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US stock market daily report (March 04, 2013, Monday)

Contributed by Millennium Traders

Worlds top ten billionaires, with 1,416 more billionaires to go. Aggregate net worth is the equivalent of $5.4 trillion and includes stakes in public and private companies, real estate, yachts, art and cash - debt is taken into account. The U.S. leads the tally with 442 billionaires, Asia-Pacific has 386 billionaires, Europe has 366 billionaires, the Americas has 129 billionaires and Middle East & Africa contain 103 billionaires.

Carlos Slim Helu & Family $73 billion - 73 year old Mexican telecommunications tycoon;

Bill Gates $67 billion - 57 year old Microsoft co-founder - was the wealthiest person in the world from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third; during 2011 Gates was the wealthiest American as well as the second wealthiest person in the world.;

Amancio Ortega $57 billion - 76 year old co-founder of the Inditex fashion group;

Warren Buffet $53.5 billion - 82 year old CEO of Berkshire Hathaway - was the wealthiest person in the world in 2008 - Buffett is also a notable philanthropist, having pledged to give away 99% of his fortune to philanthropic causes, primarily via the Gates Foundation.;

Larry Ellison $43 billion - 68 year old co-founder and CEO of Oracle;

Charles Koch $34 billion - 77 years old and David Koch $34 billion - 56 years old - Koch Industries;

Li Ka-shing $32 billion - 84 years old, Hutchison Whampoa Limited and Cheung Kong Limited;

Liliane Bettencourt & family $30 billion - 90 year old L'Oreal heiress, Liliane suffers from dementia and was replaced on the company's board by her 25-year-old grandson Jean-Victor Meyers in February 2012.;

Bernard Arnault & family $29 billion - 63 years old LVMH Moet Hennessy - Louis Vuitton;

Christy Walton & family $28.2 billion - 64 year old widow of John T. Walton, one of the sons of Sam Walton founder of Wal-Mart, she supports the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation, which prioritizes education and benefits colleges.

And the youngest billionaires at the steamy age or 28 - Mark Zuckerberg with net worth of $13.3 billion and Dustin Moskovitz with net worth of $3.8 billion.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday, closed at its second-highest level ever with a gain of 38 points at 14,127.82. Investors are hailing the gains of the Dow amidst news of weakness and tightening reported in China. China’s Shanghai Composite Index ended with its biggest percentage fall since August 2011, lower by 3.7%.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker on Monday took issue with a concern from bankers, who suggest that firms and regulators may have a difficult time differentiating between legitimate market-making actions and prohibited, profit-making speculative transactions, in a speech before the National Association for Business Economists. “People tell me you don’t know what a proprietary trade is. It’s baloney,” Volcker said. “You could have a litmus test with the head of a bank if I was a regulator: ‘Mr. chairman, do you know what a proprietary trade is in your bank?’ Volcker said he has yet to find an executive that did not know what a proprietary trade was and added that if he found one that didn’t know what it was, that would be the time to find a new chairman. Volcker suggests that there is something “wrong or dysfunctional” with the regulatory system for the the failure of agencies to approve all the rules based on the Dodd-Frank Act. “You may ask whether they were legitimate questions. I have no doubt that there were many questions that were entirely appropriate. 200 pages? How many lobbyists were writing these, not with the intent of clarity, but with the intent of obscurity,” Volcker said. Volcker was referring to pages from lobbyists.

Hess Corp. (HES) said on Monday that the company will sell its “downstream” businesses, energy marketing, energy trading, retail businesses and assets in Indonesia and Thailand. Hess also announced a share buyback plan of up to $4 billion as well as an increase in its annual dividend by 150% in Q3. The firm intends to focus on exploration and production.