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First of all kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. EST on Sunday just in case you are wondering. Now you might be asking yourself why we are writing about the Super Bowl kickoff on a financial news website. The title of this article is a jab at an identical Huffington Post (AOL) article from last year's Super Bowl. Knowing that thousands of people would be checking the time that the Super Bowl starts a reporter made an article with absolutely no useful or original information to juke his pageviews. Here are the first three paragraphs in the original article (as

Facebook stole everyone's attention while the media have stayed attentive to the continuing developments in Greece and the EU. The jobs report today made Wall Street happy just in time to put everyone in a good mood for the Super Bowl. Share any good tweets below or @Minyanville! 1/30/2012 @aarontask: Priceline Kills Off 'The Negotiator': William Shatner in "Grief Mode" But $600M Richer yhoo.it/zX5m2u $PCLN $EXPE $OWW $MAR $H #PRcoup @Mark_J_Perry: ~Want to Save Endangered Exotic African Animals? Hunt Them at Big-Game Farms in Texas~ bit.ly/wMpyJU @beyondbrics: Guest post by Vladimir Putin: Russia needs more technology and less corruption on.ft.com/z461iK

Next week we have a rate decision from the European Central Bank (ECB) and it is widely expected that they will keep their benchmark rate unchanged at 1.00%. There is also a similar release from the Bank of England and it is anticipated that they will make no changes to their asset purchases. There has also been talk that a deal might get done in Greece but that's unlikely given that officials have been stating for the past three weeks that a deal was "days away." The resolution of what the ECB will do with its Greek debt holdings is

The following are the latest daily summaries of my ongoing intraday coverage providing context to interpret price action. Any prices listed are for a contract's current "front month." Their direction tends to correlate with any ETFs listed for each. Today's Highlight Volatile reactions among currencies following the payroll report did not break out of their recent range while S&Ps extended sharply higher. This might seem to be "decoupling " but it is more likely the precedent to a major turn in both markets. Dollar Basket Mar Contract DX; (UUP) (UDN) The morning's surge peaked upon filling the gap back to

All day and every day some of the stock market's best and brightest traders and money managers share their ideas insights and analysis in real-time on Minyanville's Buzz & Banter. Below are some excerpts from this week's Buzz. Click here for a 14 day free trial. Note: Some links may require Buzz subscriptions. Monday January 30 2012 Risk-On or Risk Dimmed? Michael A. Gayed With markets solidly in the red today and renewed fears over Greece hitting the tape money is clearly flowing into "safe-haven" trades such as Treasuries (TLT) and defensive sectors like Utilities (XLU). Has a trend

This past December gold prices swooned by more than 10% in their biggest monthly fall since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. For some insecure gold investors it was like a bad dream. They were happy to wake up to a bright crisp January whose performance was more than enough to warm the heart of any gold investor. It was the metal's strongest starting month in 32 years giving a resounding answer to those who wondered if the 11-year rally in gold had ended (and they always seem to come out of the woodwork every time gold experiences a correction). Gold

The headlines are blaring a massive surge in January employment that blew away analysts expectations. Frankly I find it hard to believe that any analysts would not have expected this "news." The real time Federal Withholding Tax daily data for January showed a massive surge beginning in late December 2011. Since everybody didn't get a 10% raise the analysts might have inferred that more people were working. Whether that's a sustainable trend or not is another question but for January at least there should have been no mystery. I like to look behind the headlines at the real unadjusted unmassaged

$100 billion: That's the number that has been tossed around Wall Street in recent weeks as the social-networking juggernaut quietly began the process of becoming a publicly traded company. Yesterday investors finally got the information they needed to make a more informed choice as Facebook filed papers with government regulators declaring its intent to sell stock to the public. Facebook's Closely Guarded Secrets Facebook's hotly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) filing briefly crashed the Securities and Exchange Commission's website last night as gaggles of investors and financial journalists downloaded the massive S-1 document. Facebook's S-1 was full of information and

Don't get me wrong -- I really really want to like Facebook but the more I look at the numbers the more I doubt that ticker FB will make for a great investment. Last June I stated my concerns regarding Facebook's high penetrations rates in developed countries which implied that much of the company's potential future growth was in less-lucrative emerging markets (see: Why a Facebook IPO Could Flop): The latest rumors have Facebook bringing in $2 billion in operating income on $4 billion in revenue this year. Assuming these numbers are true Facebook is bringing in about $8 for

