Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Overnight


Here we go again, risk is on and safe harbor is out overnight in Asia in what some are calling an amazing snapback from the shock of Trump's election with the Nikkei regained a that it gave up just a day ago and more to trade 6% higher as the dollar firmed and the yen weakened.

The broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares rallied 1.7% after falling 2.4% the session earlier. In the morning after, the Dow posted nearly a 257 point gain as investors apparently look forward to the possibility of more fiscal stimulation t lift the economy from its economic doldrums. More stimulation could equal more inflation something many long to see return along with higher growth. The 256 point upswing in the Dow was the second largest gain this week. Meanwhile, the yield on the 10-year Treasury noted jumped21 basis points from 1.716 to 2.07%.

 Gold, according to Reuters, one of the initial winners of the U.S. election uncertainty, traded up 0.52 percent at $1,284.40 an ounce. On Wednesday, gold prices had surged nearly 5 percent to $1,337.40.
During Asian trade, U.S. crude futures slipped 0.07 percent to $45.24 a barrel, after settling at $45.27 in the U.S. Wednesday session, as Brent futures fell 0.13 percent to $46.30.

The Nikkei was up 5.71% to 17,178.87; the Hang Send rallied 2.01%; the ASK 200 gained 2.73%; the Kospi added 1.94% and the Shanghai composite 1.10%. Crude oil recaptured most of its earlier losses of 4%. Much of the rally in stocks came from the financial and drug sectors as investors warmed to the idea that these would not suffer the fate many believed was in store for them with a Hillary presidency. Drug stocks were the worst performing sector in the S&P 500 to date. In currencies the dollar hopped around impressively going from 101.19 yen to 105.96 overnight helped in part by the prospect of higher interest rates come next month.The euro also bounced around going from $1.1300 on the initial news about Trump winning to settle back to $1.0906 level.




The Tech Crowd

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 This tells you what sour grapes and the tech crowd are. It also tells you how they tried to use money to influence the election. Earlier when some corporations wanted to leave the country over taxes they were pilloried by these same techies and their Washington henchmen.

The real haters are this gentleman and his groupies. And we're saying it to his face.
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Shervin Pishevar, an early Uber investor and cofounder of Hyperloop, posted a series of tweets Tuesday night announcing his plans to fund "a legitimate campaign for California to become its own nation."

And no, he's not joking.
"Yes it's serious," Pishevar told CNNMoney in an e-mail. "It's the most patriotic thing I can do. The country is [at] a serious crossroads."

Within hours, several other tech founders offered their support for the plan.
"I was literally just going to tweet this. I'm in and will partner with you on it," Dave Morin, an investor and founder of private social networking tool Path, tweeted in response to Pishevar.
"I support you in this effort let me know what I can do to help," Marc Hemeon, a former Google employee and founder of Design Inc., wrote on Twitter.

Related: Jack Ma warns of 'disaster' if President Trump doesn't work with China
The plan, however unlikely to happen, highlights the tech industry's shock and frustration after pushing hard for months to oppose Trump's candidacy.

More than 100 tech power players penned an open letter this summer warning that a Trump presidency "would be a disaster for innovation." Other founders and tech investors spoke up in recent months against Trump's fiscal policies, immigration proposals and temperament.
Yet, Pishevar's remarks also shed light on a fundamental difference in thinking about how the tech industry should respond. Some criticized Pishevar and his supporters for "running away" rather than working to improve the United States.

Pishevar defended the plan as a way to "make systemic changes needed to our nation." He added that California "can reenter the union" after it becomes its own country -- and presumably after Trump's presidency is finished.

Details remain scarce on how Pishevar could help California secede -- or if it's even possible without a constitutional amendment or armed conflict.
Pishevar also said there needs to be a "serious national dialogue" around "rampant sexism, racism and hate that Trump campaign has exposed."

Presumably that much can be done even if California stays in the union.

Good Shock

Here's a shock  for you. It's the stock market this morning, the Dow.

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2016/11/09/20161109_TSY3_0.jpg

Not All Shocks Are Bad

 
Contrary to all the caterwauling and hand-wringing that happened last night over the historical event so far of this young Century, you should like the markets even better if for no other reason than there should be less price fixing and central bank manipulating.

