Here's The Chilling Blog Post That Driver Dan Wheldon Wrote For USA Today The Day Before His Death

Dan Wheldon, who died today after an IndyCar crash in Las Vegas, wrote about having car trouble in a blog post that was published by USA Today yesterday.

The post is headlined, "Driver blog: Dan Wheldon frustrated with car in Las Vegas."

In it, he worries about his race car inexplicibly being three miles per hour slower than he'd like it.

"It is incredibly frustrating, both for me and them. All the boys are working as hard as possible, but so far we haven't pinpointed what it is."

He also offered some predictions for the race:

"Honestly, if I can be fast enough early in the race to be able to get up there and latch onto those two, it will be pure entertainment. It's going to be a pack race, and you never know how that's going to turn out."

The post was the second in a three-part series from Wheldon. The third post was supposed to "recap the race day."

It's a chilling and saddening read. But it gives you a look into his thoughts and frustrations on the eve of the race that would claim his life.

There's absolutely no indication that his car trouble had anything to do with the tragic, 15-car wreck that took his life today.

Click here to read Wheldon's entire USA Today piece >>

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AT&T Customers Are Having Huge Problems Activating Their New iPhones Today (T, AAPL)

We're hearing that several AT&T customers are having a difficult time getting their new iPhone 4S to activate on AT&T today.

For the fifth year in a row, AT&T's servers have been slammed with so many people trying to activate their iPhones at the same time.

On Twitter we've read about wait times ranging from 15 minutes to two hours for the activation to go through.

In one case, we saw a tweet where an AT&T rep told a customer he would have to wait 24-48 hours for his iPhone to activate. (We've since been updated that this user was able to activate his phone, and AT&T reps aren't supposed to say the wait is 24-48 hours to customers.)

There are a few complaints about slow activation times on Sprint and Verizon, but the vast majority are about AT&T.

To see for yourself, Gizmodo created this handy search on Twitter.

Why is this bad? Because your iPhone is a brick until the activation goes through.

We're in contact with AT&T reps and still waiting on a statement.

UPDATE: We finally heard back from AT&T. They said today is a record day for activations, but did not comment on how long it will take customers to get their phones working. Here's the full statement:

As of 4:30 pm ET today, AT&T had already activated a record number of iPhones on our network – and is on-track to double our previous record for activations on a single day. These record volumes may produce slower activations for some customers, though our systems continue to run at record levels.

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It's Getting Massive, As Hundreds Of Occupy Wall Street Protests Are Happening All Around The World Today

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What Wall Street Analysts Are Buzzing About Today (AA, CVX, GOOG, NCR, NYT)

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Good morning, here's your daily equity research roundup from the Street:

