I had a pretty good weekend. It was quite eventful and fun. I am glad that I played some poker and got a few good hands. The market was slow but steady last week. I am hoping that the stock market will be much better in the coming weeks. OPC, C, AIG and FNM are showing good signs. I am hoping very good things from OPC. CEMJQ gave up some grounds at the end of Friday. I am still very hopeful that it will reach 3 ($) in coming months.
- WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Insurer American International Group Inc's (NYSE:AIG - News) once-desperate financial state has started to stabilize, a government agency said on Monday, as an influential lawmaker said he would look at easing the terms of the insurer's federal bailout once more. AIG's shares shot up, rising more than 16 percent in afternoon trade to $46.44. AIG, the recipient of billions of dollars in government support, started to show signs of stabilizing in mid-2009, as financial markets improved, congressional investigators said in a report on the status of the government's assistance to the company. The insurer was rescued by the government in September 2008, after losing bets that it made on the U.S. housing market threatened to drive the firm into bankruptcy.
- Rarely has the stock market seen a six-month rally like the one it just turned in. The Dow Jones Industrial Average's 46% surge was one of just six of that magnitude in the last 100 years. And that is exactly what worries many analysts. All previous rallies of this magnitude took place in the 1930s and the 1970s, according to Ned Davis Research. Those were periods of turbulence for both the economy and the markets, and none of the gains was sustained. Many analysts believe that stocks are again in such a turbulent period, and that this rally could lead to another slump. Stocks did enjoy a rally of 40% in 1982, at the start of a long-running period of stock-market prosperity. That rally wasn't of the same magnitude of the others, however. It came as economic troubles, notably inflation, were finally being squeezed out of the economy.
- WASHINGTON – Despite predictions the Great Recession is running out of steam, the House is taking up emergency legislation this week to help the millions of Americans who see no immediate end to their economic miseries. A bill offered by Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and expected to pass easily would provide 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits for more than 300,000 jobless people who live in states with unemployment rates of at least 8.5 percent and who are scheduled to run out of benefits by the end of September.
The 13-week extension would supplement the 26 weeks of benefits most states offer and the federally funded extensions of up to 53 weeks that Congress approved in legislation last year and in the stimulus bill enacted last February.
- TROY, New York (Reuters) – President Barack Obama criticized the largest U.S. banks on Monday for trying to thwart legislation that would overhaul federal student loan programs. He singled out in particular banks that have received bailout money from the federal government, saying they want to maintain the status quo on student loans because they get an "unwarranted subsidy" from it. The U.S. House of Representatives last week approved legislation that would cut major banks and student loan giant Sallie Mae out of a large slice of the $92 billion university student loan business, shifting most lending into a program run by the U.S. Education Department. The bill, strongly backed by Obama, will go next to the Senate for further consideration. Some Republicans criticized the bill as a government takeover of an industry that has served students well but Obama's fellow Democrats praised the House bill as a victory for students over banks.
- BAGHDAD – The kidnappers holding an Iraqi auto mechanic's 11-year-old son gave him just two days to come up with $100,000 in ransom. When he could not, they were just as quick to deliver their punishment: They chopped off the boy's head and hands and dumped his body in the garbage. The boy's final words to his father came in an agonizing phone call. "Daddy, give them the money. They are beating me," Muhsin Mohammed Muhsin pleaded a day before he was killed. As the worst of the country's sectarian bloodshed ebbs, Iraqis now face a new threat to getting on with their lives: a frenzy of violent crime.
- ANSBACH, Germany – A German teenager who wounded nine students and a teacher in a terrifying ax and arson attack on his school was motivated by a "hatred for humanity" and had been planning the rampage since April, officials said Monday. The new details came as the 18-year-old, who had been shot three times by police, was awakened Monday from a medically induced coma. Prosecutor Gudrun Lehnberger said the suspect was responsive but has not yet been questioned about Thursday's attack. However, the roughly 80 pages of evidence recovered from the teenager's laptop included extensive information on his plans, much of it addressed to a female whose name was not released, said Juergen Krach, another prosecutor. Krach said investigators believe the addressee may be fictional, and the material was apparently not sent to anyone. The teenager, who has not been named, wrote that his "goal was to kill as many students and teachers as possible and burn down the school," Lehnberger told reporters at a news conference.
- TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's president said Monday he is proud to stoke international outrage with his latest remarks denying the Holocaust as he heads for the United Nations this week — showing he is as defiant as ever while his country comes under greater pressure to curtail its nuclear program. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad takes the world stage with a speech Wednesday to the U.N. General Assembly. He appears intent on showing he has not been weakened by three months of turmoil at home, where the pro-reform opposition has staged dramatic protests claiming Ahmadinejad's victory in June presidential elections was fraudulent. Ahmadinejad has a reason to try to present his government as strong: On Oct. 1, Iran is to enter key negotiations with the United States and other powers seeking concessions on Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. and its allies suspect Iran is secretly pursuing a nuclear weapon, warning that Tehran already has enough enriched uranium to build a bomb. Iran denies the accusations, saying it only aims to generate electricity.
- TORONTO (Reuters) – Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said on Monday he would not propose tax increases to balance the budget if he became prime minister, saying Canada's economic recovery is too fragile. Ignatieff, who is trying, so far unsuccessfully, to force an election to oust the minority Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said spending cuts and economic growth were the way to slay the budget deficit. "At a time when we are still bumping along the bottom, tax increases would add to the burden on Canadian businesses and Canadian families, and we think that might just shut recovery off cold," Ignatieff told reporters following an economic speech in Toronto. "So our proposition is we need to keep our tax rates competitive but we will not propose tax increases in a platform in the next election," he said.
In April, Ignatieff said no honest politician faced with a huge deficit would take anything off the table because Canadians were allergic to structural budget deficits, a remark the Conservatives have kept prominent in their attacks on him. In his speech to Toronto's financial community, Ignatieff said spending controls alone would not be enough to dig Canada out of the fiscal hole, but that economic growth initiatives would be needed to fight unemployment. Canada's total shortfall for this year and the next five years is forecast to be C$164.4 billion ($152.2 billion), Ignatieff also hinted that protective "buy American" trade restrictions brought in by the United States, Canada's largest trading partner by far, must be fought on all fronts, and promised an investment review process to protect Canada's national interests.
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