Still another reason will be all those celebrities and quasi-pundits exiting the country. We don't know if it was just our imagination or what, but the air seemed a lot cleaner, fresher this morning. New brooms supposedly sweep clean and that could mean an end to life under the heel of the current monetary policy hacks in the Eccles building. Or those at Goldman Sachs and their close Washington friends.

The Trump win also sends a message across the Atlantic to the UK parliament. You want a democracy? The people of the UK--like it or lump it--spoke. Any underhanded ploy now to steal or reverse that will hardly go down easily. Hard or soft and Brussels bureaucrats be damned. The list of losers is long, lush and pleasant to see starting with MSM. One of the more disgraceful acts of this nation was to have a United States president go to another sovereign nation to threaten and scaremonger that nation's citizens, to attempt to openly influence an election. Lots of bullies wear suits.

It was telling to watch those media pundits at the various outlets, so sullen and glum even before the event was finally called, wondering if the new administration would demonstrate a form of "turn the other cheek" philosophy, a tenet of a religion many of these talking big-mouths overtly despise and seek to destroy. These are people who hitched their personal Pegasus to one of the darkest, most evil movements in modern times. Its formal name is political correctness or zero tolerance and now they're wondering about turning the other cheek. The souls of these people, if they have any, are more dark and gray than an early overcast morning along the coast in northern California.

But this is far from over, not so much because of what the losers will try to do to counter this, but because radical and permanent change is a must if you want to have a nation, a so-called union. There are no chosen few. Elitism in all of its nefarious forms, political, academic, economic or otherwise, must go, not via the usual crumb tossing changes, but go. And go with it is any and all versions of kick the can. Period. There's something called a subject,verb, object. All declarative sentences have them, implied or stated.There must be indictments and prosecutions. Without them there can be no semblance of healing, apologies be damned. The law was broken. You want the rabble to honor the law, honor it your Goddamn selves.

Both of these tired and trite parties are losers. Surprisingly, the Democrats more so than the stodgy old Wall Street Journal editorial board-hinged Republicans. Their shortcomings stem from pure ignorance, pure being completely out of touch. The Democrats are far more sinister, taking as they have for decades, minority voters for granted, promising much and delivering little. It was as if they believed these decent people couldn't recognize fulsome sincerity when they are saw it. That's the height of contempt. So too are the bi-coastal crowds losers. There is a middle America despite all the evil attempts currently afoot to change it.

Immigration needs to be slowed or put on moratorium until they can mold a decent, accurate way of figuring out just what the hell is coming into and not coming into this nation. Good jobs need to be created, not the Obama In-N-Out Burger kind. And term limits. The days of  public supported freeloaders camping out in Washington for years to retire on lucrative retirements paid by taxpayers needs to end. Not all shocks are bad.

In the meantime, we want to wish all those celebrities and quasi-pundits who are packing their bags this morning, a safe trip and a permanent stay.










Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Overnight


In one word, down, best describes Asian markets overnight.

Asia markets fell in Wednesday's choppy session, as polling closed in some U.S. states in the world's most closely watched election of recent times.
Japan's Nikkei 225 shed 4.12 percent, after rising more than 1 percent, as the yen, regarded as a safe haven currency, climbed amid nervousness over the vote. Dollar/yen was trading at 101.56 as of 11:32 am HK/SIN, after climbing up to 105.46 earlier.
Australia's ASX 200 was down 3.46 percent, slipping from gains of 0.8 percent at the open. The benchmark index's saw broad losses across all sub-indexes, except for gold which was up 10.4 percent. The Mexican peso dropped 10% when Trump carried Ohio.
According to NBC News, Donald Trump was the projected winner in several states: Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Indiana, West Virginia, South Carolina, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Wyoming, Louisiana and Kentucky.

https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-QS000_1109AM_P_20161108230029.jpg 
The yen rallied as the did gold and other safe haven investments.
This from Reuters. Risk is back on. Dow futures are down 600 points. Gold and the yen are up. Gold is up $40 an ounce at $1322.20 or 3%. Dow Futures are down 625 points. At one point the Dow futures were down 750 points. U.S. Treasuries, yen, gold jump by most since Brexit and the Mexican peso plunges most since 1994, per Bloomberg.
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Monday, November 7, 2016

Overnight

Caution is the word before Tuesday's election results overnight in Asia as markets are mixed. the Nikkei 225 opened up as investors hugged the sidelines as the index was off 0.2% at 17,148.27 after being higher.

