PERSISTENCE AND HYPOCRISY

The WSJ's bevy of editorial writers have managed to lob just about every bomb they can toward the Donald. But the Trump Train despite some hitches keeps on chugging down the track.You can tell their running low on their supply by today's paltry peeve.

Are you ready? Here it is: "He is the least commanding front-runner since Ford." Now think about it; that's a serious charge. The key phrase in this pathetic editorial is "...weakest Republican front-runner." Ford was with all due respect a pretty dull character on a good day. A former center on the football team at Michigan, one of his opponents characterized him as "playing too many games without his helmet on."

Call Trump what you want, but dull isn't one them.

Then they cite the breakdown of those who voted for Trump so far in what they label as "the large and fractured GOP field," dividing it into what one can only suppose they deem true GOP lemmings and the disgruntled. By their calculations the disgruntled outnumber the lemmings about 3:1, a fact that ought to tell them two things: one about their archaic, bankrupt party and the other about the current state of widespread despair and how far they and their ilk are out of touch.

They next shuffled their cards to deal out one of their pet terms that's right up there with other nonsensical political favorites, bipartisan and compromise--coalition. That's their way of threatening him to make amends (We all know what that means!) with the 39% of GOP voters who recently said in exit polls "...they would consider supporting a third party candidate if Trump and Clinton are the nominees."

Well, here are a couple of observations: These folks love to lose and last time we looked there's no shortage of cake around. But you got to give those kids on the WSJ editorial staff credit for two things, their persistence and their hypocrisy.

OVERNIGHT

A weaker dollar after the Fed's do-nothing comments sent currencies across Asia higher and several stock markets there Friday took their lead from the action. The weaker dollar translated into a stronger yen driving the Nikkei index down 1.2%, not good news for Japanese officials who have been trying to drive the yen down with their negative interest rates and looked forward to ramping up exports against a stronger dollar.

The weaker dollar also affected oil prices, sending them higher, a plus for materials energy shares
The Shanghai Composite  rallied 1.3% while the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index edged up 0.5%
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.2%, and Korea’s Kospi rose 0.3%.

The WSJ reported other currencies that rallied against the dollar.

Other currencies in Asia are hovering near multi-month highs against the U.S. dollar. The moves reflect investors’ willingness to take on more risk while the dollar is weak.

On Friday, Chinese authorities guided the yuan stronger to 6.4628 per U.S. dollar, a 0.5% appreciation and the strongest move since mid-December.The Australian dollar rose to $0.7680 per U.S. dollar, its highest since last July. The Korean won, Thai baht, Singapore dollar and Malaysian ringgit have also rallied versus the greenback.

OBSCURES TO REALITY

Want to know how to accurately define elitist political contempt?

Daniel Henninger is one of the WSJ's big shot editorial page gurus. His regularly appearing column is titled, "Wonderland." Well, you don't have to wonder any longer where he's coming from.

Henninger is one of those elitists who symbolizes in one mind all those epithets he and his editorial gang like to hurl at those who disagree with them. This time around it happens to be Trump and his supporters. But just to set the record crystal clear one more time, we're not Trump supporters. Nor have we ever contributed one depreciating U.S. dollar to either of these fraudulent groups called political parties in a lifetime.

Discussing Kasich's Ohio primary victory over Trump last Tuesday, Henninger, in "Kasich's Art of the Deal," writes:

Mr. Kasich's Ohio win Tuesday did elevate in stark terms whether Mr. Trump's appeal in November in crucial Northern swing states would ever grow much beyond his lower middle-class Republican base."

Despite claims to the contrary, obviously Mr. Henninger and his fellows travelers of the conservative Republican tribe don't really give a damn about their "lower-middle class Republican base" or what they might want or believe they need.

Now we don't reside in the Midwest. We're out here in Lala Land, the home of more liberal left wing Democrats than one would find at a national Democrat convention. The people we converse with, businessmen and women, professionals, are hardly lower middle class, though surprisingly many with middle American roots however distant.

