The Week That Was: May 20th - May 24th 2013

Succinctly summarizing the positive and negative news, data, and market events of the week...

Positives

1. Yahoo acquires Tumblr for $1.1 billion, stock now down 3%
2. Goldman hikes S&P PT to 1750 by year end
3. Foreign banks have plenty of cash (thanks to the Fed)
4. HLF makes it difficult for shorts
5. Tuesday makes it 19-19 for the DOW
6. Market reacts to Bernanke publically refuting tapering nonsense
7. BOJ will be adding ETF’s to their portfolio, states economy has picked up (despite a few minor details)
8. Weekly initial claims in-line with expectations
9. Average new home prices soar, unfortunately real income does not
10. Ultimate liquidity provider: The Fed has purchased 30% of all outstanding 10yr equivalents
11. Durable Goods Orders beat expectations – but the trend is not your friend

Negatives

1. Apple meets the “Fairness Doctorine”, as offshore cash gets scrutinized (incidentally, as ZH reported on in detail last year)
2. Despite the jacked up S&P price target, Goldman’s leading indicators speed toward contraction
3.  Target misses Q1 significantly, YoY Revenue down $199MM, YoY EPS down $.27
4.  What bubble?
5. Fed finally admits asset bubble is present, and as we’ve stated on numerous occasions, it’s the flow not stock that matters
6. BOJ’s experiment helps unsettle global markets, however, they have asked everyone not to panic
7. Chinese economy enters contraction – don’t sweat it
8. Hedge Funds have started to reduce long Nikkei positions
9. Student loan delinquency continues to climb
10. Architectural Billings plunge most in 5 years

Additional

• Cohen’s SAC considers closing
• Mark Grant truthiness: A reversal will come
• Oklahoma endures devastating Tornado
• ***Europe opens $80 trillion shadow banking Pandora’s box

(h/t @ZH_Crown)

Comments

[Oldwood]

DejaVu all over again

[smacker]

This looks like a script for a Christmas pantomime!

[AlaricBalth]

And for any mesmerized sheeple who mistakenly wandered here into ZH, Justin Bieber won Dancing with the American Idol Stars.

[Bizaro World]

Craptacular!!!

[Bizaro World]

There's nothing to be worried about....of course, I skipped the middle part of this post...forgot my Ritalin this morning.....sorry, what were we talking about? Oh yes, BTFD.

[monad]

A Brief History of the IRS by Wayne Bentsen

BENGHAZ!

[Flakmeister]

The E-Cat is back, and people are still falling for it!

I’m done pretending that this is science, or that the “data” presented here is scientifically valid. If this were an undergraduate science experiment, I’d give the kids an F, and have them see me. There’s no valid information contained here, just the assumption of success, the reliance on supplied data, and ballpark estimates that appear to be supplied “from the manufacturer.”

This is not a valid way to do science at all. And this is certainly not even close to meeting the criteria required for extraordinary evidence to back up such an extraordinary claim.

[knukles]

Wow Flak...

Sounds like a product in which the Department of Energy should invest.
Follow up investments behind Solandra, et al.
And just because the assumptions are faulty, the data rigged, irrelevant or just downright false doesn't mean its not a great idea what for social justice, equality and the like.  Might even make a good addition to the EBT card program and like the initial justification for Obama-Phones, it'll create jobs, much like Cash for Clunkers and Fast and Furious.
So let's not go way off the deep end and demand some form of logical overly justified, rational, proven, tested treatment for the disease, we as a society are vastly more comfortable with the application of multitudes of band-aids to symptoms.

Forward.

E-Cat forever.
An E-Cat in every pot
E-Cats for the Children
If it saves just one E-Cat it's Hunkie Dorey by me!
E-Cats all around

[Oldwood]

Hey, If we can make money from nothing at all, not even paper, don't tell me we can't get energy for free too. How long is it going to take for you to catch on to modern trends anyway? The really, really smart people will figure everything out for us. We just need to go back to the TV and relax.

[negative rates]

Those guys must be from MIT, they hate the thing until they can make one of their own so they discredit it in as many ways as possible. Keep up the faith.

[Flakmeister]

The Tea Party and the Politics of Paranoia

Members of tea party claim the movement springs from and promotes basic American conservative principles such as limited government and fiscal responsibility.

But new research by University of Washington political scientist Christopher Parker argues that the tea party ideology owes more to the paranoid politics associated with the John Birch Society — and even the infamous Ku Klux Klan — than to traditional American conservatism.

“Tea party conservatives believe in some conservative principles, to be sure, but they are different from more mainstream conservatives in at least one important respect,” Parker said. “True conservatives aren’t paranoid; tea party conservatives are.”

Asked flat-out if they think President Obama is “destroying the country,” only 6 percent of non-tea party conservatives agreed, a number that rose to 36 percent among all conservatives regardless of tea party affiliations. By contrast, 71 percent of self-identified tea party supporters thought this extreme statement true.

... Parker called the tea party a continuation of what political scientist Richard Hofstadter in the 1960s described as “the paranoid style in American politics,” characterized by exaggeration, suspicion and conspiratorial fantasy.

[Oldwood]

You're right, its jsut all in our imagination. Everything is totally cool, just the way it is, if just us taliban conservatives would shut up.

[disabledvet]

"down from record highs." top calling is as bad as calling the bottom. a correction would be healthy...but only insofar as entry points are being created for more buying. if you've been short (and nothing more) this thing you died a LONG time ago. that includes "the worst recovery in post World War II history" amazingly enough which to date we are now 5 years into. hm. "long tea party activists too." obviously i didn't see the SIGNIFCANCE of the "Japan thing" and blew off the SIGNIFICANCE of the whole "Korean guy who called the G-line" vis a vis the Fed "winding down their free money for banks program." or at least not giving them so much. or whatever it is. hmmm. contagion? "chickens coming home to roost."? we shall see...

[Randall Cabot]

"Tuesday makes it 19-19 for the DOW"

Is next tuesday a tuesday or a monday?

[MicroSecession]

HKMEX looks like it will bring jail time to some people

[Yen Cross]

     This shit is starting to get crazy. I opened a small currency trade, earlier this week. I have 3 platforms running to confirm things like unusual. (spreads, requotes, ect.)

  June Gloom 

[erheault]

Have NO fear prosperity is just around the corner, there will be a Chicken in every pot,,Happy days are here again.