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06 Oct 20:35

Picciani deve perder a liderança de megabloco

by Josias de Souza

Parceiros do PMDB no maior bloco partidário em funcionamento da Câmara, PP, PTB, PSC, PHS e PEN articulam a formação de um novo agrupamento para se livrar da liderança do peemedebista Leonardo Picciani.

Junto, o megabloco controla 149 votos. Com a separação, o novo bloco ocupará 84 assentos no plenário da Câmara. E Picciani será líder formal apenas do PMDB, cuja bancada soma 65 deputados, dos quais 22 declaram-se independentes.

Sintomaticamente, a liderança de Piccicani passou a ser questionada depois que ele se aproximou de Dilma Rousseff. Desmoronou no instante em que seu nome passou a ser cogitado como alternativa do Planalto para a presidência da Câmara.

De aliado de Eduardo Cunha, Picciani passou a ser visto como rival pelo atual madachuva da Câmara. As digitais de Cunha estão impressas na articulação que deve levar à formação do novo bloco.

Cogita-se acomodar na posição de líder do grupo o deputado André Moura (SE), comandante da bancada do PSC. Ele reúne duas características: é aliado incondicional de Cunha e defende o impeachment de Dilma.

Amigo de Picciani, o líder do PP, Eduardo da Fonte (PE), se opõe à dissolução do bloco majoritário. Mas a maioria de sua bancada defende a separação. Avalia-se que o líder do PMDB negligencia os interesses dos demais partidos.

10 Jul 19:47

Germany's finance minister joked about the US trading Puerto Rico for Greece (GREK)

by Myles Udland

Wolfgang Schaeuble

Greece is scrambling to get a new bailout package with its European creditors. 

These negotiations are playing out both behind closed doors and in public. 

And on Thursday at an event in Frankfurt, German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble didn't exactly strike a particularly sincere tone when talking about Greece and the other major debt crisis going on right now, Puerto Rico. 

According to Bloomberg, Schaeuble said, "I offered my friend [US Treasury Secretary] Jack Lew these days that we could take Puerto Rico into the euro zone if the U.S. were willing to take Greece into the dollar union. He thought that was a joke."

This might be the kind of thing that people say behind closed doors, or that people say when negotiations are going well. (Or when writing a primer on the topics.)

Now, people who are following this situation closely won't be totally shocked to see these comments from Schaeuble, as he's seen as a hard-liner in the negotiations, demanding deep reforms from Greece and insisting it get no debt relief. 

But given the tense state of negotiations, and the deteriorating situation in Greece, this is not the kind of rhetoric that is going to help either side reach a deal. 

Greek banks are still closed, and will remain so through Monday. Confidence in the Greek banking system, even from those who aren't yet financially stretched, has also completely collapsed

Greece has until tonight to submit a new plan, and the European Union meeting on Sunday has been marketed as the absolute last day for Greece to either reach a deal with Europe, or start making other plans

SEE ALSO: The economist who coined the phrase 'Grexit' now thinks Greece is likely to leave the euro

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22 Dec 18:54

Here's The Deal With The 'Santa Claus Rally' Traders Talk About

by Sam Ro

santa rally

There's a mythical phenomenon in the stock market that some historians refer to as the "Santa Claus Rally."

Simply put, it's the observation that historically, stocks have tended to rally during the trading days between Christmas and New Year's.

PNC Financial Services' Bill Stone writes about it:

According to the 2015 Stock Trader’s Almanac, since 1969 the Santa Claus rally has yielded positive returns in 34 of the past 44 holiday seasons—the last five trading days of the year and the first two trading days after New Year’s. The average cumulative return over these days is 1.6%, and returns are positive in each of the nine days of the rally, on average. Nevertheless, each year there is at least one day of declines.

Alternative research over a longer period confirms the persistence of these trends: According to historical data going back to 1896, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained an average of 1.7% during this seven-day trading period, rising 77% of the time.

So, why does this happen?

Who knows? According to Stone, some popular explanations: year-end tax-related portfolio adjustments; optimism during the holiday season; and short-sellers being on vacation.

Frankly, none of those rationals are not worth betting on.

If there's any explanation for the trend, it may just be that stocks just tend to go up on average.

SEE ALSO: The Single Most Important Risk To Stock Market Investors

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