Those who are brave enough to wear their Republican lapel pins in public in general don't seem to have many good things to say about their current Republican Party, the one Henninger and his gang are so frantically trying to preserve. Funny thing is, some of the Democrats we speak with, hardly lower-middle class ones, seem to have a similar view of their own party.

Trump supporters--at least those brave enough to articulate it in public--come in all sizes, shapes and classes, a point the Henningers on the planet either can't or don't want to grasp. There are many more who will only reveal that fact in private. They're hardly stupid or uneducated, whatever that passes for today. And it might surprise Mr. Henninger that many of these people are not Caucasian, don't own any weapons and actually like other human beings of all races and so forth, proving another point.

Henninger and his clan are more out of touch with reality than those astronauts that recently returned from living nearly a year in outer space. But, then again, that's what living in, breathing in and believing in that ratified editorial air does: Obscures one to reality.

OVERNIGHT

The Fed spoke today in the week of central banks.

What the Fed said wasn't lost on Asian currencies as many of them rallied to multi-month highs, the WSJ reported.

Several Asian currencies moved to multimonth highs and the Chinese yuan jumped in early trading Thursday, after the U.S. Federal Reserve lowered its expectations for the pace of interest-rate increases during the rest of 2016.

The Australian dollar and the Singapore dollar rose to eight-month highs against their U.S. counterpart, with the Aussie strengthening 1.8% to 0.7592 compared with yesterday’s close in London.

The Singapore dollar moved 1.3% firmer to 1.3635 against its U.S. counterpart versus the London close and the Korean won hit its strongest level all year, last gaining 1.6% to 1,173.0. The Thai baht and Malaysian ringgit also hit their strongest levels in more than seven months.

After the Fed’s decision to keep rates on hold, the People’s Bank of China set its daily yuan reference rate against the U.S. dollar at 6.4961, a level 0.3% firmer than the previous day. The offshore yuan trading in Hong Kong strengthened 0.1% to 6.4920 in response.

A weaker dollar could put further pressure on Asian countries that are already experiencing a slowdown in growth. As the value of their currencies rises, it makes it harder for some of the region’s export-dependent economies to grow.

Over in the equities markets Asian shares rallied as the dollar took a hit owing to Fed's suppose decision to invoke  on two rate hikes this year. Emerging markets and oil gained too in light of less competition from a once-expected stronger dollar and higher interest rates.

The Nikkei rallied 1.4% in spite of the stronger yen. Australian shares eged 0.8% higher, the KOSPI was up 1.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, +1.07%  was up 0.4%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI, +1.19% rose 1.6%.

Oil and iron ore longtime orphans both rose on the Fed comments. Gold fell 0.2% to $1,259.61  after it's jump Wednesday. Copper jumped 1.5%..

THE SCENT OF CONFUSION

Well, now the investing world has it.

The Fed concluded it's two-day meeting Wednesday holding steady as she goes. Using the guise of what many consider phony "strong job numbers" and moderate economic growth, they dangled the bait of possibly hiking rates later this year. In the parlance, that means tightening monetary policy.

That was the on-the-one-hand message. Here is the on-the-other-hand one economists are infamous for spewing at the drop of an aggregate indicator. Any aggregate indicator. Risks are loitering out there from an uncertain global scene even as these monetary geniuses consider two quarter-point rate hikes before 2016 rolls around.

We don't want to digress, but in our brief visit to this dimension the global scene seems to have been something less than certain most of the time. It appears for all their searching and praying they turned up the scent of inflation in recent months. So we have a "range of recent indicators" that include strong job gains, the scent of inflation and any other phantasmagoria they can use to cover their you know what after they hike rates.

What makes the Fed so pathetic is these economic-soothsayers' pretensions that they know something about the unknowable, the future. So their way of telling the rest of us is they lowered their estimate of where the targeted lending rate would be in the long run. Somewhere between 3.30 and 3.50 percent. In case you want to unriddle that riddle, it's the econo-speak way of spelling tepid.

Back in December, a distant three months ago, they were projecting four rate jumps this year after a 0.25% rate increase then. That was the first rate hike in 10 years. Though they've got whiff of inflation, they also lowered their prediction of inflation for this year to 1.2% from 1.6%.

