Market Share

Existing home sales plunged 5.1% (considerably worse than the 4.1% drop expected) to its lowest level in 18 months. This extends the string of missed expectations to 5 months as even the ever-credible NAR chief economist said it was not the weather but "we can’t ignore the ongoing headwinds of tight credit, limited inventory, higher prices and higher mortgage interest rates." First-time homebuyers plunged to a mere 26% of the total - the lowest share on record as all-cash (and spec) investors rose to a record 53% share of sales.

• RBS plans dramatic scaling back, to fire 30,000 of its 120,000 workers (FT)
• Zuckerberg’s Data Stance Faces Privacy Backlash in Europe (BBG)
• WhatsApp Shows How Phone Carriers Lost Out on $33 Billion (BBG)
• Markets flooded with cash, should Fed prep to stamp out risk? (Reuters)
• Venezuela threatens to expel CNN over protest coverage (BBC)
• Firm Stops Giving High-Speed Traders Direct Access to Releases (WSJ)
• Obama Budget to Delete Proposal to Limit Social Security (BBG)
• Energy Holdings Prepares for a Breakup (WSJ)
• EU Struggles to Streamline Bank-Failure Plan for Weekends (BBG)
• Madoff said JPMorgan executives knew of his fraud (Reuters), and JPM admitted as much when it settled with the DOJ

While loathed to admit it, US auto makers have done it again. As we have vociferously explained month after month (and has been vocally denied until now by the car makers themselves), much of the recovery in auto sales has been a massive channel-stuffing make-work program (mal-investment once again triggered by 'false' signals created by Fed intervention). Now, as the WSJ reports, Detroit's big 3 are trying to sweeten discounts to clear a massive inventory of unsold vehicles from dealer lots (desparate not to start a profit-killing price war). "We believe we can sell our way out," said GM, but as Morgan Stanley warns, "the best of the U.S. auto replacement cycle is over." Good luck...

• Anti-Euro Party’s Le Pen Gains Supporters, French Poll Shows (BBG)
• Carney Renews BOE Low-Rate Pledge to Fight Slack in Economy (BBG)
• Bank of England hints at 2015 rate rise (Reuters)
• ECB bond-buying intact and ready after court decision-Coeure (Reuters)
• Canada scraps millionaire visa scheme, dumps 46,000 Chinese applications (SCMP)
• Scrap this then? Vancouver facing an influx of 45,000 more rich Chinese (SCMP)
• China's January Exports Power Higher, Up 10.6% (WSJ) ... and nobody believes the number
• Emerging-Market Shakeout Putting Reserves Into Focus (BBG)
• Wall Street's most eligible banker Fleming waits for suitor (Reuters)
• Kazakh Devaluation Shows Currency War Stirring as Ruble Dips (BBG)

While the stock market ramp on the disappointing ECB press conference can be, somewhat, explained and was to be expected by the central bank-addicted market's renewed focus that since the ECB did nothing, it is now the BOJ's turn to ramp up Quantitative Easing - a thesis which has been floating since November, and at one point resulted in 700 pips of "priced in" USDJPY upside - one group of investors is having a bad day: all those short Green Mountain Coffee shares, which as we pointed out last night exploded to 52 week highs in the aftermath of the Coke minority investment announcement. This is today's maximum pain trade.

What better way to assure your company has an earnings bomb? Have Jim Cramer tout it before earnings of course. Sure enough from January 28: "GM sales are going to be superb", and "Europe's coming back." Fast forward to today when GM reports Q4 revenues of $40.5 billion which missed expectations of $40.9 billion, and EPS of $0.67 vs the $0.87 expected. Additionally, GM's global market share just dropped to 11.4% - matching the lowest in the past year. So much for the superb sales. As for Europe? Well, as the chart below shows, Europe just posted its weakest quarter in the past year. And don't count on much growth either: CapEx was down to $7.5 billion in 2013, from $8.1 billion in 2012, even as the company's total free cash flow declined from $4.3 billion last year to just $3.7 billion.

• Emerging-Market Rout Seen Enduring on Low Real Rates (BBG)
• After rocky January, markets eye data and central banks (Reuters)
• Europe will feel the pain of emerging markets  (FT)
• Lloyds delays dividend prospect after mis-selling charge (Reuters)
• Snow Set to Snarl New York Commute as U.S. Flights Halted (BBG)
• Rate Decision to Drive Yellen's Early Agenda  (Hilsenrath)
• Thai protesters move to downtown Bangkok in bid to topple PM (Reuters)
• China says Japan's 'hype' on air defence zone spreads tension (Reuters)
• Hedge funds seek 1.8 billion euros damages from members of Porsche's owning family (Reuters)

