Archive - Nov 13, 2014

It appears the concept of no consequences is now deeply embedded in the American society. As Student loan debtloads surge ever higher - and opportunities grow ever lower - NBC News reports a rather stunning 24% of Millennials said they expect their loans will ultimately be forgiven, according to study released Wednesday by Junior Achievement and PwC US. That helps to explain why delinquency rates are at record highs - aside from the massive debtloads and no high-paying jobs - as students see bankers rigging every market in the world with little to no consequence, one can only imagine the lessons being learned.

Naturally, a man that uttered such powerful words and who also has a considerable following would not appeal to the thug in charge of the FBI at the time, J. Edgar Hoover. So what did Mr. Hoover do? He sent a letter to Dr. King, pretending to be a black person and implied that he should kill himself. None of this is news, but until the New York Times released it yesterday, copies of this letter had always been partly redacted. We now have the uncensored version. Now ask yourself a question. Is the FBI any more ethical today than it was back then?

A 12k rise in initial jobless claims (on a seasonally-adjusted basis) missed expectations by the most in 8 weeks and rose to its highest in 7 weeks at 290k. Non-Seasonally-adjusted, claims rose a more interesting 43k but bigger picture shows the average of this noisy time series hovers near 40 year lows as low-paying jobs replace high-paying jobs... but remember a jobs a job in the eyes of the government propagandists.

• Moar central banks! Asian Stocks Rise Amid Stimulus Speculation; Topix Jumps (BBG)
• Syria rebels in south emerge as West's last hope as moderates crushed elsewhere (Reuters)
• Bufett's Berkshire to Buy Duracell Business From Procter & Gamble in $3B Deal (AP)
• Weak Demand, Real-Estate Slump Signal Headwinds for China (WSJ)
• China Slowdown Deepens as Leaders Said to Mull Cutting Target (BBG)
• Saudis Reject Talk of OPEC Market Share War as Oil Slides (BBG)
• Oil Tankers Stream Toward China as Price Drop Sparks Boom (BBG)

Wal-Mart's Q3 earnings, reported minutes ago, were a masterclass in bottom-line fudgery.

The relentless regurgitation of the only two rumors that have moved markets this week, namely the Japanese sales tax delay and the "surprise" cabinet snap elections, was once again all over the newswires last night in yet another iteration, and as a result the headline scanning algos took the Nikkei another 1.1% higher to nearly 17,400 which means at this rate the Nikkei will surpass the Dow Jones by the end of the week helped by further reports that Japan will reveal more stimulus measures on November 19, although with US equity futures rising another 7 points overnight and now just shy of 2050 which happens to be Goldman's revised year-end target, the US will hardly complain. And speaking of stimulus, the reason European equities are drifting higher following the latest ECB professional forecast release which saw the panel slash their GDP and inflation forecasts for the entire period from 2014 to 2016. In other words bad news most certainly continues to be good news for stocks, which in the US are about to hit another record high (with the bulk of the upside action once again concentrated between 11:00 and 11:30am).