Gaming: Las Vegas August visits increased 2.8% and revenue per available room is up 14.0%. Atlantic City, not so lucky. There, revenue fell 0.6% during September. Both Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal post double-digit declines.American Airlines (NYSE: AMR): Cutting expected loss after the company announced it was grounding a dozen planes this winter to lower capacity. Analysts update loss to $3.62 for 2011 vs. - $3.66. Full year 2012 guidance raised from -$1.80/share to -$1.20/share.Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX): Company update yesterday slightly negative on 5.4% lower international gas and oil production. Foreign exchange rates and asset gains will provide a boost, and analysts believe there will be a number of upward revisions to take that into account. Barclays is increasing EPS/earnings forecasts for the third quarter to $3.64/$1.34B from $3.35/$954M.Google (NASDAQ: GOOG): The search giant reports earnings tomorrow after the market closes. Barclays estimates revenue growth of 34% to $7.3 billion and EPS to $8.74 a share - slightly below consensus estimates.Footwear and Apparel: With the NBA lockout canceling the first two weeks of games. Citi remains bullish on Finish Line as the company shifts product mix to running categories.Alcoa (NYSE: AA): Citi is lowering estimates for the aluminum producer to $0.86 from $0.99 on lower profits out of Flat-Rolled Product division. Maintaining $10 target. Yesterday Alcoa missed consensus third quarter estimates by seven cents.Owens Corning (NYSE: OC): Lowering estimates on poor revenue growth in Composites, particularly from Europe, and weakness in Roofing following hurricane season. Analysts now forecast 2011 EPS of $2.01 from $2.22.TE Connectivity (NYSE: TEL): S&P announces the inclusion of the company on the S&P 500 which will boost share purchases by nearly 45 million by funds. The company also looks to gain as Japanese auto production ramps faster than originally anticipated.Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI): Lowering full year 2011/2012 EPS on macro weakness to $2.46/$2.78 a share, from $2.50/$2.81 a share, respectively. Analysts expect sales of $2.08 billion for the quarter, up 7%.NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP): Lowering 2012 estimates by 4% to $2.42 but maintaining outperform rating. Slow revenue growth may become less an issue as firm rolls out new product ONTAP 8.1.Deutsche Bank:Earnings Preview: Goldman expects a 2% upside to current bottom-up consensus for third quarter, built mainly from surprises in Information Technology. Analysts see total EPS growth of 16% compared to 2010.Price Changes: Increase: IAC/InterActiveCorp (new $46.00 v. old $42.00), Live Nation Entertainment (new $11.50 v. old $11.00); Decreases: AOL (new $13.50 v. old $14.00), Lazard Ltd. (new $28.00 v. old $32.00), Monster Worldwide (new $7.00 v. old $13.00), Netflix (new $200.00 v. old $270.00), WebMD (new $33.00 v. $46.00).Newspapers: Further soft advertising trends likely to hurt The New York Times and Gannett Co., both of which report next week. The Times will see some upside as analysts say the "pay wall has gone very well so far and the recent launch of the Boston Globe pay wall appears to be off to a good start."Lexmark International (NYSE: LXK): Downgrading to underweight and lowering EPS estimates by 23% to $3.79 a share. Analysts believe ink jet sales could tumble as Hewlett-Packard makes a further push into the business and a cyclical downturn pressures the industry.Earnings Preview: UBS analyzed early earnings reporters and see 3% upside potential to current bottom-up estimates, but that remains below the 6% upside seen in the past six quarters.ADTRAN Inc. (NASDAQ: ADTN): Third quarter sales hit $192 million, above consensus of $189 million. EPS in line at $0.59, but investors remain worried about product assortment and price pressures.Two global bellwethers have already reported this week as earnings kick off: Alcoa and Pepsico. Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.
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The 4 Reasons Investors Are Feeling Giddy Today

  x You have successfully emailed the post. The Dow is up 275 points and the bulls having a field day.

Four big news items from China, Europe, and the U.S. could be making markets surge today.

With new economic data and announcements looking positive on all sides, the cynicism of late Q3 is gone, and Q4 optimism dominates.

Any guesses on how long that will last?

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Sports Moments That Would Have Exploded The Internet If They Happened Today

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How did people respond to crazy world events before the Internet and social media took over the world?

Whenever something totally unexpected happens, our first instinct is to hop on Twitter and share the experience with millions of other users.

Sports moments are no different.

In fact, the end of this summer's USA-Japan Women's World Cup game set the record for the most tweets per minute ever.

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The Really Ironic Part Of The Fed's Big Move Today

Something ironic about the big Fed Operation Twist announcement today...

Ostensibly, the idea behind selling short term debt and buying more long term debt is to bring interest rates down, with all the (theoretical) advantages that brings to the economy.

And boy (!) did interest rates come down today. The 30-Year is now at 2.98%. The 10-year yields 1.85%, which is basically the lowest in history.

And though the Fed wants rates lower, this is a bad sign. That kind of dramatic Treasury buying (especially coupled with the heavy selling in stocks) is a pretty clear sign that growth and inflation expectations are declining, which is exactly the OPPOSITE of what the Fed wants to see.

Remember, QE2 was also ostensibly about keeping rates down, but because it created a boom in risk assets (however temporary) long rates moved much higher during it.

What's particularly worrisome too, is that it seems like the Fed really went about as aggressive as it could on the Operation Twist front.

Nomura makes a strong case here for that:

The most notable move was the Fed’s announcement that it would “support conditions in mortgage markets” by reinvesting “principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in agency mortgage-backed securities.”

