Archive - Jul 2015

• Fed expected to push ahead with rate hike plan (Reuters)
• Upbeat earnings lift European stocks ahead of Fed (Reuters)
• Chevron to Cut 1,500 Jobs (Rigzone)
• Can Windows 10 Revive PC Sales? (WSJ)
• U.S. Junk-Bond Buyers Left in Dark as Private Deals Become Norm (BBG)
• Jeb Bush Drawing Big Bucks From GOP Establishment (WSJ)
• Myriad of Greek Risks Means Money Managers in No Hurry to Return (BBG)
• Gas production at Gazprom set to hit post-Soviet low (FT)

On a day when market participants will care about only one thing - how hawkish (or dovish) the FOMC sounds at 2:00 pm (no Yellen press conference today) - Chinese stocks provided the usual dramatic sideshow and traded unchanged or modestly negative for most of the day despite the latest $100 billion injection, the close of trading on Wednesday was a mirror image of what happened in the last hour on Monday, as various Chinese "plunge-protection" mechanism went into a furious buying frenzy and government-backed funds rushed to buy anything that trades in the last 60 minutes of trading in what may be the most glaring example of banging the close yet.

The United Kingdom has gone batshit crazy. There’s simply no other way to put it...

The bear market in bullion is an artificial creation. This artificial, indeed fraudulent, increase in the supply of paper bullion contracts drives down the price in the futures market despite high demand for bullion in the physical market and constrained supply. 

In a defiant speech delivered over the weekend, Syria's Bashar al-Assad insisted that "defeat ... does not exist in the dictionaries of the Syrian Arab army," even as the strongman admitted that his military faced a debilitating shortage of manpower. Meanwhile, WSJ says Russian officials are "showing more openness to discussing alternatives to Mr. Assad as his regime loses territory."

Clearly, the language of freedom is no longer the common tongue spoken by the citizenry and their government. With the government having shifted into a language of force, “we the people” have been reduced to suspects in a surveillance state, criminals in a police state, and enemy combatants in a military empire.

Despite the reassurances from western media and talking heads that China is unimportant (both its stock market and economy), Asian economies continue to show signs of contagion from China's slowdown as Thai exports weaken and Hong Kong trade tumbles. But it is the blame game that is top of mind tonight as Chinese regulators switch attention to Hong Kong brokers in their "investigation into malicious sellers." As SCMP's George Chen notes, first they blame a "foreign force," and now they blame Hong Kong, always careful not to blame themselves. After 3 down days, Chinese stocks look are opening slightly higher as there is little follow-through from yesterday's PPT rescue or today's panic-buying in US markets especilaly in light of an additional $100bn injection into the sovereign (rescue) fund.

"Last week, Retired General Wesley Clark, called for the government to identify people most likely to be radicalized so we can 'cut this off at the beginning.' That sounds like 'pre-crime'!...These statements and others like them most likely reflect the frustration felt in Washington over a 15 year war on terror where there has been no victory and where we actually seem worse off than when we started. The real problem is they will argue and bicker over changing tactics but their interventionist strategy remains the same."

Thank you @mcuban for your nice words. I am rapidly becoming a @dallasmavs fan! https://t.co/sLXkCh9qfg

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2015

The American political class has failed the country, and should be fired. That is the clearest message from the summer surge of Bernie Sanders and the remarkable rise of Donald Trump. But can Trump win?

The minimum wage is not what is commonly referred, as is being proven again as parts of the US experiment directly with this boundary. In New York, fast food workers have been given a $15 per hour minimum wage which is being celebrated by the same fast food workers who will bear the brunt of the experimentation. Some of them will be happy with the results, but there will be clear losers – the full wrath of redistribution is usually unseen which is why it persists.

For several weeks the Schmitt family had a million-dollar secret on their hands. Last month, it recovered $1 million worth of sunken Spanish coins and jewels off the Florida coast. The Schmitts are subcontractors to 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels LLC which since 2010 has the salvaging rights to a fleet of Spanish ships, aka the "1715 Fleet", that wrecked off the Florida coast some 300 years ago. While $50 million has been pulled in from the fleet’s resting place so far, this is so far the biggest single haul. The moment of euphoric discovery has been caught on tape, and yes, the diver sounds just a little more excited than were he to discover pet rock.

When people are hungry and unhappy, the state cannot survive if the people know others are better off. The state uses propaganda, misinformation, and censorship to make an already captive citizenry even more confused and submissive.

"The rise of China’s currency on global markets is arguably the most significant development in currency trading since the introduction of the euro in 1999."

According to Nielsen data, almost three times as many Americans watched "Celebrity Family Feud" on ABC that night. The audience for "I am Cait" also suffered a marked drop from the almost 8 million people who watched the ESPY awards show on television two weeks ago on which Jenner, 65, was presented the Arthur Ashe courage award."