Is the Fed Juicing the Stock Market?

Why has the stock market been on a 3-month tear when the economy is undergoing the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression? The S&P 500 has shot up 40% from its low on March 9 and the Dow Jones Industrials have followed close behind. Is this a typical bear market rally or is the invisible hand of the Fed goosing the markets?

MSM: Insiders Exit Shares at the Fastest Pace in Two Years

(Bloomberg) – Executives at U.S. companies are taking advantage of the biggest stock-market rally in 71 years to sell their shares at the fastest pace since credit markets started to seize up two years ago.

Back in the U.S.S.A. – Peter Schiff

Harry Browne, the former Libertarian Party candidate for president, used to say: “the government is great at breaking your leg, handing you a crutch, and saying ‘You see, without me you couldn’t walk.’” That maxim is clearly illustrated by the financial industry regulatory reforms proposed this week by the Obama Administration.

MSM: U.S. Inflation to Approach Zimbabwe Level, Faber Says (Update2)

(Bloomberg) – The U.S. economy will enter “hyperinflation” approaching the levels in Zimbabwe because the Federal Reserve will be reluctant to raise interest rates, investor Marc Faber said.

MSM: Dollar hits new multimonth low vs euro, pound, yen

(AP) – The dollar kept falling Friday, notching fresh multimonth lows against the euro, pound and yen as a warning that Britain’s debt level may result in its credit rating being cut ricocheted into worries about the massive U.S. deficit.

Wall Street rallies as unemployment rate soars – US shed another half-million jobs in April

The official US unemployment rate jumped by 0.4 percentage points to reach 8.9 percent last month, according to figures released Friday by the Labor Department. The economy lost another 539,000 jobs in April, as total job losses reached 5.7 million since the start of the recession in December 2007.

MSM: U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Rose to 640,000 Last Week

(Bloomberg) – The number of Americans filing first-time applications for unemployment insurance rose last week to 640,000 as forecast, while total benefit rolls reached a record, indicating the labor market continues to deteriorate.

MSM: Dow below 7,000

Blue-chip measure drops to levels not seen since 1997 as AIG reports biggest quarterly loss in corporate history, government revamps rescue.

MSM: 85 companies default on debt in 2008: S&P

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Eighty-five companies worldwide defaulted on their debt in the year through November 11, impacting a total of $284 billion, up sharply from the two previous years, Standard & Poor’s said Monday.

AIG’s Long-Term Debt Ratings Cut by S&P

American International Group Inc.’s long-term counterparty rating was cut three levels to A- from AA- by Standard & Poor’s, and its senior unsecured debt rating was downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service to A2 from Aa3.

S&P said it cut the rating of the largest U.S. insurer by assets because of a “combination of reduced flexibility in meeting additional collateral needs and concerns over increasing residential mortgage-related losses.”