Investors themselves seemed mixed as some see a Clinton victory as calming the market versus the unknown factor of a Trump win. But the reality is after a short term burst either higher or lower depending on who wins the future is quite uncertain given all the trouble around the globe. The ASX 200 was up slightly, 0.1%;  the Kospi up also 0.1%. In Hong Kong the Hang Send Index was up 0.3% and the Shanghai Composite Index tacked on 0.6%.

Reuters reported: Gold steadied early Tuesday along with the dollar, after dropping nearly 2 percent in the previous session, as uncertainty just hours ahead of the U.S. presidential election kept wary investors locked into the safe-haven commodity. The dollar steadied in Asia on Tuesday, keeping gains made in the previous session on the growing prospect of a victory for U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton after the FBI cleared her of any possibility of criminal charges in its latest probe.

With hours to go before Americans vote, Democrat Hillary Clinton has about a 90 percent chance of defeating Republican Donald Trump in the race for the White House, according to the final Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project. Investor sentiment in the euro zone improved further in November, reaching its highest level for the year and easing pressure for further stimulus measures by the European Central Bank, a survey showed on Monday.

A majority of Bank of Japan policymakers believe it could take time for inflation expectations to firm, underscoring lingering doubts on how effective the BOJ's new policy framework would be in achieving its ambitious 2 percent inflation target.  China's gold reserves rose to 59.24 million fine troy ounces (oz) at the end of October, up from 59.11 million a month earlier, the central bank said on Monday. Prices for Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, rose on reports that Russia signaled it would take part in a deal with members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut production. Brent was last up 0.2% at $46.22 a barrel in morning Asian trade, though Nymex futures were flat.




At Your Own Peril

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We have always warned about gurus and the need to realize you are on your own. Read them, digest if you want what they say, but do your on thinking. Governments want you to need them more than they need you. That's one of the globalist crowd's major themes.

Confidence is like trust, fragile at best. People have been through Magic Mario's "Whatever it takes" nonsense; they've seen, many first hand, the BOJ's decades' long monetary swamp and other central bank triflings; and we haven't even mentioned the Federal Reserves Bank's pathetic shortcomings.

It's not old men, white or otherwise, it's perception that rules in the end. And liquidity. Forget that term at your peril.

peakprosperity.com/podcast/103187/jim-rickards-theyre-going-lock-down-system
Here’s the point. In 1998, Wall Street bailed out a hedge fund (LTCM). In 2008, the central banks bailed out Wall Street. In 2018, if not sooner, who’s going to bail out the central banks? The central banks are at the point where they don’t have any dry powder left.
By way of example, the Fed took their balance from $800 billion to $4.2 trillion and cut interest rates to 0%. Now, if they had normalized things in the meantime, so let’s say they got their balance sheet back down to $800 billion or maybe one trillion dollars and raised interest rates up to 2 or 3%, I’d be the first one to congratulate them. I’d say, “Hey, nice going. You saved the world and you normalized your balance sheet and normalized interest rates.” But, that didn’t happen. The balance sheet is still at $4 trillion, interest rates are still close to 0%. What are they going to do in the next crisis? Take the balance to $8 trillion, $12 trillion? They can’t do it. There’s an invisible confidence boundary. No one knows exactly where it is -- you find out the hard way. And when you cross it, you destroy confidence in the dollar.
The only clean balance sheet left in the world is at the IMF, the International Monetary Fund. And, that’s where the liquidity will come from in the next crisis. They have a printing press. They can print this world money called a geeky name: the special drawing right, or the SDR. But just think of it as 'world money', because that’s what it is. So, the Fed has a printing press; they can print dollars. The European Central Bank has a printing press; they can print euros. The IMF has a printing press; they can print SDRs. An SDR is not backed by anything, it’s just this kind of world money. That’s where the liquidity will come from, with an important difference. The IMF is not that nimble. It will take six to eight months. Last time it took 11 months, maybe they can do it faster. But, it’ll take a few months to print this new world money.
In the meantime, if the central banks are tapped out and the IMF is taking six months or so to issue the SDRs to reliquify the system, what are the elites going to do in the meantime when they can’t print the money? They’re going to lock down the system. Money market funds are going to spend redemptions. Banks are going to be closed. ATMs will be reprogrammed so you can get max $300 a day for gas and groceries. Stock exchanges will close. By the way, all this has happened before. None of what I’m talking about is new. It has all happened before.
So, in 1998, the Fed printed the money and gave it to you. In 2008, they printed the money and gave it to you. In 2018, if not sooner, they’re not going to able to print the money, they’re not going to let you have your money. Instead, they’re going to lock down the system.

