JPMorgan Chase

The stories make you want to take all of your money out of the stock market and put it in your mattress!

• Gunshots, tear gas in riots over shooting of black Missouri teen (Reuters)
• Russia sends big aid convoy to Ukraine, West sounds warnings (Reuters)
• Maliki Bid to Block Successor Escalates Crisis in Iraq (BBG)
• Poor German data pushes euro toward 9-month lows against dollar (Reuters)
• Derivatives Reincarnate Boosting Debt Wagers in New Era  (BBG)
• Israel Says No Gaza Talks Progress as Hamas Warns on Truce (BBG)
• Traders brace for research crackdown as easy money dries up (Reuters)
• U.S. Bank Profits Near Record Levels (WSJ)
• Unproven Ebola Drugs Are Ethical to Use in Outbreak: WHO (BBG)
• Caesars’ CEO Loveman Says No Qualified Bidders for Revel (BBG)

The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has been long viewed as one of the most corrupt of American institutions – and that’s saying a lot... when a retiring judge accuses the other remaining judge of being a total bought and paid for Wall Street crony, you know something is wrong. And sure enough, today we learn the CFTC will impose a meager $650,000 fine on JP Morgan, despite years of warnings about fraudulent data reports. You gotta love American justice. In the same week that an NYPD officer’s illegal and fatal chokehold was ruled a homicide (incredibly the man who shot the video has now been arrested), JP Morgan gets off with another slap on the wrist. As Glenn Greenwald noted, it’s Liberty and Justice for Some.

The gold price manipulation scheme will go down as the biggest financial market scandal in US history for numerous reasons. They include the destruction of the free market system in the United States.

• Fed Decision-Day Guide: QE Tapering to Inflation Debate (BBG)
• Obama says strains over Ukraine not leading to new Cold War with Russia (Reuters)
• Siemens to BP Prepare for Downward Russia Business Spiral (BBG)
• Paying Ransoms, Europe Bankrolls Qaeda Terror (NYT)
• Argentina Banks Preparing Bid to Help Argentina Avoid Default (WSJ)
• Obama Weighs Fewer Deportations of Illegal Immigrants Living in U.S. (WSJ)
• India Warships Off Japan Show Rising Lure as China Counterweight (BBG)
• Hong Kong Popping Housing Bubbles London Can’t Handle (BBG)
• Carnage at U.N. school as Israel pounds Gaza refugee camp (Reuters)

• EU finalises Russian sanctions as BP warns of impact on business (FT)
• Geopolitical Risk Rises for Global Investors (BBG)
• Jaded Argentines brace for looming debt default (Reuters)
• In Argentina, Mix of Money and Politics Stirs Intrigue Around Kirchner (WSJ)
• Mom ‘Trusting God’ for Ebola-Infected U.S. Doctor’s Life (BBG)
• Thanks NSA: Tech Companies Reel as NSA's Spying Tarnishes Reputations (BBG)
• Goldman unit eyes foray into China amid metals financing scandal (Reuters)
• Cash out time: London’s Gherkin Tower Offered for Sale by Its Lenders (BBG)
• Apenomics strikes again: McDonald’s Japan axes profit guidance amid food safety scandal (FT)
• Do you see what happens Larry when you are the only USDJPY bid? Nomura Profit Falls More Than Estimated on Broking Slump (BBG)

• The market in one sentence: Buying on Dips Pays Most in Five Years as Stocks Rebound (BBG)
• Europe subdued, Russia shares tumble on new sanctions (Reuters)
• Chinese Data Don’t Add Up (WSJ)
• Argentine Default Drama Nears Critical Stage (WSJ)
• Global Pressure Mounts on Israel to End Gaza Fighting (BBG)
• Ukraine troops advance as experts renew attempt to reach crash site (Reuters)
• Prospects Brighten for Republicans to Reclaim a Senate Majority (WSJ)
• Europe’s banking union faces legal challenge in Germany (FT)
• Investors Bet on China's Large Property Developers (WSJ)
• Hague court orders Russia to pay over $50 billion in Yukos case (Reuters)

As the proof piles up, and retired/suspended traders increase, Bloomberg reports that talks to reach the first settlement in the FX-rigging probe are accelerating, with Britain’s markets regulator preparing to reach a deal with a group of banks this year, people with knowledge of the talks said.