About now you ought to as confused as they are. But there's more. There always is. They also see a decline in unemployment, falling to 4.7 percent by year end and even dropping more in 2017 and 2018.

Oh yea, one voting FOMC member dissented.

MEASURED CLARITY

Trump detractors in the media will no doubt attempt to play up his loss to John Kasich.

The Wall Street Journal, true to its colors, described the three-out-of-four Trump triumph as:
A big and tumultuous primary-election day Tueday provided some clarity in each party's race toward the presidential nomination--but also an equal measure of clarity on the weaknesses of the two front runners.

That the writer chose to hyphenate that last point tells you what you need to know about its importance to those who seek to derail the Trump machine. This is clutching-at-straws-journalism disguised as significant or important news. Last time we measured, to borrow one of the writer's own terms, three out of four was 75%. The author, Gerald F. Seib, is a Wall Street Journal Washington insider who speaks the WSJ's editorial party line

But it's hardly as important as they'd like to make it. And here's why. Though originally from the east, Kasich is an Ohio State alum, a former Ohio Congressman and the current Ohio governor. Trump's lost, according to the numbers, 47% to 36%, is not surprising given Kasich's background in the home of the Wright brothers.

Trump's average margin of victory for the three states he won was 10%. In Ohio he lost by only 11% to one of the most recognized faces and names in the state, a former political television celebrity. That's hardly a sign of Trumps weaknesses. It's a sign of, if anything--and you can bet those MSM pundits hate it--his strength.

Measured clarity depends on who's doing the measuring, Mr. Seib.

OVERNIGHT

It's been about central banks mostly this week,the BOJ earlier, and now the Federal Reserve as overnight trading in Asia was mixed as the Nikkei was down 0.4% and Australia's S&P/ASX off 0.1%. While the a hang Send was flat with the KOSPI up 0.2%.

China finished its annual legislative meeting with the comment that China would meet its economic targets. The Shanghai Campsite was up 0.3%. Reuters reported: Shares in China have gained roughly 4% since the beginning of the National People’s Congress meeting, and at times, analysts have said that state-backed funds may have been supporting it by buying blue-chip stocks.

Meanwhile, investors will try to glean from the Fed today whether more rate hikes are in the immediate future or the Fed will stand pat. There are two sides to this growing concer: those want the market to free itself from it's addiction to the Fed's economic punch bowl and those who fret over prospects of still slow growth and a possible global recession at which China could be the epicenter.

According to a WSJ report, A vast majority of fund managers are expecting no more than two hikes in the next 12 months, according to a fund manager survey published Wednesday by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

LOFTY PRICES

Here's a blurb about Canadian real estate prices especially in Toronto and Vancouver. The presence of Chinese buyers in Vancouver is not new.

The west coast city has been the focus of debate over whether such lofty price increases are sustainable or whether costs are being boosted by overseas buyers.

Indeed, it was referenced among the litany of risks laid out by Fairfax Financial CEO Prem Watsa is his annual letter to shareholders.

"Canadian housing prices, particularly in Toronto and Vancouver, have gone up significantly, driven by lax policies at CMHC, " he wrote, in reference to the country's top housing watchdog.

"Canadians have accessed their increasing real estate wealth through lines of credit easily available from the banks. Sounds familiar? This is exactly what happened in the United States before the financial crisis in 2008/2009."

Canada's housing market growth has been robust in the years since the global financial crisis, partly boosted by cheap borrowing costs. But a more varied market has emerged recently, with price gains continuing in the hot markets of Toronto and Vancouver, with the energy-sensitive regions slowing, and the rest of the country plodding along.

Indeed, in Calgary, prices fell 0.9 percent in February and were 3.3 percent lower than a year ago. Home prices in the city are down 5.4 percent from their peak in October 2014.

=Canadian-home-prices-rise-in-February-boosted-by-Vancouver

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE

You don't have to be Chinese to overpay.