What's more, the FOMC announced its intent to “purchase, by the end of June 2012, $400 billion of Treasury securities with remaining maturities of 6 years to 30 years and to sell an equal amount of Treasury securities with remaining maturities of 3 years or less” (Figure 1). Selling the front-end means this is a more active version of the so-called “twist” option than we had anticipated. The Fed hopes that its action will “put downward pressure on longer-term interest rates and make broader financial conditions more accommodative.” The size and length of the twist program implies monthly purchases of $50 billion (over the 8 month period). The combination of MBS purchases and the extension of the average maturity of the Fed’s portfolio should provide more support than anticipated for the housing market.

The main takeaway, sadly: Be scared. The Fed brought out its latest weapon, and the conclusion of the market was that it didn't have the ammo to make a difference.

And again, the irony: The Fed wants lower rates, but the dramatic move down in rates is a strong signal that what the Fed is going to do won't work.

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The Big Ideas That Falcone, Loeb, And Cooperman Presented In New York Today

Dan Loeb

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Several hedge fund titans shared their insights for the best investment opportunities to thrive in today's volatile economic environment.

They spoke at a panel discussion Wednesday called "Best Ideas & Alpha" at the CNBC/Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha conference at the Pierre A. Taj Hotel in Manhattan.

According to Clusterstock's Courtney Comstock, who's at the conference (read her Tweets here), this is what they said.

Leon Cooperman, chairman and chief executive of Omega Advisors, said he's bullish on the U.S. equity market.

"Every manager I had lunch with had 30 to 40% less equity exposure.  Then again, maybe this is the fall of the Roman empire again."

What's more is he doesn't foresee a recession in 2011 or 2012. 

As presidential elections approach, he expects President Barack Obama "to soften his anti-wealth sentiments" for political reasons.

Cooperman, who admitted that he did not vote for Obama, said if Rick Perry is the candidate he won't vote.  He added that he has no problem with Mitt Romney though.

"If the Republicans have a viable candidate, he'll be gone.  So I'm not worried about Obama's anti-business sentiment," he said.

Phil Falcone, founder of Harbinger Capital Investments, said his top pick is Spectrum Brands.

"It's not a telecom company," he joked.

J. Tomilson Hill, chief executive of Blackstone Marketable Alternative Asset Management, said JPMorgan is the only bank in the U.S. that can hold onto its mortgage services rights.  The reason, he explains, is because of its strong Tier 1 capital ratio.

Dan Loeb, founder and chief executive at Third Point, said his investment pick is Yahoo!. 

Loeb said Yahoo! has great assets, but "one of the most horrendous management teams" he's seen in his 16 year history.

He said the problem at Yahoo! was the company was lead by "people who didn't know what they were doing." 

In order to turn it around, he said Yahoo! needs to get into "sexy areas" on the net and implement a new management team.

"No one wants to work with clowns onboard," he said.

Loeb added that Yahoo! is a small portion of the company's value.  He said Yahoo!'s logo "sucks" and that it's "stupid."

Kyle Bass, the founder and principal at Hayman Advisors, and Anne Popkin, president of Symphony Asset Management, also spoke at the panel.

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Manny Ramirez Was Arrested In Florida Today

  x You have successfully emailed the post. TMZ.com is reporting that Manny Ramirez has been arrested in Florida. Witnesses told TMZ that Many was removed from his house in handcuffs after an "altercation" with his wife.

Witnesses tell TMZ Ramirez was taken out of his Weston, Florida home at around 7 PM ET in handcuffs.  We're told Ramirez' wife was in the house.  Two witnesses tell TMZ Ramirez and his wife were involved in an altercation.

Manny retired earlier this season rather than face a 100-game suspension for testing positive for a performance enhancing drug. It was his third positive test. Manny would have been eligible to return from his suspension on July 31.

Manny signed with the Tampa Bay Rays this past off-season, but only appeared in five games before his retirement. He was 1-17 with no home runs and a single RBI. He finished with 555 career home runs, 14th on the all-time list.

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THE BEST IN THE WORLD: Here's How Novak Djokovic Ousted Rafael Nadal To Win The U.S. Open Today

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Today's U.S. Open final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal was a fitting finale to a great year of tennis.

The level of play was high, the atmosphere was electric, and the both players left every ounce of their remaining energy on the court.

Novak prevailed, but not before an epic four hours of beautiful tennis.

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