Elitist Leadership

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There is an old saying: What's good for the goose is good for the gander. It's one you can bet elites hate. A host of lesser known--and in the eyes of elitists, less important--people have been prosecuted and jailed for the crime, we emphasize the word crime here, sharing classified information.

Now one of the elites is being charged. If anything comes of it, it will strike a blow for real equality of justice these people give only patronizing lip service to.
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French president François Hollande whose approval rating is a scant 4% now faces impeachment for disclosing classified information to journalists.
Given national elections take place in 2017 and given socialists would be unlikely to convict him, one has to wonder “why bother?”, yet here we go: French Right Calls for François Hollande’s Impeachment.Republican MP Pierre Lellouche on Monday started a process to activate Article 68 of the French constitution, allowing parliament to impeach the president. The move comes three days after Eric Ciotti, another Republican MP who is managing former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign for the rightwing presidential nomination, formally requested that prosecutors investigate a potential breach of security.
While the impeachment request would have to get over several obstacles and remains a long shot, the initiatives add to Mr Hollande’s woes following the publication of a 622-page book in which the president, among other things, criticised Socialist colleagues and hoped for his party’s “hara-kiri”.
The book, A President Should Not Say That, caused outcry within Mr Hollande’s camp, pushing his approval ratings down to a record low of 4 per cent and prompting calls on the left and right for him to rule out a second presidential bid. In the book, Mr Hollande also admits that he ordered assassinations for security reasons and disclosed details of plans to destroy targets held by the regime of Bashar al-Assad after allegations that the Syrian leader bombed civilians with chemical weapons.

You're Next


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A lot of people live by the idea it won't happen to them. It's reasonable, a way to cope with many of life's vagaries, kind of a personal comfort zone available to any and all. It's another way of convicting oneself it's the other guy not me. I am one of them, I voted for them, they won't single me out.

Well, if you're currently thinking this won't and isn't happening right now here in America, you're not thinking. This is PC in it's purist sinister form. Right in your face. Diversity is supposed to be about tolerance. This is zero tolerance at its ugliest.

It's also a testimony about just how rigged the system is and how those who want want they want will stop at nothing to get it. They're called elites for a reason.
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Europe is currently seeing the reintroduction of blasphemy laws through both the front and back doors. In Britain, the gymnast Louis Smith has just been suspended for two months by British Gymnastics. This 27-year old sportsman's career has been put on hold, and potentially ruined, not because of anything to do with athletics but because of something to do with Islam.
Last month a video emerged online of the four-time Olympic medal-winner and a friend getting up to drunken antics after a wedding. The video -- taken on Smith's phone in the early hours of the morning -- showed a friend taking a rug off a wall and doing an imitation of Islamic prayer rituals. When the video from Smith's phone ended up in the hands of a newspaper, there was an immediate investigation, press castigation and public humiliation for the young athlete. Smith -- who is himself of mixed race -- was forced to parade on daytime television in Britain and deny that he is a racist, bigot or xenophobe. Notoriously liberal figures from the UK media queued up to berate him for getting drunk or for even thinking of taking part in any mockery of religion. This in a country in which Monty Python's Life of Brian is regularly voted the nation's favourite comic movie.
After an "investigation," the British sports authority has now deemed Smith's behaviour to warrant a removal of funding and a two-month ban from sport. This is the re-entry of blasphemy laws through the back door, where newspapers, daytime chat-shows and sports authorities decide between them that one religion is worthy of particular protection. They do so because they take the religion of Islam uniquely on its own estimation and believe, as well as fear, the warnings of the Islamic blasphemy-police worldwide.

