Saturday, June 14, 2014

Saturday Morning, June 14, 2014: News And For Investors Only

The Wall Street Journal

A little late? Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric issued a rare call to arms to defend against attacking Sunni insurgents -- yes, the civil war begins.

White House (continues to) weigh military options in Iraq. One word: none.

School cutbacks weigh down Pennsylvania's GOP governor.

The IRS lost all (yes, "all") of Lois Lerner's e-mail in her computer crash of 2011. One "word": LOL.

Kurdish fighters succeed where Iraqi Army fails: Kurdish Peshmerga forces retook the oil-rich city of Kirkuk from Sunni militants who had routed Iraqi forces. The big story here: I had not see that Kirkuk had originally been involved. This is not good news. The Sunnis will be back. Maybe this is where President Obama will place his focus: but no "boots on the ground."

Refugee numbers in Iraq soar.

John Kerry: asking Iran for help in Iraq. US pipelines will have to wait.

White House: Ukraine rebels got tanks from Russia.

Joe Biden: mum.

The sudden escalation of tensions in the Mideast and an unexpected political upheaval helped drive US stocks to their first weekly decline in a month. Crude oil posted its biggest jump of the year. In fact, the market's decline was minimal, considering a) the huge run-up it had experienced; most analysts spoke of a bigger pullback prior to events; b) the fact that problems in the Mideast are just beginning; and, c) a whole bunch of other things.

GM announces more recalls. Now it's a half-million Chevrol Camaros after an internal investigation found the ignition switch is susceptible to being knocked out of the "run" position.

Heard on the street: Tesla's decision to open its patents up is a bold move -- but the competitive threat it faces demands such. Comment: this suggests to me Tesla is struggling.

The Los Angeles Times

The LA Kings take the Stanley Cup. At the moment, they are LA's most successful and best-run pro sports franchise.

Another small (3 - 4) earthquake reported in California, continuing a string of such reports over the past two weeks. Comment: there seems to be a correlation with fracking in the Bakken -- as the fracking increases in the Bakken this summer, the number of small, tension-relieving earthquakes along the Pacific Coast are increasing.

Whooping cough reaches epidemic level in California. Anyone surprised? Next: Arizona. Then Massachusetts. Perhaps Texas.

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For Investors Only

Over at Seeking Alpha, Chuck Carnevale has an excellent (and a very, very long) post on long term investing. A must-read, especially for those new to investing.

Also over at Seeking Alpha, Bob Wells has three articles worth reading:

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