Archive - Nov 2014 - Story

Speaking at Schwab's IMPACT conference in Denver this evening, Ben Bernanke may not have earned his $250,000 but did unleash some uncomfortable truthiness - not unlike his predecessor's comments last week. As CNBC reports, the ex-central bank chief warned all those front-runners out there - just as we have explained numerous times - The ECB faces significant political barriers to enacting a sovereign bond purchasing program (let alone a corporate bond buying binge).

It would appear the first big test for President Obama's 'veto' pen will be no lesser issue than the Keystone Pipeline. Reuters reports that Republicans will quickly introduce stand-alone legislation in the first quarter of 2015 that would approve the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline from Canada, Republican Senator John Hoeven said in an interview. "It's really a good chance to see if the president's willing to work with us," Hoeven said, suggesting they would pressure Obama to act one way or another by attaching the bill to some must-pass legislation leaving Obama's only option but to fold or shut down the government. As Reince Priebus exclaimed, "he's going to be boxed in."

In recent days, there has been a global scramble to acquire silver bullion coins and bars after the price falls according to Reuters. Maple Leaf silver coins are difficult to acquire according to bullion dealers, with the  Royal Canadian Mint on allocation from September. There is a concern that supply times will increase and premiums are likely to jump according to Reuters. “A tumble in silver prices to four-year lows has triggered a global scramble by consumers to purchase silver coins and bars, as the spread between the price of the metal and gold reaches its widest in five years. Retailers and distributors in Asia and the United States said they were struggling to get supplies of items such as Canadian Maple Leaf silver coins. While demand for silver has been strong over the last few months, retailers say buying interest soared in recent days as the metal fell towards its lowest since 2010, along with gold.

Since Jim Bullard unleashed his "we're gonna need a bigger QE" speech as the Dow-Data-Dependent Federal Reserve saw a 1000-point drop as the trigger for moar intervention, the world has changed. In fact, the exuberance is so effusive that, according to AAII, the percentage of Bullish advisors surged by the most on record... and yet we keep being told how negative everyone is?

"It doesn't make me mopey"

In 2006, Bernanke said that “stable prices are a prerequisite to the achievement of the Federal Reserve’s other mandated objectives….”   In other words, achieving maximum employment and low long-term interest rates, required price stability foremost.  However, in the past few years, the FOMC expressed its willingness to compromise price stability in order to gain improved employment. It seems to me that markets have been duped into believing that inflation is a proxy for growth. However, fragmented global policy shifts - as opposed to the quasi-coordination from 2008-2013 - are causing enormous volatility in currency and commodities.  It is likely to spill over into equity and bond markets, and have the potential to trigger disruptive second order effects.  Hopefully, the Fed does not miss its window of opportunity to hike before this occurs.

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."