The S&P 500 has not seen a drawdown of more than 3% since the election last November. As PensionPartners' Charlie Bilello notes, this is the second longest run in history… The Dow has hit 31 all-time highs in 2017 and has done so with no more than a 3% pullback. Additionally, Bilello notes this […]
Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog, “True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another, and the motive which impels them the desire to do right is precisely the same.” ? Robert E. Lee I consider myself a student of history. […]
After being appointed to Special Counsel Mueller’s team just over a month ago, ABC is now reporting that Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who oversaw the botched investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email case, has now decided to step down. ABC reports that their anonymous sources have yet to discover the reasons for Strzok’s sudden departure. […]
Last Thursday morning, just as the VIX was soaring on North Korea nuclear war fears in a historic move from single digits to ultimately peak just above 17 before retracing virtually all of the move in the coming days, we reminded readers that “As VIX Explodes, A Painful Warning: The Vega Of VIX ETFs Has […]
Trump ignited a political firestorm yesterday during an impromptu press conference in which he said there was “blame on both sides” for the tragic events that occurred in Charlottesville over the weekend. Now, the discovery of a craigslist ad posted last Monday, almost a full week before the Charlottesville protests, is raising new questions […]
Buried deep in today's FOMC Minutes was a warning to the equity markets that few noticed… This overall assessment incorporated the staff's judgment that, since the April assessment, vulnerabilities associated with asset valuation pressures had edged up from notable to elevated, as asset prices remained high or climbed further, risk spreads narrowed, and expected and […]
Shitty day for Housing Recovery enthusiasts, the Trump administration, and Fed followers… Stock actually ended the day higher thanks to the overnight bid and panic squeeze at the open but the theme of the day was simple – Trump is in trouble (agenda on the rocks) and The Fed is explicitly warning about bubbles… […]
Despite promising to do everything in his power to improve the quality of life for New York City’s most economically vulnerable residents, Mayor Bill De Blasio has instead presided over one of the largest expansions in homelessness in New York City history. Over the past two years, the population of homeless students in NYC’s public […]
Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com, There may perhaps be no other group of investors that’s more DESPERATE today than pension funds. Pensions, of course, are the giant funds responsible for paying out retirement benefits to workers. The idea is that both the employer and the employee typically contribute a set percentage of the employee’s […]
Authored by Dmitri Speck via Acting-Man.com, Suspicion Asleep You have probably noticed it already: stock market volatility has recently all but disappeared. This raises an important question for every investor: Has the market established a permanent plateau of low volatility, or is the current period of low volatility just the calm before the storm? […]
The initial reactions wre modest but directionally 'correct' given the dovish bias to the Fed Minutes – stocks are up, bonds are up (lower in yield), and the dollar is down. But then traders read the warnings that due to excessively easy financial conditions, "a tighter monetary policy than otherwise was warranted", something Goldman has […]
Also check out our travel pictures from Bali, Costa Rica, and France. Charlottesville, North Korea … things are crazy. These pics from my recent week in Maui will provide a quick break from the madness … http://WarMachines.com
Since the July 26th 'nothingburger' FOMC statement, Nasdaq is down but bonds and bullion are higher as domestic politics and global war have trumped monetary machinations. All eyes in today's Minutes will be on any mention of inflation and the balance sheet. The Fed sees inflation "picking up over the next couple years" but this […]
Even CNBC was forced to call Larry Summers on some of his more vociferous Trump slander this morning as the former Treasury Secretary took to the air in a follow-up to an op-ed that demanded all CEOs should quity Trump's councils or "they will be on the wrong side of history." Summers pulled no punches […]
The initial reaction to headlines about President Trump’s councils being disabanded was a leak lower in stocks, but once Trump tweeted, gold spiked and stocks slumped… http://WarMachines.com