It appears that the Duetsche Bourse CEO told a financial paper over the weekend that THEY will have the upper hand in the NYSE merger announced last month, and not the NYSE. Reto Francioni also stated that the amount of synergies would be greater than the $300 million touted (i.e. more layoffs in New York!), and that Frankfurt as a market place will be strengthened by the deal, although the name has not been picked yet. Rut Roh. M. Schumer, are you sure you are ok with the deal?

Actually we never had any doubt in our minds that New York would not be the financial center anyway; after all, Mahwah already is. New Jersey gave tax breaks etc. so that the NYSE could hire 15 employees. Yes. Fifteen One Five.

In other exchange news, there has been talk all weekend that the LSE (last month they announced their plan to merge with Toronto TMX) may make a bid for NASDAQ. There is still talk as well that NASDAQ may team up with the CME and make a counter bid for the NYSE. There is even more talk concerning the possibility that NASDAQ is trying to team up with Asian exchanges.

We at Themis ask why all the hub bub? While we get that it is all about derivatives, and CDO’s, and not about the actual instruments that corporations raise capital with (equities), so that they can grow and hire, we are still puzzled.  We are still puzzled because we wonder what the plan is by all the for-profit exchanges after they HFT the bejeeezus out of derivative margins, leaving those markets a barren wasteland as well. I mean all this hubbub to make deals for short-term margin? We don’t completely get it, unless the deals will make all the ex-SOES-bandit-Exchange-professionals-and-lawyers Golden. Wait, maybe we do get it. The question is, do our government officials get it?

Where we left off 4:00pm EST:

INDU              12,169.88                                -88.32

SPX                 1,321.15                                  -9.82

CCMP             2,784.67                                  -14.07

Futures now at 7:00 am EST:

DJA                             +31 

SPA                             +4.30

NDA                           +11.00

Key Data out today:

15:00:              Consumer Credit (expecting $3.4 billion)

Since the prior close, some key stories:

–       Libya goes lock and load.

–       Saudi Arabia tells Bahrain to take care of their little problem, before Saudi Arabia does it for them.

–       US asks Saudis to ARM LIBYAN REBELS. Wow we’ll never learn, will we?

–       Day of Rage schedule for this Friday across Middle East North Africa (MENA).

–       OIL at $110 worries officials everywhere; talk over the weekend of opening strategic reserves.

–       Greek debt risk rises, as does OIL and GOLD.

–       Barclays may pay Diamond $16.5 million. That’s a lot of ETF’s!

–       Daimler talking with Rolls Royce.

–       LVMH to buy Bulgari.

–       SEC investigating Kraft for corruption in India. Didn’t the SEC’s general counsel make money on Madoff?

–       London Stock Exchange mulling over a bid for NASDAQ.

–       Moody’s slashes Greece rating. No tax receipts + Age 53 retirement age = Whoopsie!

–       Wisconsin Dems to end Union Stand-off (WSJ)

–       Barron’s: MET, PNC, airlines, TGT, RIMM all positive; JOE negative

Earnings:

Pre-market:  CIEN, DQ, DHRM

After the Close: ABM, AMCN, BSFT, CASY, CCIH, HIL, HIMN, IPCM, JAZZ< PWRD, RSCR, SNHY, URBN 

Significant Movers This Morning:

FDO +9%, PCX +4%, CIEN -6%, BRCD -5%