The past few weeks have brought a resurgence of the deflation theme. All matters of commodities and their associated equities have, to varying degrees, resumed the selling pressure that has characterized much of the past 18 months. The aluminum industry is no exception. In fact, using the Dow Jones U.S. Aluminum Index as a gauge, aluminum stocks closed today at their lowest levels since April 2009.

In true stop-running algo common sense, WTI crude jumped overnight, back above $42 briefly. However, a double whammy of warnings from IEA (of a "massive cushion" of 3 billion barrels worldwide) and the highest volume of supertankers for this time of year since 2013 has sent crude sliding back below $42.

For once, the overnight session was not dominated by weak Chinese economic data (which probably explains why the Shanghai Composite dropped for the second day in a row, declining 1.4%, and ending an impressive run since the beginning of November) and instead Europe took the spotlight with its own poor data in the form of Q3 GDP which printed below expectations at 0.3% Q/Q, down also from the 0.4% increase in Q2, with several key economies rolling over including Germany, Italy, and Spain while Europe's poster child of "successful austerity" saw Q3 GDP stagnate, far worse than the 0.5% growth consensus expected.

Some First World governments have taken a decidedly Third World turn.

A major Russian TV channel just aired a report about Putin meeting with his top military commanders, and pointed out what the Kremlin said was a mistakenly leaked secret document, which showed drawings of a "new nuclear submarine weapons system." This so-called “leak” of “secret documents” is, of course, no leak at all.  This is a completely deliberate action. 

The video that emerged this week of Yale students screaming down one of their professors might make for a good laugh, if its implications were not quite so serious. It’s a scene we’ve seen played out far too often at college campuses in recent years, and it deserves to be called by what it is: a nascent form of fascism.