goldman sachs

• Turkey says coalition to launch 'comprehensive battle' against Islamic State (Reuters)
• Buffett’s Celebration Tempered by 50th Anniversary Stock Slump (BBG)
• SEC Set to Approve CEO Pay-Gap Disclosure Rule (WSJ)
• Greece wants full bailout, not bridge loan, ruling party says  (Reuters)
• Stocks Rise Fueled by Strong European Corporate Earnings and Chinese Data (WSJ)
• JPMorgan Reclaims Place Among U.S.'s Top 10 Biggest Stocks (BBG)
• Eurozone retail sales fall sharply in June (MW)

• All surveyed analysts expect the Bank of England to keep monetary policy unchanged, with the bank rate at 0.5% and the Asset Purchase Facility at GBP 375bln

• Focus expected to instead by on minutes and Quarterly Inflation Report (QIR) release with minutes expected to show a 7-2 vote split on keeping rates on hold

• QIR will be analysed to see if it compares or contrasts to recent hawkish BoE rhetoric

• Unhappy Voters Shake Up Presidential Race (WSJ)
• China stock exchanges step up crackdown on short-selling (Reuters)
• China Dethroned as World’s Most Liquid Stock Market After Curbs (BBG)
• Xiaomi retakes the smartphone lead in China as Apple slips (Engadget)
• Impact of EPA’s Emissions Rule on Industry to Vary (WSJ)
• Citadel’s Ken Griffin Leaves 2008 Tumble Far Behind (WSJ)
• Greece says expects bailout deal by Aug 18 (Reuters)

When we insist that markets are broken and the equities have been consigned to the gambling casinos, look no farther than today’s filing by Alpha Natural Resources. Markets, which were this wrong on a prominent name like ANRZ at the center of the global credit boom, did not make a one-time mistake; they are the mistake. As it now happens, the global credit boom is over; DM consumers are stranded at peak debt; and the China/EM investment frenzy is winding down rapidly. Now comes the tidal wave of global deflation...

Following our discussion of perhaps the most successful (and/or most risky) trades of the last decade - that of shorting the front-month VIX - we were less than surprised that VXX -the VIX ETF has collapsed to new record-lows this morning. A snap higher in VIX has been met by an avalanche of vol selling and, as we discuss below, the accelerating contango as expirations loom has encouraged yet more to take on unlimited risk positions to pick up pennies in front of the steamroller. All the time "The Fed has your back," it appears traders believe the steamroller driver has his foot on the brake... As if on cue - VIX has spiked and VXX surged.

Put simply, both sales and earnings are rolling over… at a time when the S&P 500 is close to all-time highs. This is a recipe for a correction if not a crash.

If the longs use VIX products as hedging instruments, then why would anyone take the other side? Because, being short volatility can be very profitable, according to Goldman. Year-to-date this short vol index is up 56%, and selling the front-month VIX has earned a massive 114 vol points... The introduction of weekly VIX futures (and the exponential decay implied by these volatility-inducing instruments) offers, according to Goldman Sachs, even more opportunity for active risk takers to sell vol, scrape premium, and face unlimited downside risk... playing the contango collapse game until there are no more musical chairs left.

Amid the collapse in commodities, crashing Chinese stocks, the weakest US wage growth in US history, and a data-dependent Fed; Goldman Sachs fears the new normal is 'shorter-and-faster' business cycles with no persistence primed by monetary policies. Most wprryingly, they conclude, will short business cycles beget shorter business cycles?

When fiat fragility shows its fecklessness, it appears people turn to the alternatives...

“It is absolutely ludicrous that when only 10% of the entire UK GDP is exports to the EU that the other 90% of our businesses are tied up with European rules – and I think people are starting to understand that.”

Since the market is once again on the verge of a terminal liquidity seizure with its associated side-effects (see China for details), the authorities needed to remind the "market" just who the scapegoat will be when the next crash finally does come. Which is why earlier today in an unexpected "preliminary second quarter guidance" release, ITG, owner of the Posit dark pool, was just busted with a $22.6 million potential SEC settlement for what appears to have been blatant frontrunning of company clients in its own prop trading pod. But what is particularly amusing in this case is that while everyone knows that when it comes to HFT's, it is never called "rigging" - the proper nomenclature is "glitch", so now we learn a new term to use instead of "criminal frontrunning" - drumroll... trading experiment,

When even Jon Hilsenrath is clueless what the Fed is trying to say, we go with old faithful, the company that runs the NY Fed, Goldman Sachs. Here is Jan Hatzius' take. "The statement following today's FOMC meeting made relatively few changes compared to June, and did not affect our view that the first rate hike is most likely to occur in December. The most notable change was the addition of the word "some" in the committee's description of desired progress in the labor market."

It all started in China, where as we noted previously, the Shanghai Composite plunged by 8.5% in closing hour, suffering its biggest one day drop since February 2007 and the second biggest in history. The Hang Seng, while spared the worst of the drubbing, was also down 3.1%. There were numerous theories about the risk off catalyst, including fears the PPT was gradually being withdrawn, a decline in industrial profits, as well as an influx in IPOs which drained liquidity from the market. At the same time, Nikkei 225 (-0.95%) and ASX 200 (-0.16%) traded in negative territory underpinned by softness in commodity prices.

Years of growing resentment for the Japanese premier, who panders only to the rich, to the exporting corporations, to the Japanese military-industrial complex, and of course, to the US government and Goldman Sachs (whose idea Abenomics was from the very beginning) thousands of protestors rallied Friday night in downtown Tokyo in a campaign of "Say no to the Abe government," targeting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "runaway" policy. The protestors gathered at the Hibiya Park, Diet building and the prime minister's official residence, shouting "Abe step down."

If Trump took up a Third-Party, it might be the biggest shot we have at saving the country insofar as it would at least turn Capitol Hill into a new playing field. It really would not matter who the Third-Party candidate would be, Washington needs to be shaken and stirred vigorously to let these people know being a “representative” is supposed to be OF THE PEOPLE, not of yourself, the Party, and government.