Morning Journal The trade deficit and unemployment

News on Stocks in Our Portfolios--courtesy of Seeking Alpha

04:03 AM Exxon (XOM) becomes the first "supermajor" oil company to enter Kurdistan, signing contracts to explore for oil and gas in six blocks. The deal risks the wrath of the Iraqi government, but the lure of 45B barrels of oil and 100,000B-200,000B cubic feet of gas in Kurdistan could be too good to leave to the independents. Comment!

02:51 PM Caterpillar's (CAT +0.8%) bid to buy ERA Mining is in the stretch run with final details of the $6.9B merger still being hammered out. One of the bigger items on the table is if the deal will be an all-cash offer or be financed by a note with a valuation tied to the gross profit of the company. Comment!

02:41 PM Canadian National Railway (CNI +2.1%) trades higher after announcing an agreement with Coalspur Mines (CSPZF.PK) to develop a logistics supply chain for transporting thermal coal from Coalspur's Vista coal project in Alberta to Western Canadian ports starting in 2015. Comment!

09:30 AM PepsiCo (PEP) continues its attempts to diversify beyond its core soft drink business and expand its international presence, acquiring Brazilian cookie manufacturer Mabel. The move comes on the heels of PepsiCo's September acquisition of Argentine cookie concern Dilexis. Comment!

Economics
This Week’s Data

Other

The trade deficit and unemployment (short):
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2011/11/typical-example-of-media-mis-reporting.html

Short history of bond yields in Europe (short):
http://www.capitalspectator.com/archives/2011/11/a_round_trip_wi.html#more

Study shows that bailed out banks take more risk (medium):
http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/11/hard-evidence-bailed-out-banks-take-more-risk.html

Friday morning humor; I couldn’t have said it better myself (short):
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/irishman-back-and-shares-his-views-wall-street-total-fucking-chaos

Politics

Domestic

I think that these juxtaposed articles--one from the lay back college professor and one from a bomb thrower--on Herman Cain fascinating:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/282643/cain-lost-labyrinth-victor-davis-hanson

And:
http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2011-11-09.html