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BLOOMBERG

A confident Mitt Romney prepared for victory in the Republican presidential primary in Florida today, as Newt Gingrich, trailing in public opinion polls, vowed to wage a prolonged fight for the nomination.

Senate Banking Committee leaders are proposing to tighten sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program and human-rights record.

Italy’s jobless rate rose to the highest in eight years in December as austerity measures meant to fight the debt crisis helped push the region’s third-largest economy toward a recession.

German unemployment dropped more than economists forecast to a two-decade low in January, bolstering economic growth as the euro region’s fiscal crisis prompted companies from Spain to Greece to cut jobs.

French consumer spending fell in December as surging joblessness and concern about looming tax increases prompted households to cut back.

China – The yuan gained the most this year on optimism progress is being made on solving the European debt crisis and speculation exporter demand for the currency rose after the Lunar New Year holidays last week.

Record industrial demand for silver and resurging investor interest is diminishing a supply surplus, driving the metal used in everything from solar panels to batteries into its best start to a year in almost three decades.

Private equity firms are jumping into distressed housing as the U.S. government plans to market 200,000 foreclosed homes as rentals to speed up the economic recovery.

Confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly dropped in January as gasoline prices picked up and more Americans said jobs were hard to get.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities declined 3.7 percent from November 2010 after decreasing 3.4 percent in the year ended in October.

AP Top Stories

Avoiding Florida, Ron Paul continues stumping for votes in the caucus states that dominate the political calendar over the next week.

As Oakland puts the Occupy movement backin the nationalspotlight with TV images of flag burning and violent police clashes, there is a media war going on to define the very nature of the Occupy movement itself, with Oakland as its potential flag-bearer.

Congress’ low approval ratings have sparked a rare instance of bipartisanship, as both parties are rushing to pass a bill that would make it clear that insider trading laws apply to lawmakers. The Senate voted 93-2 Monday to clear the way for consideration of amendments and — sponsors hope — final passage later this week.

At least 12 al Qaeda militants, including four local leaders, were killed in a drone strike in southern Yemen, in what was called one of the biggest U.S. strikes against the group.

India has decided to buy 126 French-made Rafale combat aircraft for the Indian air force, clinching a massive $11 billion defense deal, a top government official said Tuesday.

A year after Republicans swept into office across the country, many have trained their sights on what has long been a fiscal conservative’s dream: the steep reduction or even outright elimination of state income taxes.

A nuclear reactor at a northern Illinois plant shut down after losing power, and steam was being vented to reduce pressure, according to officials from Exelon Nuclear and federal regulators.

House Republicans are proposing to spend about $260 billion over the next 4 1/2 years on transportation programs, as well as substantially increase the size of trucks permitted on highways, according to a draft bill being introduced this week.

BBC

The Western-Arab push for a UN resolution on Syria could put the country on a “path to civil war”, warns Russia’s deputy foreign minister.

The unemployment rate in the eurozone hit a record high of 10.4% at the end of last year, the Eurostat agency says.

WND

Now there is a major controversy developing as the latest altered Bibles are being created by organizations that most would think of as being more conservative and reasonable. At the forefront of the controversy are the Wycliffe Bible Translators, the Summer Institute of Linguistics and Frontiers, all of which are producing Bible translations that remove or modify terms which they have deemed offensive to Muslims. That’s right: Muslim-friendly Bibles. Included in the controversial development is the removal of any references to God as “Father,” to Jesus as the “Son” or “the Son of God.” One example of such a change can be seen in an Arabic version of the Gospel of Matthew produced and promoted by Frontiers and SIL. It changes Matthew 28:19 from this:“baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” to this: “cleanse them by water in the name of Allah, his Messiah and his Holy Spirit.”

An administrative law judge in Georgia could decide as early as this week whether voters in the state convinced him Barack Obama’s name should be removed from the 2012 presidential ballot because he is not qualified to hold the office. Whatever the outcome in Georgia, the issue is gaining traction in other states, too, including Alabama, Tennessee, Arizona, New Hampshire, and even Illinois, Obama’s home political base.

The decision from a federal judge who suggested $153 million of U.S. taxpayer money spent supporting Islamic Shariah really isn’t anything worth mentioning has been appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and oral arguments have been scheduled April 20 in Cincinnati. The case was filed against Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and others and is over the nation’s bailout with taxpayer money of AIG insurance, which operates multiple companies promoting Shariah-complaint insurance products, the same Shariah that serves as Islamic religious law and calls for cutting hands off thieves and execution for leaving Islam.

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Newspaper Roundup for Tuesday, January 31, 2012

http://seg.sharethis.com/getSegment.php?purl=http%3A%2F%2Ftruth4freedom.wordpress.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost-new.php%3Fpost_type%3Dpost&jsref=&rnd=1328030423970

SPY. Pivot High: $132.095, Pivot Low: $130.715

QQQ. Pivot High: $60.935, Pivot Low: $60.055

IWM. Pivot High: $79.720, Pivot Low: $78.810

XLF. Pivot High: $14.090, Pivot Low: $13.940

DeMark calculated method pivot points are bullish when price breaks out above the pivot high or bearish when price breaks down below the pivot low.

