headlines

While the entire world is focused on political developments, namely the rescue of the Eurozone, and the extension of America's credit card borrowing limit, there are some economic updates to keep track of in the US, namely initial jobless claims and the July Philadelphia Fed Index. As Goldman observes below, a weaker than expected initial claims number will be lamed on the ongoing Minnesota shutdown, while it appears that as expected yesterday the surge in M2 has been completely ignored by the economists, and thus expect a massive beat in today's 10am LEI. That said, the only thing that will drive the market once again will be headlines from both sides of the Atlantic.

Housing starts and permits for June. As usual, the key driver will be Europe-based headlines. There is a tiny POMO closing at 11 am.

Homebuilder sentiment and capital inflows data. And lots and lots of European and other headlines.

Good thing the media is in agreement...

This week's truly market moving headlines, courtesy of Bloomberg (these are real)

Only this time not with its handling of luxury hotel staff, but with its assessment of "reality":

IMF's Blanchard says inflation is a non issue for US economy

And these are the people who continue to pretend they have any relevance? Just get done with your theatrical conclave already and phase out into irrelevance already. Luckily, the "real" IMF, China, is always in the background, willing to purchase, er, bailout any (read all) European states that need a bailout.

The latest in the tragic story that just gets weirder by the minute.

• TEPCO's mishandling of info on nuclear crisis 'unacceptable': Edano
• Partial meltdown of fuel rods believed to be temporary: Edano
• Radioactive water from No. 2 reactor due to partial meltdown: Edano
• Contaminated water due to condensed steam, not reactor crack: Edano

And our personal favorite:

• Locals within 20-km evacuation zone asked not to return for now

As this whole farce has gone beyond the surreal, we are now actively waiting for a cartoon Mr. Burns to show up at any ongoing press conference and announce that Springfield Nuclear Power Plant has LBOed Fukushima with Discount Window financing, at a #Ref! EV/EBITDA considering 9501.JP will not see any positive cash flow for millennia, and is appointing Mr. Sparkle (aka Homer Simpson) chief safety inspector.

I'm putting together what I see as solutions for the many pricing and valuation problems that I see coming down the pike. If you think real asset markets are a little soft now, wait until rates are controlled more by market forces than by concerted central planning cartels.

I’ve got my money on the silly cartoon being right.

A smattering of today's headlines across Egypt's state and private press... And a quick glance at Albania, where three people have already been killed in recent anti-government riots: is this the fuse that lights up Europe?

While markets across the world have been crashing, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange has being seeing record gains as citizens turn to equities to protect their money from the country's hyperinflation. The benchmark Industrial Index soared 257 percent on Tuesday up from a previous one day record of 241 percent on Monday with some companies seeing share prices increase by up to 3,500 percent. But before Wall Street traders start packing their bags and heading south, they should bear in mind that these figures are just another representation of Zimbabwe's collapsing economy and are almost meaningless in real terms. Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, is staggering amid the world's worst inflation, a looming humanitarian emergency and worsening shortages of food, gasoline and most basic goods. Inflation is at 231 million percent, but some experts put it more at about 20 trillion percent.

Pretty much says it all

In continuing my data intense, hardcore, uber-objective dissection of the stuff that is proffered through the mainstream media (MSM), I bring you...

This is where Jim Cramer (and every sell side analyst) comes out and tells us all this is just the market exaggerating stuff and what not. Oh, and gold being up 1% as a fiat currency alternative is completely irrelevant to anything.

In other, actually relevant, news, the Greek Finance Minister is providing the usual share of cheerful Monday morning headlines. As Emperor Palpatine would say, the chaos in Europe is now complete.

08:13 02/15 GREECE FIN MIN: WE ARE IN A TERRIBLE MESS
08:24 02/15 GREECE FIN MIN: GREECE IS BEING PUSHED TOWARDS THE EDGE

More as we get it.