Holy Crap! Apple Cuts IPad Orders 25%

Apple Inc. is cutting orders to vendors in the supply chain for its iPad tablet computer, a move that may result in slower sales for companies including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. said in a report, according to Bloomberg.

Several supply-chain vendors indicated in the past two weeks that Apple, the world's biggest company by market value, lowered fourth-quarter iPad orders 25 percent, the first such cut that analysts at JPMorgan’s electronic manufacturing services team in Hong Kong said they have ever seen. The report did not list the affected companies.

For a vendor such as Hon Hai, that could mean a drop to 13 million units in the fourth quarter, from 17 million units in the third quarter, JPMorgan analysts wrote in the Sept. 25 report. The report said JPMorgan U.S. analyst Mark Moskowitz, who covers Apple, does not expect to lower his projection of 10.9 million to 12 million units of iPad shipments in the third and fourth quarters after the supply chain adjustments.

Read more about it at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-26/apple-cuts-ipad-supply-chain-orders-jpmorgan.html

Grübel's Exit Leaves UBS in Lurch

From the Wall St Journal: the resignation of UBS AG Chief Executive Oswald Grübel throws Switzerland's largest bank into renewed turmoil, leaving it struggling with the twin problems of revamping a troubled investment bank and finding a permanent CEO.

In a fresh blow to the beleaguered bank, Mr. Grübel resigned Saturday morning in the wake of huge trading losses allegedly by a London-based trader at UBS's investment-banking unit. The bank's board appointed Sergio Ermotti, head of the European business, as interim CEO effective immediately. A search is under way for a permanent chief executive, with the board considering both internal and external candidates, said UBS ...

There's more - much more at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204010604576593043781588316.html?mod=WSJ_business_whatsNews

Markets Flash Global Warnings

Yellow Alert: From Copper to Chinese Stocks to Junk Bonds, More Signals Are Pointing to a Slowdown in World Economy

According to the Wall St Journal for months it has been all about Europe and the U.S. Suddenly, investors have reasons to worry about the rest of the world.

Last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 6.4%, its worst week since October 2008, leaving it down nearly 7% for the year. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index did nearly as poorly last week and now is down 9.6% this year. But rather than focus solely on Greek debt, European banks and the U.S economy, many investors have begun to wring their hands about a new set of indicators they say portend a serious slowdown in ...

Read all about it at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204010604576592790649429556.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

Solyndra Meltdown May Hammer Goldman’s Rep

SuperShocker: Since the financial crisis hit, investment banks have been rightly criticized for their tendency to be more concerned with their own trading profits than the well-being of their customers. According to Bloomberg sometimes, however, an investment bank can take the whole client service thing a bit too far.

Take, for instance, the case of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and its client Solyndra LLC, the California-based solar-panel maker that filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept. 6 and dismissed its 1,100 employees.

Solyndra has become infamous lately as the company that, with much political fanfare, was handed a large government loan and then went kaput. Solyndra is usually described as “politically connected” because President Barack Obama visited the company in 2010 and said that “companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future.”

Also, one of the company’s major supporters was the George Kaiser Family Foundation; George Kaiser, a wealthy Oklahoma oil executive, was one of Obama’s bundlers of contributions during his successful 2008 presidential campaign. (A conservative website reported that, according to White House logs, Solyndra investors and management had made “no fewer than 20 trips” to the White House between March 2009 and April 2011).

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-26/solyndra-meltdown-may-hit-goldman-s-reputation-william-d-cohan.html

Pimco Forecasts Europe Recession Next Year

Pacific Investment Management Co., which runs the world’s biggest bond fund, is forecasting that advanced economies will stall over the next year as Europe slides into a recession, underscoring mounting investor concern about the global economic outlook.

There will be little-to-no economic growth in industrial nations in the coming 12 months as Europe’s economy shrinks by 1 percent to 2 percent and the U.S. stagnates, said Mohamed El- Erian, chief executive officer of Newport Beach, California- based Pimco. That will leave worldwide expansion at about 2.5 percent, less than the 4 percent forecast by the International Monetary Fund this year and next.

Such gloomy sentiment dominated weekend talks of policy makers, investors and bankers in Washington, where the IMF and World Bank held their annual meetings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its biggest loss since 2008 last week as the Federal Reserve said risks to the U.S. economy had increased and Europe’s debt crisis went unresolved.

“For the next 12 months, the global economy will slow materially with advanced economies struggling to grow much above zero,” El-Erian said in a Sept. 24 interview in Washington. “Emerging economies will maintain faster growth, albeit not as high as the last 12 months.”

Find out more at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-25/pimco-s-el-erian-sees-rich-economies-stalling-amid-new-european-recession.html

Roubini And Soros: The U.S. Is In A Double Dip (And Warn Of Uprising)

Dr. Doom Roubini has grown even more pessimistic since he put a 60% probability of a U.S. double dip in 2012 just about three weeks ago. Business Day reported that speaking at a press conference in Johannesburg on Sep. 20, Roubini now says, "The US is already in a recession although it will not admit it." and that the rest of the world would not be insulated from the effects of another global meltdown.
Regarding Greece and Euro Zone, Roubini thinks Greece would do best to default on its debt and leave the euro zone, and that Europe needs to step up austerity measures.

Eerily, George Soros also said almost exactly the same in a CNBC interview. Soros believes the U.S. is already in a double dip recession, and that "a number of smaller euro zone nations could default and leave the single currency area." Soros also sees Europe could be "more dangerous" to the global financial system than the Lehman Brothers in 2008, due to "Euro zone policymakers repeatedly following the wrong policy shifts."

Read all about it at http://www.businessinsider.com/roubini-and-soros-say-the-us-already-in-a-double-dip-recession-and-warn-of-uprising-2011-9

Wall Street Protesters Pepper-Sprayed

NY Times' Cityroom reports that A video posted by USLaw.com, captures a confrontation on Saturday between the police and several protesters from the Occupy Wall Street movement.

In slow motion, and with annotation explaining what is happening, the video seems to show a high-ranking member of the New York Police Department spraying a substance — the video says it is Mace or pepper spray — toward several women who were standing behind a wall of orange netting. After the spraying, one woman can be seen dropping to the ground, screaming in apparent pain.

More than 80 people were arrested on Saturday as they marched from the financial district, where many have been encamped for over a week, north toward Union Square.

Find out more at http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/video-appears-to-show-protesters-being-pepper-sprayed/