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    • The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet now tops $3 trillion, a new record. The Fed has increased its purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities as part of its so-called quantitative easing strategy to revitalize the economy.

      “Three trillion is not a lot of money today… because the financial markets are so big,” says Chris Whalen, executive VP at Carrington Investment Services. (The face value of the global derivatives market alone is estimated at $1.2 quadrillion, equivalent to $1,200 trillion.)

      But Whalen is not a fan of the Fed. FOMC policymakers “are making it up as they go,” he says, adding that they're acting more like the Marx Brothers with their ad-lib antics rather than serious regulators.

      “The Fed and the Treasury are the biggest source of systemic risks today…. creating another bubble potentially in housing and perhaps also in equities," Whalen notes.

      He wants the Fed “to explain a little better just why they’re doing what they’re doing.” Under the law, the Fed’s

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    • Sales of new homes fell 7.3% in December to a seasonally adjusted rate of 369,000, the Commerce Department reported Friday. But the government agency did revise November sales up 22,000 to a pace of 398,000 sales, which was the highest level of sales since April 2010. And, the $3,000-plus rise in the median prices of new homes sales was also a positive sign for the improving housing market.

      Earlier this week, the National Association of Realtors reported the annual price for existing homes jumped to the highest level since 2005. The median price for all existing housing types was $180,800 in December. That's 11.5% more than the same period in 2011.

      Related: Existing Home Sales Slip in December, But Housing Remains Strong

      “I think we’re off the bottom in a number of states, particularly the sand states like Arizona and California,” Chris Whalen tells The Daily Ticker. Whalen is executive vice president of Carrington Investment Services, a Connecticut-based firm that works in

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    • President Obama has nominated former New York U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White to head up the Securities and Exchange Commission. Since stepping down from her role as a state prosecutor, White has worked for the Manhattan law firm Debevoise & Plimpton.

      "Over a decade as a U.S. Attorney in New York, she helped prosecute white-collar criminals and money launderers," the president said Thursday at an event at The White House. "In the early 1990s, she brought down John Gotti, the head of the Gambino crime syndicate. And she brought to justice the terrorists responsible for bombing the World Trade Center and the American embassies in Africa. So I’d say that’s a pretty good run. You don't want to mess with Mary Jo."

      On the flip side, White has also defended some of the biggest names on Wall Street. She was a defense attorney for Ken Lewis, who was charged with improper disclosure of Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch, and she represented Rajat Gupta, who was charged with and

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    • Apple Succumbs to the $500B Market Cap Curse

      By Bernice Napach | Daily Ticker – Thu, Jan 24, 2013 12:35 PM EST

      Expectations often trump reality in the stock market.

      In its latest quarterly earnings release, Apple (AAPL) reported a record 47.8 million iPhone sales, $54.5 billion in revenues and projected revenues of $41 billion to $43 billion for the current quarter. But analysts had anticipated 50 million iPhone sales, $54.6 million in Q1 revenues and guidance as high as $45.6 billion for the current quarter.

      Apple shares plunged after the earnings announcement and shares were down another 11% by mid-morning Thursday.

      Jeff Macke, co-host of Breakout on Yahoo! Finance, says Apple shares have peaked.

      “Now it’s just a matter of whether or not [Apple] becomes one of the previous list of companies that obliterated shareholders since they hit over $500 billion,” he says. This list includes Cisco (CSCO), Intel (INTC), Microsoft (MSFT) and General Electric (GE). “So far Apple has given back over a quarter billion dollars of market cap,” Macke adds.

      “When you get that successful—picture Wal-Mart

      Read More »

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