Week of Nov 15 2013 – Weekly Recap & The Week Ahead
”Stock market bubbles don’t grow out of thin air. They have a solid basis in reality, but reality as distorted by a misconception” — George Soros
1. State-Run Obamacare Exchanges Reported 49,100 Enrollees versus initial target of 800,000 — Bloomberg, fewer than 50,000 people had reportedly managed to enroll in private insurance plans via the government’s problem-plagued HealthCare.gov Web site as of last week. The number represents less than 10% of the 500,000 people that had been projected. Twelve of the 14 states that are operating their own exchanges have signed up 49,000.
2. U.S. Investigates Currency Trades By Major Banks — nine of the largest banks in currency trading have announced they are facing inquiries by the United States Attorney General, Eric H. Holder Jr.,. AG Holder said in a rare interview discussing an active investigation. ”We’ve recognized that this is potentially an extremely consequential investigation.” Banks include Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Citigroup.
3. Obamacare fix puts insurers in a tough spot — President Obama will allow insurance companies to continue to offer existing policies in 2014 even if they fail to meet the standards set by the healthcare law. Obama’s U-turn follows pressure from the public and his own party after it emerged that his repeated pledge that people could keep their insurance plans if they wanted to contradicted the terms of the law.
4. Berkshire takes 40M-share stake in Exxon Mobil — Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) bought a 40.1M-share position in Exxon Mobil (XOM. Berkshire also added to existing stakes in Bank of New York Mellon (BK), DaVita HealthCare Partners (DVA), Suncor Energy (SU), U.S. Bancorp (USB) and VeriSign (VRSN); Berkshire lowered its holdings in ConocoPhillips (COP), DirecTV (DTV), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Sanofi (SNY).
5. Japan Q3 GDP growth tops estimates — economic growth slowed in Japan during the July-September quarter, but at 1.9% (annualized), the economy still expanded faster than economists were expecting. Despite the headline beat, capex growth printed at just 0.2% for Q3, far below consensus estimates. Private consumption rose 0.1% while inventories chipped in 40 bps after pulling the overall figure 10 bps lower in Q2.
6. Janet Yellen, new FOMC Chairman leans dovish in prepared remarks — she stated ”We have made good progress, but we have farther to go to regain the ground lost in the crisis and the recession,” Janet Yellen told the Senate Banking Committee in her confirmation hearing that to continue supporting Bernanke accommodative policies.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
