November 5, 2012 Update

 

DJIA: 13,093 NASDAQ: 2,982 10-YR TRS: 8/32, yield 1.728% Oil: $84.86 EURO: $1.2838 YEN: 80.43

Micro

• SPZ: trading in tight ranges as uncertainty in the US presidential election builds and weighs on international markets, investors also awaiting consumer spending data report.
• Earnings: IntercontinentialExchange (NYSE: ICE) forecasted $1.72 EPS, Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) expected to lose $0.90 a share, Humana (NYSE: HUM) Q3 $2.62 exceeding forecast by $0.57, McDermott (NYSE: MDR) forecasted $0.24 EPS, AM TE Connectivity (NYSE: TEL) Q3 $0.76 EPS beats forecast by $0.02, Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) Q3 $1.41 EPS which missed forecast by $0.02.
• Consumer spending is forecasted to increase 0.7%, compared to September’s 0.5% rise.
• Humana (NYSE: HUM) agreed to acquire Metropolitan Health Networks (NYSE: MDF) in a deal that is valued at $850 million, not including transaction costs.
• Gold futures pushed up $5.10 to $1,680.40 an ounce.
• BG Group ( BG.LN) announced five-year plan plans of building a $3 billion syndicated credit facility, replacing $2.3 billion of terminating bilateral committed credit lines.
• Gap (NYSE: GPS) may be in trouble in 2013 with worrisome plans of expansion.
• HSBC (NYSE: HBC) Q3 net income fell 52%.
• Interpublic (NYSE: IPG) contemplating replacing their CEO, McCann, and DraftFCB advertising due to failing revenues. Rumors of Nick Brien to be next CEO.

Macro

• Asian Markets: uncertainty about U.S. upcoming presidential election weighed on markets making South Korean carmakers and Hong Kong’s resource stocks the biggest losers.
• European Markets: worries about the upcoming Greek parliamentary vote on austerity measures and doubt about U.S. presidential election also stresses markets, HSBC weigh on London’s markets.
• Analysts believe a victory for Romney would lead to bullish equity markets, and a bond rally for Obama.
• Greece confirmed the rumor that it will indeed be forced to leave the EU if austerity measures are not approved.
• Haitian agricultural badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy, leaving 500,000 hungry.

Romney Endorsement
The Economist, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and George Soros (all figures this newsletter considers to possess reputable intelligence and wit) have publicly endorsed President Barack Obama under claims of climate change, gay marriage, women’s rights, and wealth redistribution (all rational concerns). However, The Economist in this week’s issue said they would rather “stick with the devil it knows, and re-elect him (Obama)” than vote for Romney. Dockery’s Daily Docket disagrees with this argument. First off, the United States has never been more divided. With a dangerously dissociated Congress, fiscal dilemmas, social unrest, and a massive debt to tackle, I am not certain this country will flourish under four more years of Obama gridlock. Obama disregarded his own engineered bipartisan Bowles-Simpson deficit commission, neglected his campaign promises of confronting climate change and immigration issues, and created the overly generous “Obamacare” bill in order to provide 40 million Americans with healthcare, but failed to construct a workable plan to foot the unaffordable cost. Obama’s overly generous capabilities are clear, while Romney has strategically chosen to stay mysterious. As a successful businessman, it appears that Romney would run the country as just that- his business (similar to what Mayor Bloomberg did with New York). Unlike Obama, I believe Romney would be able to balance the budget, raise employment through opportunity creation by allocating more rights to the states, and alleviate the financial markets of counter-productive regulation. Under Romney’s control, The United States could function as successfully as Massachusetts did during Governor Romney’s reign. While Obama has a better reputation in regard to foreign policy, Romney’s belief in the free market and smaller federal government will generate stronger growth and bipartisanship. Just to be clear, not voting for a candidate based on their ethnicity, personal wealth, or religion is ignorant and utterly ludicrous. This leads me to my question for The Economist: Why vote for “the devil” that has been known to fail? I argue voters should be more willing to take on risk and vote for the unknown devil, because, after all, reward itself does not exists without risk. For whatever it’s worth and however much creditability this newsletter has, Dockery’s Daily Docket is joining the forces of Scott Brown, John Catsimatidis, Carly Fiorina, and Meg Whitman to endorse Governor Mitt Romney as the 45th President of the United States.