But in this case it helps. Especially if one is talking real estate, expensive cars for your kids and bloated-over-valued American college tuitions.

Check home prices around SoCal. The sellers? Who knows? The buyers, in many cases Chinese. The deals, nearly always all cash.
  
The bigger the price, the better.

Starwood Hotels, which owns 11 brands including Sheraton, W Hotels, and St. Regis, spread over nearly 1,300 hotels & resorts in 100 countries, announced today that an unnamed “Consortium” has made an all-cash offer to acquire the hotel group for $76 a share, or $12.8 billion.

That consortium is trying to spoil Marriott’s party. Last November, Marriott agreed to acquire Starwood to form the world’s largest hotel behemoth with over 1 million rooms.

Marriott in turn came out today and announced that the consortium was in fact led by Anbang Insurance Group in China. On March 11, Starwood had approached Marriott with the news of the unsolicited offer and obtained a waiver to pursue the new deal. The breakup fee is $400 million. So if Anbang gets Starwood, it would pay a total of $13.2 billion.

Anbang has been busy recently. It acquired the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan in late 2014 for a record $1.95 billion from Hilton, at the time majority-owned by Blackstone, after having acquired office buildings in New York and Canada. It also acquired South Korea’s Tongyang Life for $1 billion.

 Not all deals worked out. Its €3.5 billion bid for Novo Banco, a teetering Portuguese “systemically important” bank, sank into the quicksand of politics. But Anbang keeps slugging. Over the weekend, word leaked out that it had agreed to acquire Strategic Hotels & Resorts from Blackstone for $6.5 billion. According to Bloomberg’s sources, Anbang paid $450 million more than Blackstone had paid for it three months ago!

Let's see if memory serves, we recall Blackstone back at the early part of the 2008-9 downturn buying up 35,000 individual, single family homes in the U.S.that they recently bundled up--it's packaging not perception--and unloaded. Probably to some big institutional fund managers like your
your state run retirement fund.

They like to invest at market tops too.

But don't fret for those Chinese buyers. Maybe their kids can participate in the huge student class action suit that our government just cleared the way for students to file.

wolfstreet.com/2016/03/14/chinese-money-in-record-us-deals-starwood-strategic-hotels-peak-7-year-boom/

www.wsj.com/video/posh-cars-for-wealthy-chinese-students-in-the-us/0F07D213-FCE6-4173-905B-81296DD1A9FB.html?mod=trending_now_video_1

www.marketwatch.com/story/the-government-paves-the-way-for-students-to-file-class-action-lawsuits-2016-03-14

TIME WILL TELL

 So far so good. But that like a lot of things depends on what side one is standing.

In the case of the Chinese yuan, the government's apparent determination to keep the currency from falling lower is paying off. So far, so good for them. If, however, you're a hedge fund manager short the yuan, as many of the bigger boys supposedly are, it's so far, not so good.

A lot depends on whether China's troubles have bottomed. Seemingly conflicting reports surface almost daily.

China’s push to dispel concerns about the strength of its currency appears to be bearing fruit.
The yuan has ratcheted up strong gains in the past two weeks, hitting its strongest level against the dollar in less than a month in the domestic market and surging to a high unseen since early December in the more freely traded offshore market Friday.

The rally started on March 2, the eve of a two-week-long annual session of China’s legislative body and reached its climax Friday, the day before the country’s central banker took pains to fend off worries about yuan depreciation at a news conference.

“The currency’s recent strength is to a large extent due to the government’s intention to preserve an image of financial stability during the legislative meetings,” said Chaoping Zhu, economist at UOB Kay Hian Holdings, a Singapore-based brokerage.

The dollar fell to 6.4943 yuan on Monday morning Asia time, down from 6.4985 yuan at Friday’s close. The yuan hit as high as 6.4866 during intraday trading Friday, its strongest showing against the U.S. currency since Feb. 15.

If history is any guide--and the UK to cite one example--it favors the the hedge fund guys in the long run. But only time will tell.

wsj.com/articles/yuans-jump-is-sign-chinas-policy-succeeds-1457925578