Archive - 11769 - Story

“I believe that Saudi Arabia and Turkey are the two greatest dangers to world peace. It is Saudi Arabia, through the Wahhabist doctrine, that is spreading terrorism across the globe. It’s not Iran, it’s not Syria or any other country.”

Geologist Arthur Berman explains why today's low oil prices are not here to stay, something investors and consumers alike should be very aware of. The crazy-low prices we're currently experiencing are due to an oversupply created by geopolitics and (historic) easy credit, not by sustainable economics. And when the worm turns, we are more likely than not to experience a sudden supply shortfall, jolting prices viciously higher. This will be a situation not soon resolved, as the lag time for new production to come on-line will be much longer than the world wants

A few market participants have noticed that the US High Yield Energy sector's credit risk collapsed 170bps this morning according to Bloomberg's data. This is the biggest plunge (rally) in the index of "incredibly risky stuff" on record and in the face of new cycle lows in crude, borrowing bases contracting, and rig counts crashing, this seemed odd... well here is why the index collapsed (spoiler alert - do not get excited).

Moments ago with the When Issued for today's $24 billion in 3 Year paper trading at 1.188%, we were confident that as a result of the substantial short overhang, the auction would price well through the WI. It did so, and by a mile: the final high yield print was a whipping 1.174%, stopping some 1.4 bps through the When Issued.

After accounting for taxes and the possibility of a shared prize, a ticket’s monetary value is actually substantially lower than some believe (around $.75), making it a poor investment. So why do people buy them? Are consumers hapless rubes throwing away their hard-earned money in exchange for nothing? Not necessarily.

In the wake of a series of articles published over the weekend which suggested that both the police and the media in Sweden engaged in a coverup to conceal a series of sexual assaults from the public, authorities are in damage control mode. As the arrests begin, it seems likely that the far-right will capitalize on the scandal by blaming the mainstream parties for failing to protect the country's youth.

Is the U.S. economy in recession? Is it heading for recession? These questions can only be answered in hindsight, but it's worth looking for clues to what might be just ahead.

Today's renewed plunge in WTI Crude (on the verge of a '2' handle any second) has extended the Canadian Dollar's weakness (among many other oil producers). For the first time since early 2003, the Loonie is worth less than 70c... (anyone for skiing?)

With rate-hike odds plunging for every meeting across 2016, and bond yields collapsing almost as fast as stocks, it appears the market's faith in the The Fed is faltering fast...

Well that escalated quickli-er...

That savage deleveraging - it has been truly... epically... unnoticeable...

Recall how the worthless KaloBios stock soared from almost nothing first to $10, then to $20 before finally peaking in the mid-$40s: the reason for that is that Martin Shrekli, since arrested, proceeded to buy  ever more of the KBIO float, making shorting first prohibitively expensive, and ultimately, impossible when he owned virtually all of the float. The PBOC did just that overnight...

Crude carnage continues and despite the best efforts of the USDJPY pumpers, US equity markets are tumbling along with oil (and copper)...

This is the title of its latest piece looking at retail spending paterns based on its credit and debit card data: "Confusingly cautious consumer." Here is why BofA so confused by the cautious consumers.

The crude curve has just collapsed, especially since the rebound after China’s Golden Week reprieve ended around October 15. As Alhambra's Jeff Snider notes, the entire futures curve is under $50, an upsetting commentary on everything from US "demand" to long-term implications and especially those that are derived from economists’ somehow continued insistence that this is all just "transitory."