*FCA SAID TO BE SEEKING FAST-TRACK SETTLEMENT WITH NARROW SCOPE
*FCA TALKS SAID TO INCLUDE BARCLAYS, CITIGROUP, JPMORGAN, UBS, RBS, AND HSBC

The question remains, will guilt be admitted... or is the pending fine just another cost of doing business in the trillion dollar market manipulation miasma in which we find ourselves.

• BRICS set up bank to counter Western hold on global finances (Reuters)
• Fed's Yellen Hedges Her View on Rates (Hilsenrath)
• China GDP Grows 7.5% in Second Quarter (WSJ)
• Get More Acquainted With Your Knees as Boeing Reworks 737 (BBG)
• Israel Warns Gazans of New Attack After Hamas Rejects Truce (WSJ)
• Israel poised for Gaza incursions after truce collapses (Reuters)
• China Housing Sales Fall in First Half of 2014 (WSJ)
• IBM to offer iPads and iPhones for business users (Reuters)
• Fed's George says strengthening economy warrants quick rate rise (Reuters)

Now that the World Cup is over, and following last week's global macro reporting slumber (aside for the Portuguese risk flaring episode of course), things pick up quite a bit in the coming week. Here are the key events.

Blythe Masters is perhaps the most maligned human being on earth by silver investors due to suspicions of JP Morgan’s manipulation in the silver market (and rightly so). Well she’s back in the news, but it has nothing to do with silver. Rather, the news relates to the fact that her ex-husband and commodities traders, Daniel Masters, has just launched a Bitcoin hedge fund from the island of Jersey, a British Crown dependency.

It is no secret that unlike other banks who, while directly intervening in the bond market only manipulate equity prices in relative secrecy (usually via HFT-transacting intermediaries such as Citadel), the Bank of Japan has historically had no problem with buying equities outright, traditionally in the form of REITs and equity-tracking ETFs. Which explains why overnight it was revealed that in order to boost the stock market, pardon, economy, the Bank of Japan is preparing to purchase exchange-traded funds based on the JPX-Nikkei Index 400 as an "option to boost the impact of unprecedented easing," according to people familiar with BOJ discussions.

"US lending to businesses is reaching record levels but banks are privately warning that the activity should not be seen as evidence of an economic recovery." And the stunner: "Much of the corporate lending is going to fund payouts to shareholders, finance acquisitions and fuel the domestic energy boom, bankers say, rather than to support companies’ organic growth."

It appears that having pushed France forcefully into the Russia-China Eurasian, and anti-US camp, the US will now do the same with Germany. Because by infuriating the German population with first refusing to return their gold contained (the legend goes) at the New York Fed, and then with scandal after spying scandal, now the time has come to "punish" Germany's largest banks for the same kind of money laundering that BNP was engaged in. As the NYT and Reuters report, the time has come to shift away from the BNP scandal and focus on what will soon be the Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank fallout. According to the NYT, the money laundering crackdown is "bound for another European financial center: Germany.  As NYT adds, correctly, "The Commerzbank investigation features an added twist: The bank is 17 percent owned by the German government. It is unclear whether — as in the BNP case, which led French authorities to intervene on the bank’s behalf — the settlement talks could inflame diplomatic tensions between Washington and Berlin."

• Bond Anxiety in $1.6 Trillion Repo Market as Failures Soar (BBG), as reported first by Zero Hedge
• As Food Prices Rise, Fed Keeps a Watchful Eye (WSJ)
• Yellen’s Economy Echoes Arthur Burns More Than Greenspan (BBG)
• Draghi’s $1.4 Trillion Shot: Silver Bullet or Misfire? (BBG)
• Israel's Netanyahu phones father of murdered Palestinian teen (Reuters)
• Ukraine says forces will press forward after taking rebel stronghold (Reuters)
• Goldman Sachs Brings Forward Rate Forecast as Treasuries Drop (BBG)... you mean rise?
• Super typhoon takes aim at Japan (Reuters)
• Kidnapped Nigerian girls 'escape from Boko Haram abductors' (Independent)
• Merkel says U.S. spying allegations are serious (Reuters)