Archive - Apr 26, 2013

Tyler Durden's picture

"The Illuminati Were Amateurs" - Matt Taibbi Explains How "Everything Is Rigged"





The Illuminati were amateurs. The second huge financial scandal of the year reveals the real international conspiracy: There's no price the big banks can't fix. Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game. We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world's largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything.

 

David Fry's picture

Market Week Rally Ends Mixed





Bulls are still in charge of markets despite the shallow 2 to 3% correction the previous week. The conundrum for most investors remains, where else are you to put your money despite obvious risks and deceptive conditions? The Fed is forcing people into stocks, period.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Friday Humor (#2): The Russian 'Jim Cramer'?





As the world looks ominously in the direction of Chechnya, we thought this clip of the far less serious 'artist of the Chechen Republic' may be of interest as well as amusement. Watch as the Russian Jim Cramer-ubercaffeination and exuberance equivalent, Nikita Dzhigurda, explains to this novice trader how to buy $1 million worth of Facebook shares..."are you sure?" the trader anxiously asks... and instead of the ubiquitous "Buy, Buy, Buy" we hear claxoned day after day usually accompanied by cow sounds; the hirsute adviser, once diagnosed with 'hypo-manic psychosis' and currently spitting image of Rob Zombie, delivers the punchline, "yeah, fuck it!" Because nobody does things in Russia half-assed.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

JPMorgan Accounts For 99.3% Of The COMEX Gold Sales In The Last Three Months





When just one firm accounts for 99.3% of the physical gold sales at the COMEX in the last three months it’s not what most of us on this side of the rainbow would consider “broad-based” selling.  Of course discovering this kind of relevant information requires an internet connection, 2nd grade math and reading skills, and the desire to do a teeny-weeny bit of reporting.  Sadly they’ve wandered so far down the rabbit hole that the concept of “physical demand” (i.e. people actually wanting to take possession of the stuff) is puzzling to them because the vast majority of the world’s so-called “gold-trading” takes place in the realm of make believe (which is their natural habitat).  It’s all fun and games until somebody loses their metal and “somebody” has lost one hell of a lot of metal in the last 90 days... J P Morgan has fumbled ownership of 1,966,000 Troy ounces of gold since February 1.  That’s 74% more gold than the US mint delivered through the US mint’s American Eagle program in all of 2012.  I mention this because there’s little doubt in my mind that the US government is one of JPM’s gold “customers.”  So (if I am correct) the same US government who just let the Morgue dump its gold on the COMEX floor will once again be suspending gold sales to peasants.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Europe In One Chart





How much is the 'promise' of a European Central Banker worth? As European macro data in the last month has plunged at its fastest rate in 6 years, equity markets have, of course soared back to near multi-year highs (EuroStoxx 600 up 5% in the last week alone). We only hope that the equity markets really do know something different this time - as opposed to the last two times we saw this kind of disconnect. The answer - Draghi's 'whatever it takes' promise is maintaining a 30% illusion of wealth in European equities over their macro reality.

 

 

Tyler Durden's picture

"If" - Reflections On The Precious Metals





Last week's collapse in precious metals prices reminded Santiago Capital's Brent Johnson of Rudyard Kipling's famous poem 'If' - "If you can keep your head when all those about you are losing theirs." This brief but complete summary of why one should hold gold, the theories about the drop, his view of the manipulation - "would it really surprise anyone?", and the ongoing and increasing realization among the mainstream that a rising gold price is the canary in the coalmine of economic distress and currency debasement is well worth the price of admission. His message is clear, buy physical gold - rather than futures - don't use margin and store it somewhere safe. The last three minutes of "Ifs" are a succinct list of the questions everyone should ask themselves about the status quo.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Guest Post: The Good Guys Are Not Coming To Save Us





A lot of Americans know that the US government is out of control. Anyone who has cared enough to study the US Constitution even a little knows this. Still, very few of these people are taking any significant action, and largely because of one error: They are waiting for “the good guys” to show up and fix things. Some think that certain groups of politicians will pull it together and fix things, or that one magnificent politician will ride in to fix things. Others think that certain members of the military will step in and slap the politicians back into line. And, we're sure there are other variations. There are several problems with this. The sad truth: No one is going to ride in and save you. If you want things to get better, then YOU will have to make them better. YOU will have to stand up and take the arrows, yourself. Liberty, at this stage of human development, requires risk and pain.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

