Rajeet Nabha's List: Investing US

• A benchmark indicator of U.S. corporate credit risk soared to the most in three months.

• The median price declined to $330,000 from $587,500 in the nine-county region,
• Half of the resales were foreclosures,”
• The number of sales gained in six counties and fell in Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo. San Mateo and Marin had the lowest sales count for a December in MDA DataQuick’s records, which go back two decades
• San Francisco’s sales count was the lowest for a December since 1990, with 366 houses and condos sold compared with 316 in December 199
• The most active lenders to Bay Area homebuyers in December were Bank of America Corp., its Countrywide unit, and Wells Fargo & Co., MDA DataQuick said.

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• Now, auto production accounts for only about 3 percent of GDP, Stanley says.
• show 239,000 people work in the U.S. for GM, Chrysler and Ford
• 2.5 million if GM failed and 3.5 million if all three
• hat includes 1.4 million people in industries such as retailing that aren’t directly tied to manufacturin
• dditional six outside
• “But over a million in the first quarter of ‘09, I think, would be reasonable to expect.”
• U.S. auto sales plunged 37 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 10.2 million
• 00 dealers will close this year and 1,100 next year
• them GM, Ford and Chrysler franchises
• 13,000 dealers nationwide, employing more than 700,000 workers.
• auto- parts makers
• higher unemployment costs for states
• $279 a week for benefits for 26 weeks
• Bankruptcy could throw them into federal government programs
• more than $150 billion because
• on unemployment, more people needing health care
• decline in tax revenue
• A collapse would quickly spread to financial markets, said Eric Selle, an automotive-credit analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a research report last month.
• The automakers’ bonds “already trade at 20 to 40 percent of par value, suggesting that many of the losses that would be associated with a default have probably already been recognized,” he said.
• the economy is going to take a hit

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• $10.7 trillion in November from $9.15 trillion a year earlier, the amount of interest paid in the last two months fell by $10 billion, according to the Treasury Department.
• Foreign central banks and other institutions are accumulating Treasuries at the fastest pace since 1988, boosting their holdings 12 percent since September, compared with a 7.7 percent increase l
• st quarter, ac
• two-year Treasury note tumbled to 0.76 percent last week from this year’s peak of 3.11 percent
• on three- month bills turned negative on Dec. 9
• two-year note yielded 0.80 percent
• The drop in yields drove bond prices higher,
• the world’s second largest economy ran its national debt to 1.5 times of gross domestic product.
• U.S. The national debt in the U.S. is 72 percent of GDP.
• Interest was $92.5 billion from August through November 2007 on the $9.15 trillion in total debt outstanding, resulting in interest expense of 1.01 percent. In the same period a year later, interest was $87.5 billion on $10.66 trillion in total debt, dropping the expense to 0.8 percent.
• 10-year Treasury yields to end 2009 at 3.65 percent, that’s still below the average of 6.91 percent paid on the securities since 1962.
• Obama plans an economic stimulus package that may approach $1 trillion, in addition to a middle-class tax cut and universal health care, which may add $4 trillion or more to the national debt over 10 year

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• As more loans are repaid, there is less need for dollars, forcing investors to value the currency on metrics such as relative interest rates, budget deficits and trade balances.
• “Treasuries have some bubble characteristics.”
• “The government and the Fed cannot continue to talk about trillions of dollars of financing and expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet without the dollar going south,” Gross said
• $1 trillion deficit, and that’s before the next stimulus package. If Treasury spends all of TARP, it could be $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion.”
• The $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said may total $500 billion to $600 billion.
• The U.S. economy may contract 3.9 percent this quarter and 2 percent in the first three months of 2009
• The Citigroup strategists predicted on Nov. 6 that the euro, which was trading at $1.2715, would rally toward $1.33.
• the dollar will weaken to $1.45 per euro by the end of 2009,

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