We have a very strong Bearish Inverted Hammer in today's trading, all momentum indicators turned negative. US Dollar chart has Breaking Down confirming Second Double Top reversal. We do not know why we have this change of heart particularly now, maybe actions of Swiss National Bank has spark intervention from FED as well. Japanese are definitely in the market trashing Yen down the pipe, now FED can not hold it any longer and will push US Dollar down, below 86 it will collapse with news on recent Deficit number for February which were played down by Bubble Media. Does the world finally awaken to US Corp fundamentals and will sell common stock US Dollar?By Timothy R. Homan
March 11 (Bloomberg) -- The record U.S. budget deficit widened further in February as a shrinking economy cut income-tax payments by companies and individuals.
The excess of spending over revenue rose to $192.8 billion, still less than economists forecast, compared with a gap of $175.6 billion in the same month a year earlier. Spending was little changed at $280.1 billion, and revenue dropped 17 percent to $87.3 billion. Corporate tax revenue in the past five months has plunged 45 percent from a year earlier.
The deficit five months into the 2009 fiscal year already exceeds the record set in the entire previous year. Rising foreclosures and 14 straight months of job losses are cutting tax receipts while the government commits hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer funds to bolster the economy, now in its second year of recession.
“The budget balance has deteriorated badly,” Steven Wood, president of Insight Economics LLC in Danville, California, wrote in a note to clients. “The budget deficit for fiscal year 2009 will rocket higher.”
Before today’s report, economists in a Bloomberg News survey forecast a February deficit of $205 billion. The median estimate was based on projections from 31 economists.
During the first five months of fiscal 2009, which began Oct. 1, the country’s deficit swelled to a record $764.5 billion for the period, compared with a $265 billion shortfall during the same period a year earlier.
Corporate Taxes
Corporate tax receipts totaled $52.8 billion through February, down from $96.9 billion in the first five months of fiscal 2008, the Treasury said. Individual income tax collections were down 13 percent so far this fiscal year, totaling $388.5 billion through February compared with $446.9 billion in the year-earlier period.
“The country faces grave challenges, both in terms of its short-term economic health and its long-term fiscal future, and working our way out of these difficulties will not happen overnight,” Peter Orszag, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, told Congress yesterday. “Our economy is in a deep recession, which threatens to be more severe than any since the Great Depression.”
The deficit in 2008 totaled a record $459 billion. The White House’s Office of Management and Budget projects a $1.5 trillion deficit this year, or 10.6 percent of gross domestic product, Orszag said.
In other categories, spending by the Social Security Administration rose 7.2 percent to $290.1 billion for the fiscal year to date; spending by the Department of Health and Services, which administers the Medicare and Medicaid health programs, rose 9.1 percent to $319.6 billion and spending by the Defense Department rose 7.5 percent to $267.5 billion.
President Barack Obama today signed into law a $410 billion spending bill that includes an overall 8 percent budget increase for some federal agencies and thousands of congressional pet projects. The measure provides funding for most government operations through Sept. 30.
To contact the reporter on this story: Timothy R. Homan in Washington at thoman1@bloomberg.net
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