Hong Kong

Courtesy of central planning, virtually every single capital market has become an illiquid penny stock, with wild swings from one extreme to the other, the latest example of this being the Shanghai Composite, which after soaring 10% in the past ten days, crashed 6.5% overnight tumbling 321 points to 4620 after it briefly rose just shy of 5000. This was the biggest drop since January 19 when the Composite dropped 7.7% only to blast higher ever since. Putting the "plunge" in perspective, now the SHCOMP is back to levels not seen in... one week.

Another round of the Crisis is coming and the Powers That Be know it. This is why they’re preparing by buying up Gold bullion.

As noted Tuesday morning, China’s margin-fueled equity mania reached new heights overnight with the Shanghai Composite wrapping up its best six-day run in seven and a half years, but the real story was the tech-heavy Shenzhen Comp which, after a brief hiccup precipitated by the Hanergy ponzi debacle, has now firmly regained its momentum jumping nearly 4% with at least 250 listed companies trading limit up on the session.

Economic events and data in the week ahead.

The present Chinese leadership appears to be trying to gain (regain?) more - if not full - control over the country’s economic system, while at the same time (re-)boosting the growth it has lost in recent years. President Xi Jinping, prime minister Li Keqiang and all of their subservient leaders – there are 1000?s of those in a 1.4 million citizens country- apparently think this can be done. We truly doubt it. We don’t think that they ever understood what would happen if they opened up the country to a more free-market, capitalist structure. That doing so would automatically reduce their political power, since a free market, in whatever shape and form, does not rhyme with the kind of control which the Communist Party has been used to for decades, and which the current leaders have grown up taking for granted.

One year ago, we explained "How The Market Is Like CYNK." Earlier this week, China's richest man found out how right we were, in the hardest way possible

Forget Shanghai and its roaring stock market, there's a new centre for speculative excess in China. Nothing says sustainable capital formation like a stock index that trades at a valuation of 67.2 times earnings, is up 166% in the last year and whose components regularly see 500% rallies (and recently epic collapses). Welcome to Shenzhen.

• U.S. vows to continue patrols after China warns spy plane (Reuters)
• Bank of Japan Chief Cheers On Tokyo’s Surging Stocks (WSJ)
• Merkel Stamps Out Optimism on Greece After Tsipras Talks (BBG)
• Greece sees reforms deal with lenders in next 10 days (Reuters)
• Why Greece’s Syriza party is not sticking to the script on an IMF deal (Channel4)
• Why Does Putin Care Who Runs a Tiny Balkan Nation? Gas Pipelines (BBG)
• U.S. Stock-Index Futures Are Little Changed Before Yellen Speech (BBG)
• German Business Confidence Declines as Risks Cloud Outlook (BBG)

"China... across the board... is preparing for something big in currency markets... The world has an unease about the dollar system... former President Hu of China said 'the dollar is a product of the past'."

It appears the frauds, falsehoods, and f##king fallacies are all being exposed at the same time. While we have noted three companies that have collapsed in the last week - destroying their billionaire owners' wealth in the process - it appears the Chinese capital destruction virus has spread to Germany. Joyou AG - a Chinese affiliate of German bathroom manufacturer Grohe - has collapsed from record highs a week ago to 0, pending bankruptcy, after admitting balance sheet manipulation.

Yesterday China's richest man, Li Hejun, lost more than half his fortune when his solar company stock suddenly crashed over 50%. Overnight it happened again, and Hong Kong’s securities regulator, warned other investors to exercise "extreme caution," as Hong Kong's best-performing stocks this year are crashing in a serial, tulip-like manner. And another billionaire was promptly wiped out: Pan Sutong started the day engorged with wealth after his companies Goldin Financial and Goldin Properties had risen 300% this year. By the close he had lost 60% of his wealth!

• Once-Unthinkable Criminal Pleas by U.S. Banks Get Investor ‘Meh’ (BBG)
• The E-Mail That Helped Catch Barclays: ‘ISDAfix Is Manipulated’ (BBG)
• CFTC Said Preparing ISDAfix Probe Talks in Weeks: Credit Markets (BBG)
• Islamic State takes control of Syria's Palmyra in westward advance (Reuters)
• Tensions High as Greece Gets Smallest Aid Rise Yet (BBG)
• The Rise of the $50,000 Rental (BBG)
• U.S. says South China Sea reclamations stoke instability (Reuters)
• First Hanergy Now Goldin: Hong Kong Stocks Drop Like Stones (BBG)

Li Hejun began the day as either China’s second-richest man according to Forbes, or richest, according to the Hurun Report and Le Figaro, with a fortune worth more than $30 billion. By 11am, his net worth was amazingly cut by half, and he was almost $14 billion "poorer" as shares in Li’s flagship Hanergy Thin Film plunged by 47% in Hong Kong before trading was suspended - due to Li's absence at the company's annual meeting.

• Clinton aides sometimes blocked release of documents requested under public-records law (WSJ)
• House Benghazi panel subpoenas former Clinton White House aide (Reuters)
• Cash Crunch, for Many, Is a Monthly Woe (WSJ)
• Doubts over Greece add to euro's ECB-driven frailty (Reuters)
• For Many American States, It's Like the Recession Never Ended (BBG)
• Japan debt plan needs BOJ to keep rates low for years (Reuters)
• Euro Continues to Fall; European Bonds, Stocks Broadly Steady (WSJ)
• Los Angeles gives preliminary approval to $15 minimum wage (Reuters)