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Most Americans will still welcome low prices at the pump. But in the oil boom towns of yesterday, the slowdown is very much being felt - "The jobs are leaving, and if an area gets depopulated, they can't take the houses with them and that's dangerous for the housing market."

“Deutsche Bank AG officials are reviewing whether some employees exaggerated demand as they marketed new securities backed by risky auto loans, potentially suppressing yields for investors,” Bloomberg reports. "The bank has looked at communications between the employees and investors to determine whether such marketing practices were normal salesmanship or if they crossed a line, said the person, who asked not to be named because the matter is private.”

But they said "never sell" - FANTAsy stocks are in trouble with FANGs down 11.5% year-to-date and Tesla plunging over 17% since the holidays... the last pillar of US equity market strength has officially broken...

Having been abandoned by equity analysts, perhaps investors could find some solace in the Treasury analyst community. Alas no: as Bloomberg notes this morning, citing independent Treasury strategist Marty Mitchell, "our concern is that things will only get worse (effects of commodity super-cycle, bankruptcies, debt defaults, hedge fund redemption/failures, global economic slowdown, equity weakness, global debt deleveraging, etc, etc) before they get better."

The raging bulls were so sure of themselves a few months ago. Valuation measures were for suckers. This time was different. It’s the new Obama economy. Profits are so old school. We suddenly sense a little panic amongst the big swinging dick Wall Street traders. Not too much scorn and laughter being directed towards John Hussman lately.

While the trend of US trade partners exporting deflation either across the Atlantic or Pacific continues, one name continues to stand out. China.

Something has changed! After years of consistent down-trend in initial jobless claims, the regime has change since mid-October to an uptrend. This past week saw claims rise 7k to 284k leaving the less-noisy 4-week average at 279k - its highest since early July 2015. Continuing claims also rose to 5 months highs (up over 4% in the last 3 months - the most since June 2009).What many appears to be unable to grasp is that we have seen the best and history tells us what comes next...

A combination of ECB minutes showing some members looking for more stimulus and Basel Committee publishing final risk rules which will mean stiffer capital demands from banks has sparked weakness in EUR (sending the USD higher) and sparking and instant slam-down in gold and silver.

At Berkshire’s annual meeting last May, Buffett said he made “no apologies whatsoever” about Clayton’s “exemplary” lending, in response to a question about an earlier Seattle Times story saying that Clayton trapped borrowers into unaffordable loans on depreciating homes. Well it seems the billionaire will need to send some more donations in as yesterday, four members of Congress sent a joint letter demanding an investigation into predatory practices at Warren Buffett’s mobile home unit Clayton Homes.

• Islamic State launches militant assault on Indonesia's capital (Reuters)
• Three winners emerge in $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot (Reuters)
• European Stocks Tumble, Credit Markets Weaken on Growth Concern (BBG)
• Stocks and commodity currencies floored by new oil plunge (Reuters)
• China Bear Market Looms as PBOC Fails to Stop Flight to Safety (BBG)
• Anxious phone calls, tense moments before Iran's Supreme Leader okayed U.S. sailors' release (Reuters)

There were four things we mostly cared about in today's JPM earnings release, the first Wall Street bank to report Q4 results:i) how did the company's fixed income and equity trading revenue do; ii)what is the bank's credit exposure to energy/oil;iii) did the recent Fed hike do anything to boost the company's Net Interest Margin (this has been the primary catalyst for bank share upside), and iv) did JPM halt its practice of releasing reserves and start building reserves - a major inflection point when it comes to management expectations for future credit quality deterioration.

We’re experiencing wealth-destruction due to asset-price dynamics alone. The negative moves will stop only when excess leverage is trimmed and not just when prices return to “fair value.”

European shares tumbled, wiping out gains from a two-day rally, Asian stocks slid and the cost of insuring corporate debt rose as investor concern over global growth prospects resurfaced. U.S. equity-index futures pared gains of as much as 0.9 percent. Government bonds rose, with yields falling to records in Japan and China amid anxiety over the world economy. U.S. crude prices stabilized after dropping below $30 a barrel on Tuesday to touch the lowest since 2003 as Iran moved closer to boosting exports.

Don’t look now, but Renault may be pulling a Volkswagen. The French company’s shares fell by as much as 23% on Thursday after an apparent raid on what a union official described as “sites that have to do with standards testing and engine certification.”