Archive - Jul 18, 2014 - Story

China’s new-home prices fell in a record number of cities tracked by the government as developers cut prices to boost sales volume.  Prices fell in a record 55 of the 70 cities last month from May, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement today, the most since January 2011 when the government changed the way it compiles the statistics. What's worse, and as can be seen on the chart below, prices in Shanghai and the southern city of Guangzhou fell 0.6 percent each from May, the biggest drop since January 2011, while they declined 0.4 percent in Shenzhen. Prices fell 1.7 percent in the eastern city of Hangzhou, the largest monthly decline among all the cities.  At the national level, China recorded a 0.48% sequential decline in home prices: the largest since at least 2010. And slamming the nail in the Chinese housing market, at least for now, is that the Average Sale Price dropping by 1.5% Y/Y, the biggest drop since Lehman!

Despite a full court press of PR to confirm HFT firms are friends of retail investors and do no wrong; the SEC, it appears, sees it differently. While Mary White has confidently explained the market is not rigged, her agency is now actively seeking tips, complaints, or referrals that show, as The Chicago Tribune reports, evidence of abuse of order types, as well as traditional forms of abusive trading like "layering" or "spoofing" and other issues relating to high-frequency trading that might be violations of the law. Here are the 10 firms (including poster child holy-grail trader Virtu Financial) that the SEC is probing... can you spot the oddly missing one...

As expected following promises by virtually all carriers yesterday, today there is a literal "air pocket" above Ukraine, as seen in the most recent update of European air traffic via Flightradar24.com. Expect this pattern to remain well into the future as no airline will ever again, or certainly for the next several years, want to incur liability associated with having a plane shot down after the MH 17 tragedy.

• Ukraine Says Malaysian Airliner Shot Down Near Russian Border (BBG)
• Downing of airliner seen as pivotal moment in Ukraine crisis (Reuters)
• Malaysian Air Flight Took Route Avoided by Qantas, Asiana (BBG)
• Russian-Made Missile Hit Malaysia Jet, U.S. Officials Say (BBG)
• Netanyahu Orders Military to Ready Wider Gaza Incursion (BBG)
• Silvio Berlusconi Underage Sex Conviction Overturned (WSJ)
• But... but... "economic patriotism" - AbbVie to Buy Shire for $54.8 Billion as Drug Deals Surge (BBG)
• SEC targets 10 firms in high frequency trading probe - SEC document (Reuters)
• Art bubble pop: Sotheby's to Lay Off 'Modest' Number of Employees (WSJ)
• Moar Abenomics: Hermes Sales Trail Estimates as Japanese Revenue Declines (BBG)

For a centrally-planned market that has long since lost the ability to discount the future, and certainly respond appropriately to geopolitical events, yesterday was a rough wake up call with a two punch stunner of not only the MH 17 crash pushing the Ukraine escalation into overdrive, but Israel's just as shocking land invasion of Gaza officially marking the start of a ground war, finally dragging global stocks out of their hypnotized slumber and pushing risk broadly lower across the globe, even if the now traditional USDJPY and AUDJPY ramp algos have woken up in the past few minutes and will be eager to pretend as if nothing ever happened.