The front-door reintroduction of blasphemy laws, meantime, is being initiated in a country which once prided itself on being among the first in the world to throw off clerical intrusion into politics. The Dutch politician Geert Wilders has been put on trial before. In 2010 he was tried in the courts for the contents of his film "Fitna" as well as a number of articles. The trial collapsed after one of the expert witnesses -- the late, great Dutch scholar of Islam, Hans Jansen -- revealed that a judge in the case had tried in private to influence him to change his testimony. The trial was transparently rigged and made Dutch justice look like that of a tin-pot dictatorship rather than one of the world's most developed democracies. The trial was rescheduled and, after considerable legal wrangling, Wilders was eventually found "not guilty" of a non-crime in 2011.

But it seems that the Dutch legal system, like the Mounties, is intent on always getting its man. On Monday of this week the latest trial of Geert Wilders got underway in Holland. This time Wilders is being tried because of a statement at a rally in front of his supporters in March 2014. Ahead of municipal elections, and following reports of a disproportionate amount of crimes being committed in Holland by Muslims of Moroccan origin, Wilders asked a crowd, "Do you want more or fewer Moroccans in this city and in the Netherlands?" The audience responded, "Fewer, fewer." To which Wilders responded, "Well, we'll arrange that, then."

  • Europe is currently seeing the reintroduction of blasphemy laws through both the front and back doors, initiated in a country which once prided itself on being among the first in the world to throw off clerical intrusion into politics.
  • By prosecuting Wilders, the courts in Holland are effectively ruling that there is only one correct answer to the question Wilders asked. They are saying that if someone asks you whether you would like more Moroccans or fewer, people must always answer "more," or he will be committing a crime.
  • At no point would it occur to me that anyone saying he did not want an endless flow of, say, British people coming into the Netherlands should be prosecuted. Nor would he be.
  • The long-term implications for Dutch democracy of criminalising a majority opinion are catastrophic. But the trial of Wilders is also a nakedly political move.
  • The Dutch courts are behaving like a religious court. They are trying to regulate public expression and opinion when it comes to the followers of one religion. In so doing they obviously aspire to keep the peace in the short term, but they cannot possibly realise what trouble they are storing up for our future.
gatestoneinstitute.org/9253/europe-blasphemy-courts

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Overnight

Markets got a boast overnight from the FBI news that noting in Hillary Clinton's private email server search changes their previous findings as Asian shares rose and the U.S. dollar bumped higher. Dow Jones futures leaped 220 points on the news, the Nikkei 225 rebounded 1.59%, the Kospi gained 0.89% and the ASX 200 rallied 0.96%. The Hang Send rose 0.62% and the Shanghai Comosite inched  0.13% higher.

So it's most likely risk on again with investors as they digest the news ahead of Tuesday"s election.
Reuters reported: After the FBI announcement, the Mexican peso rose against the greenback, at 18.6837 compared to levels above 19 pesos last week. The peso is seen as a proxy for Trump's hopes of winning the election, due to his vocal anti-Mexico stance.

"The Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso, the two benchmarks for the election due to their close geographic and economic ties with the US, gained strength as a Clinton White House becomes a symbol for continental trade and prosperity,"one observer noted.

Also on Monday, China will reveal its foreign currency reserves for October.
U.S. crude futures were up 1.11 percent at $44.56 a barrel in Asia, after settling at $44.07 in the Friday U.S. session, while Brent futures rose 0.97 percent to $46.02, after they settled at $45.58.
Oil futures had fallen for the sixth straight session in the U.S. on Friday, on signs of renewed tensions between Saudi Arabi and Iran, which could scupper an output-cut deal being hammered out by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members.

The WSJ noted that nickel prices soared on Monday pushing up broad based gains in base metals owing to the risk on again meme. Three-month nickel prices on the London Metal Exchange jumped 4.1% with tin prices up 3.2% and copper up 0.7%. Nickel rices since the first of the year are now up 45% on the LME. Gold retreated a bit with Spot gold XAU= was down 0.7 percent at $1,295.01 an ounce at 0127 GMT. The metal hit a low of $1,287.86 earlier in the session.