Archive - Dec 8, 2015 - Story

“A U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States is certain that Russia was responsible for the deadly strike on the Syrian army camp,” Reuters reports, adding that “the official flatly dismissed claims that U.S.-led coalition jets were responsible.”

We're gonna need more jawboning...

The day of reckoning has arrived for the oil price. After a year of "Oil Price Crash" in October the world managed record production of 97.09 Mbpd. Production momentum built in the period of high price, 2007 to 2014, is proving very difficult to switch off. It must be switched off and it seems to me the most likely scenario is sharply lower oil price in the near term.

PREVIEW: BoE December Rate Decision & Minutes Release 1200GMT/0600CST

• All surveyed analysts expect the Bank of England to keep monetary policy unchanged, with the bank rate at 0.5% and the Asset Purchase Facility at GBP 375bln

• Headline UK CPI printed at -0.1% for October, still well below the BoE’s mandated 2% target

FANGs are tumbling, seeming to have 'peaked' as ISM Services tumbled last week. But before you rush to buy the dip on these "gems" we thought it would be helpful to review some basic fundamental data in order to clarify exactly what investors are assuming when they purchase these stocks.

The last week has seen Small Caps first drop into negative territory for the year (joining Dow Transports). Yesterday The Dow joined the un-party. And today, following growth concerns from China trade data, The S&P 500 has tumbled to open in the red for the year...

According to Bank of America last week, during which the S&P 500 was essentially flat, BofAML clients were net sellers of $1.3bn of US stocks, following two weeks of net buying. Net sales were led by institutional clients, who have sold US stocks for the last five consecutive weeks.

Just as we warned, based on credit card data, this holiday spending period is a disaster. Following disappointing sales over the Black Friday to Cyber Monday weekend, there has been absolutely no follow-through momentum as is usually seen. Chain Store same-store-sales crashed 6.3% week-over-week...

"We're gonna have to figure it out, we can't live like this. It's going to get worse and worse, we're going to have more World Trade Centers. It's going to get worse and worse, folks. We can be politically correct and we can be stupid but it's going to be worse and worse." Donald Trump said even as an AP summary of Muslim reactions to Trump can be summarized as follows: "He's trying to alienate not only the Muslim population of the United States but all the Muslims around the world."

How many times were we told that an OPEC decision was "priced in" - well it wasn't. WTI is now down 15% from pre-OPEC and has crashed through the $37 level for the first time since Feb 2009... time to catch a falling knife (again), or fold on all those 'recovery' bets?

If you're in the commodities business, this is “not the time for courage” (to borrow a classic Gartman-ism). In the latest example of just how bad things have gotten, Anglo American - the world’s fifth largest miner - just kitchen sink-ed it, announcing a sweeping restructuring, a massive round of layoffs, and a dividend cut. The company will reduce its assets by some 60% while headcount will be cut by a whopping 85,000 or, nearly two thirds.

• Anti-Trump Effort Launches Super PAC (WSJ)
• Muslims decry Trump's proposal to keep them out of US (AP)
• Debate Heats Up Over No-Fly List, Gun Sales (WSJ)
• OPEC Takes Down Oil Majors as Lower-for-Even-Longer Kicks In (BBG)
• Chinese Companies Are Trapped in IPO Logjam (WSJ)
• Republican Ted Cruz vaults into first place in new Iowa poll (Reuters)

Over the weekend, in its latest quarterly presentation, the Bank of International Settlements made what may have been a very premature assessment that China is now contained. Judging by events in the past 24 hours, the reality is anything but.