Archive - Nov 5, 2014 - Story

The good news is that New York's first Ebola patient, Dr. Spencer, is "showing improvement."

The bad news is: *NYC: 357 INDIVIDUALS ACTIVELY MONITORED AS OF NOV. 5

Contained indeed and "hard to catch." Perhaps that explains why Obama just asked for $6.2 billion to manage this monster.

While the Tesla endgame is increasingly apparent to anyone who is not hypnotized by the Musk siren , here, for everyone else, are three charts that scream that the Amazon "growth story" revulsion is just one determined seller away.

Well it's the day after Midterms so stocks had to rally, right? It appears no one told Nasdaq stocks to toe-the-line. The Dow led the day (led by Visa again, 40 of 85pts); Trannies appeared to enjoy higher oil prices today and while the hunt for a catalyst remains absent, 1315ET marked a schizophrenic divergence in stock-buying exuberance that Nasdaq never recovered from. A very choppy day in stocks - macro data, Saudi headlines, McConnell and Obama. Gold (worst day in 4 months to Apr 2010) and silver (worst day in 13 months to Feb 2010) were crushed overnight (amid zero liquidity). Oil prices surged on Saudi ISIS fears (best day in 2 months) breaking above $79. Treasury yields rose modestly (but rallied into the close). The USDollar rallied in the EU session then flatlined in the US session. HY credit was not buying the equity exuberance as HGY closed red.

 "The US Mint has just announced that they are temporarily sold out of American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins.  They are in the process of producing more and will advise when additional inventory is available." To paraphrase: the US mint just sold out of all silver American Eagle silver bullion coins, following "tremendous" demand in the past several weeks, according to Reuters reports.

While one can debate the naivete of anyone expecting much if anything to change as a result of the midterm, or any, elections, one things is certain: America spoke up, and said the "recovery" of the past 6 years not only isn't working but is the biggest lie perpetuated by the country's true ruler: the Fed and its Wall Street bank "advisors", and demanded change: something more than just fabricated daily record highs in the nominal values of assorted Fed-rigged pieces of paper.

We are sure the President will be stunned by the loss overnight having not seen it coming but judging by Harry Reid's 'congratulatory' comments to Mitch McConnell that "the message from voters is clear: they want us to work together," which seem disingenuous at best, things won't be easy. Following Mitch McConnell's somewhat aggressive tone, we suspect the President will come out swinging. Of course, The President has his veto pen... and he's not afraid to use it.

"Everything is all set for Nov. 9," says a senior Catalan regional government official as the region prepares to defy both the central government and the country's highest court and proceed with a much-disputed weekend vote on whether to secede from Spain. And while the Spanish government has not specified what legal consequences Catalan leaders, poll workers or voters might face Sunday, when they go to vote, The LA Times reports that Madrid has reportedly readied thousands of Civil Guard police officers to travel to Catalonia this weekend if needed. As Libertat repots, the presence of military convoys on the roads in Catalonia, specifically Pizarro has been steady throughout the day.

*MCCONNELL SAYS ONLY ONE DEMOCRAT COUNTS: OBAMA

Front-running President Obama's press conference by an hour, new Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (having received a congratulatory phone message from the President on his party's victory) will, we are sure, encourage bipartisanship and utter conciliatory tones as he holds his first press conference post-election. However, judging from some comments, the gloves are off. "We want to get things in front of the president that define him and his party," one Republican Senate aide said, "Harry Reid has protected him. We want to force him to make a choice."

As the 'new' alternative political party - "We Can" - surges to the lead in polls in Spain, it appears extreme parties from around Europe are taking note. As KeepTalkingGreece reports, the Spanish branch of the neo-fascist Golden Dawn party has been officially registered as a political party in Spain. Between Catalan secession, record youth unemployment, and government corruption, throwing some right-wing extremists into the mix should 'help'.

George Carlin explains why he doesn't complain about politicians... "this is all we have to offer, garbage in, garbage out" Maybe, he chides, it's not the politicians, "the public sucks, f#$k hope!"

Republicans have won majorities in the House and Senate. Results in some states have not yet been finalized, but Republican gains appear to be somewhat larger than most observers expected. On the bright side, Goldman expects a more active legislative agenda (gettng things done) but on the more worrying side, they warn of risk of renewed uncertainty ahead of fiscal deadlines.

The legendary Hungarian-American investor, George Soros, told Handelsblatt that the European Union and euro currency zone could unravel if member countries can't agree on a unified response to Russia's aggression in Ukraine. "Wake up Europe," he chides, adding that Western economic sanctions against Russia, which are limiting the ability of Russian businesses to obtain financing on the global market, are a necessary evil, concluding "Freedom sounds like a free good, but you have to be ready to defend it."

UPDATE: ARABIAN SECURITY SOURCE SAYS FIRE OCCURRED IN AN OIL PIPELINE, NOT TERRORIST ATTACK

It appears Saudi markets are back in play. As Bloomberg's Richard Breslow noted this morning, Riyal forwards have jerked notably higher (implying weakness expected) and the Tadawul All Share Index has dropped 7% in the last 2 days after the killing of Shi'ites by unknown parties and now news that a pipeline has exploded. As Breslow warns, "if that indeed signifies the spread of Islamic State into Saudi Arabia, it would be the first time they crossed Saudi borders. That would be a big deal and a major escalation of problems over in that part of the world, far beyond what it would do to capital markets."

We applaud PIMCO's attempt to stem the bleeding, however by publicly confronting such a critical, for any asset manager, topic as fund outflows and even providing a handy daily chart of outflows, we fear it will only push the situation from bad to worse, as increasingly more investors ask themselves: "what are we missing." Especially since the appropriate chart to focus on is not the one showing the outflows from the TRF since September, but the one below, showing the epic devastation that the flagship fund, the Total Return Fund, of the world's largest bond manager, has suffered since April 2013, when its AUM peaked at just inder $300 billion, and fast foward to October 2014, when it is now a whopping 42% lower and declining fast.