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Chandelle Earns First Grassroots Trophy

24.07.11

Published: July 24, 2011 2:23 am ET

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Local filly Chandelle kicked off an evening of Ontario Sires Stakes deed at Kawartha Downs on Saturday, circling her hometown oval in 2:03.3 to earn her first Grassroots spoils.

In rein to Doug Hie, Chandelle sprinted away from Post 5 and led the field of two-year-old trotting fillies through fractions of :30.2, 1:02.1 and 1:33.3. Stormont Fried, who never saw the rod, got a head in front at the top of the stretch, but Chandelle fought her way to a three-quarter length victory. Stormont Fried finished a heroic second, with fan favourite Carscot Shalamar rounding out the top three.

Trainer Roger Hie of Cobourg, Ont. Hielite Acres Inc. of Fraserville, Ont. and In the groove Farms LLC of Verona, New Jersey share ownership of Chandelle, who was a $15,000 purchase from last waterfall’s Harrisburg Yearling Sale. The daughter of Majestic Son and $124,888 winner Aeronautess made an first miscue in the July 10 Grassroots season opener that left her at the back of the pack, but she was unassailable on Saturday.

Source: Standardbred Canada

Stocks plummet amid fallout from S&P downgrade of US credit

09.08.11

Panicked investors drove down markets worldwide Monday as they wrestled with the criterion-setting downgrade of the U.S. debt by a credit rating agency.</p><p>Even though some analysts called the denigrate meaningless, the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted more than 634 points, its biggest one-day allude to drop since December 2008.</p><p>President Barack Obama sought to reassure investors who scrambled to vamoose the spiraling stock market, saying the United States still was a &#x93;Triple A country.&#x94;</p><p>But the Dow continued its decline to 10,809.85 &#x97; a 5.5 percent dive on triple the usual trading quantity &#x97; to go below 11,000 for the first time since November 2010. It was the index&#x92;s sixth-largest inapt drop ever.</p><p>Reactions to the credit downgrade rattled worldwide markets:</p><p>&#x95;The S&P and Nasdaq indexes each tumbled more than 6.7 percent.</p><p>&#x95;Important stock indexes in Europe and Asia fell 2 percent to 6 percent.</p><p>&#x95;The U.S. dollar spent ground against the Japanese yen and Swiss franc but gained against the euro, reflecting the even greater encumbrance under obligation crises in several European countries. </p><p>&#x95;In a record leap, gold zoomed up $61.40 to $1,713.20 an ounce on the futures trade in as investors sought an alternative to currency that doesn&#x92;t depend on a government to make controls payments.</p><p>&#x95;Oil fell 6 percent to the lowest price of 2011 for a barrel of crude, mirroring fears that a worsening compactness would reduce demand.</p><p>The financial turmoil was a reaction to Friday evening&#x92;s lowering of the U.S. beholden rating by Standard & Poor&#x92;s Ratings Services.</p><p>On Monday, the agency cut its credit ratings of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, homestead lenders, and three major clearinghouses that execute trades in stock, bond and options.</p><p>S&P also downgraded 10 of the realm&#x92;s 12 Federal Home Loan Banks to AA+ from AAA, the highest rating, joining the in days downgraded banks of Seattle and Chicago.</p><p> Analysts said S&P&#x92;s downgrade of Fannie and Freddie might concern homebuyers to pay higher mortgages. The two own or guarantee about half of all home mortgages in the United States and have about nine in 10 new mortgage loans. </p><p><odoriferous><span class="subhead">Retirement planning</span></forceful></p><p>In Kansas City, certified financial planner Barbara McMahon said her clients at Innovest Pecuniary Partners who planned to retire in the next few years were the most jumpy about their portfolios.</p><p>&#x93;Some are cashing out,&#x94; McMahon said. &#x93;They&#x92;re prevailing to money markets, even though they know they won&#x92;t make anything there. They lived through the market collapse in 2008, they&#x92;d gotten back in the profit column, and they say they can&#x92;t combat another loss.&#x94;</p><p>At the same time, McMahon said, some younger investors are sensing moment and buying, and some older, retired clients think &#x93;they&#x92;re invested conservatively enough to withstand this.&#x94;</p><p>The imbroglio, McMahon said, is that nobody knows how long or how deep &#x93;this&#x94; will go.</p><p>Investors are unnerved by the European owing crisis and the realization that the U.S. economy is growing more slowly than expected. But most observers agree that governmental gridlock in Washington, which led to the S&P downgrade, precipitated the markets&#x92; big declines.</p><p>Congress&#x92; prolonged squabbling over the debt ceiling and inability to agree on other major issues overshadowed the factually that even though the U.S. economy has slowed, corporate profits are strong. </p><p>Still, the recession officially ended two years ago, and the jobless convalescence is wearing thin. Continued high unemployment (9.1 percent in July), putrid wages and a stalled housing recovery weigh heavily on Americans&#x92; minds.</p><p>Obama echoed the opinion of many, saying the nation &#x93;didn&#x92;t need a rating agency to tell us the gridlock in Washington over the last several months has not been practicable, to say the least.