flipping futures contracts without taking delivery - which is what hedge funds and commodities index funds were doing when they were in the crosshairs of Congress this summer. As I've argued before, investors...
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NEW YORK (AP) - When financial panic sweeps Bedford Falls in the 1946 movie "It's a Wonderful Life," the villain, Mr. Potter, moves to snap up the Bailey Savings & Loan, offering a fire-sale price of 50 cents on the dollar. "I may lose a fortune," Potter says with a smirk. The picture's hero, George Bailey, knows better. "He's picking up some bargains," he tells stockholders. That kind of bold opportunism has made capitalists rich for centuries. Now, legions of like-minded bargain-hunters stand ready to do some Potter-style shopping of their own amid the nation's financial crisis. "Vulture" investors, as...
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<p>I just saw this on Fox News by Carl Cameron.</p>
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AP: FBI Investigating Fannie, Freddie, Lehman & AIG
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Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 09/18/2008 Pelosi: House Took Strong Action Today to Curb Excessive Speculation in Energy Futures Markets Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement on House passage of the Commodity Markets Transparency and Accountability Act, legislation that takes crucial, common-sense steps to curb excessive speculation in the energy futures markets. The bill passed the House overwhelmingly by a vote of 283 to 133, and now goes to the Senate. “This week, the Democratic-Led Congress has taken serious and comprehensive steps to ensure American energy independence and help consumers with...
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Evaporating access to credit and fears of an economic washout are taking a toll on oil prices, forcing speculators using borrowed money out of the market. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s sudden bankruptcy filing and Merrill Lynch & Co.'s pending sale to Bank of America Corp. suggest big banks may be less willing or able to absorb debt to boost trading positions, with implications for the inherently leveraged oil-futures markets. Analysts believe that could have a ripple effect on other speculative investors in the market. Widespread liquidation of futures contracts compounded fears of faltering oil demand in knocking oil down near...
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It was said to be the year of speculators gone wild. Seemingly everyone in Washington, including Barack Obama and John McCain, decided that oil prices were soaring because profiteers and middlemen were manipulating the futures markets. "Speculators" were spotted everywhere this side of the grassy knoll. The only problem is that there's no evidence to support the conspiracy theories -- and sure enough, federal regulators dismantled this Beltway consensus late last week. In one of the broadest and most authoritative studies to date, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has offered hard statistical data that financial trading hasn't been driving price...
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Energy: As oil ran up over the last two years, Congress and the media had a field day blaming speculators. But a new report shows they were unfairly scapegoated.The long-awaited report to Congress on speculation comes as the price of oil on global markets has fallen to nearly $100 a barrel — a drop of 32% since peaking at $147.27 on July 11. In its report, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said this year's spike in crude futures appears to be due to "an appreciation of the value of existing investments caused by the rise in crude oil prices and...
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BBC News reports that another hedge fund has closed down thanks to its failure to bail out of the oil speculation trade that boosted oil to a peak of $147 in July. This is yet another piece of evidence that people like Hank Paulson, who insisted that record oil prices were due to supply and demand, were either being less than honest -- particularly since his former employer Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) was a big beneficiary of this speculation -- or ignorant of reality. The hedge fund in question this time is Ospraie Fund, which invested in commodities like...
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I'm not much of a believer in conspiracy theories. I've seen up close and personal how wrong they were in the case of my old boss, Richard M. Nixon. He was not a criminal mastermind. He was not paying attention to a bunch of juvenile delinquent aides and they did him dirt. It was a case of an absent minded father, not a KGB plot. But every so often something happens in the world of finance that is at least a bit like a conspiracy. The Drexel-Milken junk bond fraud was a conspiracy, at least as I saw it (though...
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Oil prices jumped Monday in Asia on concern that a showdown over Iran's nuclear program could threaten crude supplies out of the Middle East. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday that the United States would have no choice "but to begin again to prepare sanctions resolutions for the (U.N.) Security Council" if Iran did not halt the development of its uranium enrichment program. Rice said that given the U.N.'s current scheduling, sanctions probably could not be expected in the next few weeks, but the U.S. will begin working with allies toward that goal. "There's concern about a potential...
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