• Only time will define Bernanke's crisis-era legacy at Fed (Reuters)
• Record Cash Leaves Emerging Market ETFs (BBG)
• Investors Look Toward Safer Options as Ground Shifts (WSJ)
• Fed Policy Makers Rally Behind Tapering QE as Yellen Era Begins (BBG)
• Rating agencies criticise China’s bailout of failed $500m trust (FT)
• Russia to await new Ukraine government before fully implementing rescue (Reuters)
• U.S. readies financial sanctions against Ukraine: congressional aides (Reuters)
• Companies resist president’s call for minimum wage rise (FT)
• Secret Swiss Funds at Risk as Italy’s Saccomanni Visits Bern (BBG)
• Top Democrat puts Obama trade deals in doubt (FT)
• Erdogan to Give Rate Increase Time Before Trying Other Plans (BBG)

• Emerging market sell-off raises specter of contagion (Reuters)
• China Bank Regulator Said to Issue Alert on Coal Mine Loans (BBG)
• Argentina to Ease FX Controls After Peso Devaluation (BBG)
• Pimco's Gross problem: who can succeed the 'Bond King'? (Reuters)
• Ukraine protesters seize building, put up more barricades (Reuters)
• Mideast Turmoil Dominates Gathering of Business Elite (WSJ)
• Central Banks Withdraw Dollar Funding (WSJ) - oh really?
• Samsung warns of weak earnings growth this quarter (FT)
• Three explosions rock Cairo, killing 5 (USA Today)

Despite his own admission that he is not a 'product guy', Carl Icahn extends his 'pitch' for investors to buy buy buy Apple stock from one of using their offshore capital (or borrowing against it) to buyback inglorious amounts of shares to how great the "wearables" business could be...

• *ICAHN: ULTRA HD REPRESENTS 'PROMISING MOMENT' FOR APPLE
• *ICAHN: APPLE HAS 'COMPELLING OPPORTUNITY' IN WEARABLE DEVICES
• *ICAHN: INVESTING IN APPLE IS HOW GOOD INVESTORS MAKE MONEY

So buy you dummy... oh and don;t worry because Icahn has your back, even if he knows that AAPL does not...

• *ICAHN SAYS TIM COOK IS NOT A 'FINANCE GUY'
• *ICAHN: NO 'IN DEPTH' KNOWLEDGE OF FINANCE ON APPLE BOARD

Apple is - according to Icahn - the most over-capitalized company in corporate history...

When it comes to the opinions of financial pundits and "experts", most can be chucked into the garbage heap of groupthink and consensus. However, one person whose opinion stands out is Elliott Management's Paul Singer. One of the most successful hedge fund managers has consistently stood against the grain of conventional wisdom over the past three decades and been handsomely reward, which is why his opinion is certainly one worth noting. Singer, together with Martin Wolf and several other panelists will be speaking at 45 minutes past the hour on a panel discussing one of the most pressing topics nearly 6 years after the Bear Stearns collapse: "Are Markets Safer Now." Watch their thoughts on the matter in the session live below.

The NYT reports that if judging by the initial response to Apple's expansion into China, then this too latest Apple "rollout" is set to be a major flop. To wit:  " Apple has been counting on a long-awaited agreement with China Mobile, the world’s largest cellular operator, to reverse its fortunes in China. If the muted reception Friday, when customers were finally able to buy iPhones from China Mobile, is any indication, the companies may have to work harder to whip up enthusiasm. Instead of the round-the-block lines that have greeted Apple product introductions in China and other countries in the past, only about a dozen customers showed up to buy iPhones at the opening of a store in Beijing — despite the presence of a special guest, the Apple chief executive, Timothy D. Cook."

• NSA phone data control may come to end (AP)
• China to rescue France: Peugeot Said to Weigh $1.4 Billion From Dongfeng, France (BBG)
• China to rescue Davos: Davos Teaches China to Ski as New Rich Lured to Slopes (BBG)
• Hollande’s Tryst and the End of Marriage (BBG)
• Iran has $100 billion abroad, can draw $4.2 billion (Reuters)
• Target Hackers Wrote Partly in Russian, Displayed High Skill, Report Finds (WSJ)
• Nintendo Sees Loss on Dismal Wii U Sales (WSJ)
• Goldman's low-cost Utah bet buoys its bottom-line (Reuters)
• Royal Dutch Shell Issues Profit Warnin: Oil Major Hit by Higher Exploration Costs and Lower Oil and Gas Volumes (WSJ)
• EU Weighs Ban on Proprietary Trading at Some Banks From 2018 (BBG) - so no holding of breaths?
• Sacramento Kings to Accept Bitcoin (WSJ)

Despite several apparently well respected sell-side shops proclaiming that all would be well, the electronics warehouse missed comps (Sales at stores open at least 14 months were down 0.9 percent in the US (compared to expectations of +2.0%) and is being punished. Revenues fell 2.6% for the comparable period also. Shares are down 30% in the pre-market to 7-month lows as the company claims an "intensely promotional holiday season." It seems, perhaps, that following several other retailers' earnings updates the holiday season was even worse than many had expected (especially in the bricks-and-mortar stores that actually employ real people).

One of Warren Buffett’s greatest investment ideas concerned “economic moats.”