JPMorgan Receives No New COMEX Gold Today, Converts Registered Into Eligible





Anyone waiting with bated breath for the moment when cell H25 in the daily Comex gold inventory update (the one showing JPM's total holdings of Eligible gold) shows 0.000 will have to wait at least one more day. According to today's update, as of Thursday (so excluding today's post-Europe close gold shenannigans) JPM's eligible for delivery gold inventory did not receive any new gold, which started the day at yesterday's record low (for the firm) level of 141,581.5 troy ounces, and would have ended flat, had it not been for the reclassification of 17.5k ounces of registered gold into eligible.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

The Week That Was: April 22nd-26th 2013





Succinctly summarizing the positive and negative news, data, and market events of the week...

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Friday Humor (#1): Meet The New (Normal) Chuck Norris





It appears Chuck has finally met his match, and his name is Jamie...

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Bonds Up, Dow Up, JPY Up, Gold Up, Oil Up; Earnings Down, Macro Down





For the fifth week in a row, US Macro data deteriorated markedly (not helped at all by today's GDP miss). The Q1 earnings picture is dismal, with beats far less than average and revenues hugely disappointing. But, in light of all that reality, where-ever you look, screens are green. Despite some softness today (oil, S&P, and Nasdaq down) the week showed impressive gains for equities amid the lowest volume week in three months (mostly driven by the epic short squeeze on Tuesday), modest gains for Treasuries (yields lower by 2-4bps), significant outperformance by precious metals (up over 3-4% on the week - having given some back in a post-Europe smackdown today), and WTI crude up over 5% on the week.  Perhaps the most notable fact about the week (apart from equity's inexorable bid in the face of nothing positive at all) was the surge in JPY. In an Abenomics-shattering print, last night's deflation data helped USDJPY rally its most in 11 months for the week. While all asunder will be celebrating another green week, it is perhaps worth noting that while the Russell gained 1.3% from Monday's close, the 'most-shorted' names of that index more than tripled that performance - gaining 4.4% on the week... squeeeeze.

 

williambanzai7's picture

COMEX GOLD 419...





Precious paper...

 

Tyler Durden's picture

The Muppet Slaying Continues: TYM3 Edition





Another day, another muppet-slaying by the true master. Recall Goldman Sachs from April 10:

We recommend going short 10-year US Treasuries via June futures (TYM3) at the current level of 132-20 for an initial price target of 130-00 and stops on a close above 134-00. In yields space, the corresponding move is from the current 1.76% to around 2.10%, and stops on a close around 1.60% - corresponding to the lows from last November.

Fast forward to today where just out from Bloomberg we read...

  • TY Poised for Highest Close Since Dec. 11

Sorry muppets, you just got slain. Again.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Guest Post: "Peak Rail" – Has The Crude Shipping Train Left The Station?





Some call it the “holy rail.” In Alberta Canada, an estimated 120,000 barrels of oil per day are shipped out by train to the U.S. east coast and Gulf coast region. By the end of the year - when several terminals are completed - that number could reach 200,000 barrels a day. Despite rail costs doubling pipeline tariffs, the logistics have often been worth the time for producers - those that have been able to get a better price railing it past the mid-continent refineries all the way to the US East Coast and Gulf Coast. But just as Canadian rail use is set to soar again, say analysts - rail may no longer be economic. In fact, rail could be a victim of its own success.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Germany's Virtuous Circle Takeover Of Europe





German finance minister Schaeuble just explained, in a seeming effort to assuage rising fears that the one core nation left in Europe will choose the game-theoretically optimal first-defection wins strategy, that "Germany benefits from the Euro more than others." Indeed it does; as German firms are buying up strong competitors, clients or suppliers at a time when those companies are struggling to stay afloat through years of recession in their home markets and as shaky banks restrict access to credit. It appears that the slow-and-steady bloodless invasion of Europe can be summed up by the following virtuous circle of Germany's hidden strategy. Of course, as Schaeuble explained later in his missive, "it is nonsense" that Germany wants a German Europe and that the Euro exchange rates is "Okay" for Germany.

 
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