The sun is shining and bunnies are singing on Wall Street. This morning's employment situation report shattered forecasts and heralded a heady rally on the stock markets. Here's where we are now: The Dow (DJI) shot up 1.15% to 12 851.90 it's highest since May 2008. The S&P 500 (SPY) jumped 1.29% hitting 1 342.65. The Nasdaq (^IXIC) rose 1.64% reaching an 11-year high of 2 906.48. The S&P Volatility Index (^VIX) is down 6.45% today. Financials are up 2.13% thanks to the pleasant surprise in the jobs report this morning. Bank of America (BAC) the worst performer in the

There's more evidence of the troubled consumer in the fourth quarter stats. It sets the background for Procter & Gamble (PG) here and some other stocks in future notes. The retail price of food has gone up over the last two years and has been partially passed along by the supermarkets. In the fourth quarter of 2011 according to Nielsen data food pricing was up 7-7.5% versus the year before and had accelerated from nearer 3% in the April year-to-date period. At the same time supermarket sales dollars from a positive 1% in May were declining at an accelerating rate

There are three signs that the market is bullish right now: 1. U.S. Employment Data Is Healthy The Department of Labor and Statistics Reported that Nonfarm Payrolls saw a growth of 243 000 people over 100 000 more than expectations. Manufacturing saw an increase of 50 000 jobs with private payrolls increasing 257 000. Analysts had hoped for growth of nearly 150 000 to employment figures after December saw a rise of 200 000 figures to the payroll. The unemployment rate fell again to 8.3% prompting hopes that the American recovery is here to stay. Analysts had expected slower growth

The headline number was great today of course and the market is reacting to it. The 243 000 non-farm jobs was certainly an upside surprise. But the revisions to November and December were even more impressive. For example what was originally reported as a 120 000 change from October to November 2 months ago is now coming in at 363 000. That's more than triple the original report. This is not the preliminary number either that can still be modified it's the one that's going in the books and staying there. Here's a look at the last few months to

That wry smile from last week may have been wiped off world's richest man Carlos Slim's face as his companies were accused this week of overcharging customers $13.4 billion per year between 2005 and 2009. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) made the allegations in a report published earlier this week adding that a lack of competition in Mexico's telecommunications industry cost it nearly $26 billion a year 2% of Mexico's GDP. Slim's América Móvil (AMX) runs around 80% of the country's fixed lines and 70% of its cell phones and has regularly found itself the target of

AMR (AAMRQ.PK) CEO Tom Horton seemed dismissive Thursday when he talked about an expected US Airways (LCC) bid for his airline. "This will be their fourth try at this: twice for United (UAL) once for Delta (DAL) while they were restructuring now American " Horton said during a meeting with the Dallas Morning News editorial board. "I would argue that this will be every bit as successful as their prior tries." "I'm not sure what's in the water out there in Phoenix " Horton told the newspaper. "Maybe it's the cactus. I don't know what it is." Describing US

In the 0% interest-rate world of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke the 3% dividend yield is king. When a two-year Treasury note yields 0.22% and a two-year CD pays 0.85% it's not surprising that savers and investors are eager to snap up anything with a higher yield. That's got an upside -- stocks that pay 3% or more have shown big gains in price as dividend-hungry investors have bought the shares. Intel (INTC) for example which paid a 3% dividend at the end of 2010 returned 19.03% in 2011 (combining price appreciation and dividends.) And it's got a downside

"Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not but we will be judged by only one thing – the result." --Vince Lombardi I was on CNBC yesterday doing a segment on markets and I stressed the idea that 2012 could end up being a year of significant reflation similar to 2003 and 2009 (the segment can be viewed here). I mention the clip to add some additional color to this article. In addition I wrote a lengthy piece looking at some key intermarket relationships which Marc Faber of the Gloom Boom and Doom Report published earlier

This column highlights the most interesting and useful business and financial commentary from around the Web each day. Feel free to send along your own suggestions for blog content that you've read or written. Felix Salmon Link: Fantastic News on Jobs What mean reversion? This is two fantastic jobs reports back-to-back with the second even better than the first. You thought the December jobs report was great? I certainly did - but it's been revised now and it's even better than was first reported. And the January report is positively glowing. Unemployment was just 8.3% in January marking three

"There can only be one." -Highlander Indeed. Connor MacLeod had to fight his way through time and men to receive The Prize in that one epic tournament of immortals in New York. The sword fights the beheadings the Queen soundtrack. All of it was glorious in its own unique way. Why do I bring this up? Because like a date with destiny the Fed seems to be bound and determined to euthanize the yield curve. David Schawel (@DavidSchawel on Twitter) wrote a smart post a couple of days ago which got some attention and rightfully so. Because one of the

Editor's Note: For more from Michael Kahn see the Quick Takes Pro blog. Stay on top of the best financial news and commentary on Wall Street by following us @Minyanville.