March Consumer Confidence Plunges

March consumer confidence plunged to 59.7 from 69.6, and well below expectations of a 67.5 print. Both components of the index dipped, with both the present situation and expectations indices sliding from 61.4 and 72.4, to 57.9 and 60.9, respectively.

And just to make sure the S&P ramps to all time highs on ongoing miserable economic, corporate profit and, of course, sovereign insolvency news, we got both New Home Sales, dropping from 431K to 411K, missing expectations of 420K, and the Richmond Fed also missing expectations of a 6 print, dropping from last month's 6 to 3. All in all, if this latest round of ugly and rapidly getting worse economic data doesn't send the S&P to new all time highs, nothing will. Well, perhaps another European country going broke may do the trick. Read more >>

S&P downgrades world's oldest bank to junk

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday cut its credit rating for troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena -- the world's oldest surviving lender -- to speculative-grade status of BB+ from BBB-.

The ratings agency said it was also placing the bank on negative outlook.

"Deteriorating trends in Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena's financial position make it unlikely that the bank would restore profitability and improve its capital and funding position in line with our previous expectations.

"The difficult economic and operating environment we anticipate in the Italian market will compound the challenges for MPS to implement successfully its business plan," the agency said in a statement.

The ratings agency said the bank's profitability could continue to be under pressure through 2013 despite its efforts to reduce costs. Read more >>

Jim Rogers: U.S. doesn't deserve AA+ credit rating, much less triple-A

Image via WikipediaThe U.S. doesn't deserve a AA-plus credit rating, much less triple-A, commodity bull and noted investor Jim Rogers told CNBC on Monday.

Rogers said the country was unlikely to be able to pay off its debt and Standard and Poor's rating cut had come too late and should have happened long ago.

"It seems to me it's physically, humanly impossible for the U.S. to ever pay off its debt," Rogers said. "They can roll it over and continue to play the charade, but the U.S. is bankrupt."

Rogers’ comments came during a CNBC interview with the head of sovereign ratings at Standard and Poor's, David Beers.

Beers said that according to S&P's calculations, total U.S. public debt, which includes local, state and federal government debt, will be $11 trillion this year, and will rise to $14 trillion in 2015 and to $20 trillion by 2021.

To put those numbers into perspective, according to the U.S. government's Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. annual gross domestic product (GDP) totaled $15 trillion in the second quarter of 2011. More...