MF Global (MF - option chain) shares rose sharply Wednesday after the company announced that former chairman of Goldman Sachs (GS), New Jersey governor, and U.S. Senator Jon Corzine will be the company's new CEO and chairman, effective immediately. Analysts have cheered the move, citing Corzine's experience at Goldman Sachs and his political clout. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on MF.

MF opened Wednesday at $8.35. By mid day the stock had hit a low of $7.96 and a high of $8.42. As of 12:30, MF is trading at $8.11 up 0.79 (10.8%). The chart for MF looks bullish and S&P does not currently have a STARS rating for MF.

Jobless claims almost went under 500,000 and gave one of the lowest readings this year. Unfortunately that wasn't enough for the market because these likely need to get under 400,000 or so before unemployment will stop rising. Oil inventories took some fuel from oil, but the weak 30-Year Treasury auction and the government's budget deficit kept the six day rally from turning into a 7-day rally.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,197.47 -93.79 (-0.91%)
S&P 500 1,087.21 -11.30 (-1.03%)
Nasdaq 2,149.29 -17.61 (-0.81%)

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In normal times, market analysts, pundits and economists would not be mulling over names and scuttlebutt regarding the new U.S. President's likely nominee for U.S. Treasury Secretary, months before the inauguration.

But as investors and traders know, these are not normal times, and with United States officials making their best effort to avoid a reappearance of the barter system, names are surfacing regarding who the likely Treasury nominee, should poll leader U.S. Sen. Barack Obama be elected.

The top two contenders, according to TheDeal: Gov. Jon Corzine of New Jersey, and Lawrence Summers, Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton Administration (1999-2001).

A second tier candidate, in economist David H. Wang's opinion, is Citigroup (NYSE: C) executive Robert Rubin, who served as Treasury Secretary during the Clinton Administration, 1995-1999.

"All three are qualified, in my view. And there are no perfect or unblemished candidates, given what the nation has gone through in the financial crisis," Wang said. "Each has an appropriate temperament and is in tune with Obama's economic philosophy, which is a mix of center-left here, center-right there, and be willing to try creative and innovative solutions when needed."

The Oracle of Omaha is shining a light on the presidential campaign of Barack Obama.

According to media reports, Warren Buffett is participating with Obama in a meeting about the economy along with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Chairman Eric Schmidt, former Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Larry Summers and former Labor Secretary Bob Reich, according to CNBC. New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) co-chairman, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker also will be at the meeting of the wisemen tomorrow. Buffett will be participating via telephone hook-up.

There is plenty to talk about given the current state of the economy and the housing market which the International Monetary Fund says shows no signs of recovery. Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, is clearly signaling not to expect much from the meeting.

``I expect some further fine-tuning of short-term policies based on what's happened over the last several months,'' Obama said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

What that means is not clear. It should surprise no one that Buffett is backing Obama. The investor has been critical of President Bush's economic policies including the repeal of the estate tax which he said would be a "terrible mistake." But that doesn't mean he agrees with all of Obama's policies either.

As CNBC notes, Buffett supported Hillary Clinton while she was running for president and disagrees with Obama's call to tax the windfall profits of oil companies and his decision to forgo public financing of his campaign. I guess the Omaha investor considers Obama to be a significant improvement over Republican John McCain.

Interesting how the greatest investor in history who Republicans tout as a champion of capitalism is as big of a Democrat as Barbra Streisand.

The already tattered reputation of my home state of New Jersey took another pounding today following revelations that the SEC and the U.S Attorneys office is investigating the state's $80 billion pension system for misleading investors about billions in funding shortfalls.

As Bloomberg News notes, the problem dates the bull market of the 1990s when the state pension fund moved to an accounting method based on the market value of investments which boosted the value of the pension fund as stocks soared and allowed officials to reduce payments. Of course, things went awry when the bull market crashed.

New Jersey has begun contributing again to the pension system under Gov. Jon Corzine, putting in $1 billion during the last fiscal year with plans to contribute more, Bloomberg says.

The SEC is considering strengthening rules governing the municipal bond market, so it's likely that other pension funds will get scrutinized.

But other states will be hard pressed to top NJ in terms of financial shenanigans. The Star-Ledger reports that New Jersey has skipped $8.1 billion in payments for the pensions for hundreds of thousands of current and retired workers including police, firefighters, government workers and teachers since 1997.

They certainly deserved better from our leaders in Trenton.