Morning Journal--Regulators punt on 'too big to fail'

News on Stocks in Our Portfolios

Medtronic beats by $0.01, beats on revenue

·         Medtronic (NYSE:MDT): FQ1 EPS of $0.93 beats by $0.01.

·         Revenue of $4.27B (+4.7% Y/Y) beats by $20M.

Home Depot beats by $0.07, beats on revenue

• Home Depot (NYSE:HD): Q2 EPS of $1.52 beats by $0.07.
• Revenue of $23.8B (+5.7% Y/Y) beats by $180M.

Economics

   This Week’s Data

            The NAHB housing market (confidence) index rose to 55 versus expectations of 53.

            http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2014/08/nahb-builder-confidence-increased-to-55.html

                And no wonder, July housing starts rose 14% versus estimates of up 8%.

            July CPI was up 0.1%, in line: ex food and energy, it was up 0.1% versus forecasts of up 0.2%.

   Other

            Regulators punting ‘too big to fail’ (medium):

            http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/08/regulators-punting-on-too-big-to-fail-problem-of-repo.html

            Three reasons why Europe is struggling (short):

            http://pragcap.com/three-reasons-europe-is-struggling

Politics

  Domestic

Quote of the day (short):

http://cafehayek.com/2014/08/quotation-of-the-day-1084.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CafeHayek+%28Cafe+Hayek%29

  International

            Latest from Ukraine (medium):

            http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-18/disinformation-war-escalates-ukraine-rebels-accuse-each-other-attacking-refugee-conv

            And Bulgaria halts pipeline that bypasses Ukraine (short):

            http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-18/bulgaria-halts-south-stream-pipeline-again-nato-f-15s-troops-arrive