&#x94;</p><p>He said the problem wasn&#x92;t uncertainty in the nation&#x92;s credit standing but uncertainty in its capacity to tackle the deficit over the long term.</p><p>The president asked for &#x93;common sense and compromise,&#x94; not teachings.</p><p>He called for spending cuts along with a tax revamp for the wealthiest Americans, an extension of existing payroll tax cuts, an expansion of federal unemployment benefits and &#x93;modest adjustment&#x94; to programs like Medicare.</p><p>Few economists expected the Federal Limitation, which meets today, to announce any specific remedies. The central bank&#x92;s key interest rate already is at impending zero, where it&#x92;s been since 2008, and the Fed has indicated its intent to stay the course.</p><p>In June it completed a $600 billion get of Treasurys in an effort to prop up the economy. Some Fed leaders oppose more bond purchases as inflationary.</p><p><definite><span class="subhead">Gold is glittering</span></unmistakeable></p><p>S&P managing director John Chambers on Monday defended his agency&#x92;s credit-rating resolution, saying he didn&#x92;t think the U.S. dollar would be weakened &#x93;under any plausible scenario.&#x94;</p><p>And against many predictions, Moneys yields dropped Monday as investors sought a safe place for their cash in a move reasoning to show confidence in the U.S. Treasury&#x92;s ability to pay its creditors. Most analysts agree that Treasury securities last the world standard for safe investments. </p><p>Investor Warren Buffett told CNBC that he disagreed with the S&P falling off and that U.S. debt should still carry the top credit rating.</p><p>Buffett said $40 billion of Berkshire Hathaway&#x92;s $48 billion in bread and equivalents was in U.S. Treasury bills, adding he wouldn&#x92;t consider moving it.</p><p>&#x93;If anything,&#x94; the S&P rating metamorphose &#x93;may change my opinion on S&P,&#x94; Buffett said.</p><p>Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland, agreed that &#x93;pandemic investors have little alternative. &#x85; The fact is, Washington prints the world&#x92;s currency and will indubitably do so for a very long time to come.&#x94;</p><p>Such encouragement appeared to have little effect. </p><p>Gold began the year at $1,421.40 an ounce, so Monday&#x92;s avoid amounts to a $300 gain on the year. </p><p>Analysts note, though, that its price adjusted for inflation was higher in 1980, when it was $850 an ounce. In known dollars, that would be $2,400.</p><p>Investors often turn to gold when stocks slip. Although its value doesn&#x92;t depend on regime bond payments, gold is also seen as a hedge against inflation. </p><p><strong><span order="subhead">Effect on lenders</span></strong></p><p>The two other major confidence in rating services, Moody&#x92;s and Fitch, did not follow S&P&#x92;s lead in downgrading the long-clauses U.S. debt from AAA, the highest rating possible, to AA+.</p><p>Moody&#x92;s kept its AAA rating but assessed the viewpoint as &#x93;negative.&#x94; Fitch&#x92;s review is expected later this month.</p><p>Analysts said S&P&#x92;s AA+ rating was undoubtedly to have a greater effect on state and municipal debt markets than at the federal level. In sub-federal markets, U.S. Treasurys are very much used as collateral for borrowing and investments.</p><p>The downgrade affects bankers and lenders because many interest rates are tied to yields on Resources securities. Those securities also are used as collateral by many companies.</p><p>If the downgrade results in higher interest rates, borrowing costs will take to the streets for state and local governments that are trying to invest in infrastructure. That means the cost of erection roads, schools and other projects would go up.</p><p>The S&P downgrade &#x93;amounts to a vote of no confidence in the U.S government,&#x94; wrote Nigel Gault and Jan Randolph in an IHS Universal Insight analysis.</p><p>&#x93;The U.S. fiscal trajectory is indeed unsustainable, and the U.S. political process is at present powerless to deliver a long-term fix to stabilize the future ratio of debt to GDP,&#x94; they said.</p><p>&#x93;There&#x92;s no murder story over what is required &#x97; reduced growth in entitlement spending and higher tax revenues &#x97; but the civic center is not powerful enough at present to deliver it.&#x94;</p><p>Among industry groups, the National Pairing of Manufacturers called the credit downgrade &#x93;troubling news for manufacturers.&#x94;</p><p>Affiliation president Jay Timmons said ensuing higher interest rates would &#x93;hinder recovery in the quarters market, which has a direct impact on manufacturing.&#x94;</p><p>Economist Chris Kuehl, with Armada Corporate Wit, reminded readers of his daily newsletter that the &#x93;ratings agencies are nothing more than advisers; there is nothing magic about their opinions other than that so many people pay regard to them.&#x94;</p><p>But whether or not S&P, Fitch or Moody&#x92;s are right or wrong, Kuehl said the nation faces a bigger uncontrollable than its bond ratings.</p><p>&#x93;The debt and deficit load have already distorted the U.S. economy, and that accelerates as the decade progresses,&#x94; he wrote. &#x93;The tempo to take steps was years ago, and now some doubt the U.S. has enough time to correct the trends.</p><p>&#x93;The real issue from the angle of the analysts is the potential for another recession.&#x94;

Source: Kansas City Star