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BLOOMBERG

President Obama presides over an economy that eluded the threat of a double-dip recession in mid-2011 and now is strengthening, with growth accelerating in the fourth quarter to a 2.8 percent rate, the fastest in 18 months, from 1.8 percent the previous quarter. Still, the pace remains well short of the recovery that helped propel the re-election of Reagan — who, like Obama, faced a contraction considered in its time to be the worst since the Great Depression and also lost congressional support in mid- term elections.

EU leaders gather for their first summit of 2012 as a deteriorating economy and the struggle to complete a Greek debt write-off risk sidetracking efforts to stamp out the financial crisis.

European nations including Italy, Belgium and Spain may sell $43.3 billion of securities this week as credit-rating cuts risk upending optimism the region’s debt crisis is being contained.

Valuations for U.S. equities have been stuck below the five-decade average for the longest period since Richard Nixon’s presidency, a sign investors don’t trust earnings even after a three-year bull market. Analysts estimate profits in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will reach a record $104.78 this year after increasing 125 percent since the end of 2009, the fastest expansion in a quarter century

Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse Group and Citigroup made some of the year’s biggest cuts in compensation for investment bankers, averaging as much as 30 percent, as Wall Street firms grappled with lower revenue.

Consumer spending stalled in December as Americans used a jump in incomes to restore depleted savings, indicating the biggest part of the economy will not be a driver of the expansion.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. sued former officials of County Bank in Merced, California, part of Capital Corp. of the West, claiming their mismanagement caused $42 million in losses through bad loans.

AP Top Stories

Crews cleaned up Oakland’s historic City Hall on Sunday from damage inflicted overnight during violent anti-Wall Street protests that resulted in about 400 arrests, marking one of the largest mass arrests since nationwide protests began last year.

The Costa Concordia cruise ship may not be removed from the Tuscan coast where it capsized until the end of 2012 as rough water hampers the latest recovery operations.

Peruvian authorities say 112 people have been treated for injuries after a magnitude-6.3 earthquake struck the country’s central coast. They say none of the injuries are life-threatening.

Figures released by the government estimate people aged 65 and older will make up nearly 40 percent of the population of Japan 50 years from now. The country’s population is expected to shrink by 30 percent, with birth rates showing little signs of improvement.

An Iowa woman has given birth to a boy weighing 13 pounds and 13 ounces — without the aid of surgery.

A jury found three members of an Afghan family guilty of killing three teenage sisters and another woman in what the judge described as “cold-blooded, shameful murders” resulting from a “twisted concept of honor,” ending a case that shocked and riveted Canadians.

Former UBS trader Kweku Adoboli will stand trial in September after pleading not guilty to charges related to the loss of more than $2 billion on unauthorized trades

Americans’ income rose 0.5 percent last month by the most in nine months, a hopeful sign for the economy after a year of weak wage gains. But consumer spending was unchanged.

BBC

A Norwegian court has convicted two men of planning to attack Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten after it printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The convictions were the first under Norway’s anti-terrorism legislation.

Facebook will begin the process of becoming a publicly-listed company this week, valuing the social networking site at between $75bn and $100bn, reports suggest.

Cuban President Raul Castro says his country will keep its one-party system, allowing no competition to the ruling Communists.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warns he could nationalize banks that refuse to fund agricultural development projects backed by his government.

Growing inequality, environmental decline and “teetering” economies mean the world must change the way it does business, a UN report concludes. Health and education must improve, it says. Subsidies on fossil fuels should end, and governments must look beyond the standard economic indicator of GDP.

WND

A judge in Detroit has ruled that the decision by police in neighboring Dearborn to arrest a Christian pastor who wanted to hand out Christian tracts at the city’s Arab fest in 2009 will cost the city some $100,000.

President Obama’s new plan to force colleges and universities to contain tuition or face losing federal dollars is raising alarm among education leaders who worry about the threat of government overreach.

The time has come for the international community to stop “playing games” and get tough with Iran, declared a Knesset member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, Warning that “all options are on the table.”

The head of Iran’s state oil company said that the price of crude will reach $120 to $150 per barrel, as officials in Tehran prepare to discuss a ban on crude sales to European Union countries in retaliation for an EU embargo.

First-year college students’ political and social views shifted in a more liberal direction in 2011, according to the CIRP Freshman Survey, UCLA’s annual survey of the nation’s entering students at four-year colleges and universities. Changes were seen in student views on same-sex marriage, affirmative action and access to higher education for undocumented students.

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Newspaper Roundup for Monday, January 30, 2012

http://seg.sharethis.com/getSegment.php?purl=http%3A%2F%2Ftruth4freedom.wordpress.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost-new.php&jsref=&rnd=1327947497371

SPY. Pivot High: $132.385, Pivot Low: $131.485

QQQ. Pivot High: $60.680, Pivot Low: $60.230

IWM. Pivot High: $80.255, Pivot Low: $79.245

XLF. Pivot High: $14.255, Pivot Low: $14.055

DeMark calculated method pivot points are bullish when price breaks out above the pivot high or bearish when price breaks down below the pivot low.