Morning Journal--Global economic slowdown accelerates

News on Stocks in Our Portfolios courtesy of Seeking Alpha

 

Cato (CATO): Q4 EPS of $0.27 misses by $0.01. Revenue of $232M (+5% Y/Y) beats by $1.8M.

Oracle (ORCL): FQ3 EPS of $0.65 misses by $0.01. Revenue of $9B misses by $0.4B.

Economics

   This Week’s Data

            February existing home sales were up fractionally but less than expected.

            http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2013/03/existing-home-sales-in-february-498.html

            March Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index came in at 2.0 versus estimates of -1.5.

            http://advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/Philly-Fed-Business-Outlook.php

            February leading economic indicators were up 0.5% versus forecasts of up 0.4%.

            http://advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/Conference-Board-Leading-Economic-Index.php

   Other

            A visual on ‘too big to fail’ (short):

            http://www.bespokeinvest.com/thinkbig/2013/3/20/too-big-to-fail-in-action.html

            The argument for more taxes and more spending.  I include this not because I agree but to provide a different perspective (medium):

            http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/balanced-budgets-without-austerity-by-robert-j--shiller#WZ4jrXA1EdQrgUH4.99

            Global economic slowdown accelerates (short):

            http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-21/global-slowdown-accelerates-driven-confidence-new-orders-plunge

Politics

  Domestic

US looks into regulating bitcoin (medium):

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-21/us-begins-regulating-bitcoin-will-consider-virtual-transactions-money-laundering

  International

            More on missile defense (medium):

            http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/343490/return-missile-defense-clifford-d-may