Apple

Moments ago, Morgan Stanley did it again just as expected, only this time it at least followed protocol when it announced it is raising its price target on TSLA from $280 to a whopping $465, or just shy of $61 billion in implied market cap. Incidentally at this price TSLA would be the biggest US automaker, surpassing not only GM's $50bn in market capo, but also Ford's $60 billion.

It wasn't really clear to me how popular their site was, though, until the news hit on April 23, 1998 that Silicon Investor had been bought by go2net for $33,000,000 in stock. Now keep in mind this was just a discussion board we're talking about, little more sophisticated than the dial-up BBS's I had enjoyed back in 1981 on my TRS-80.

• China central bank tries to soothe global markets, says no reason for yuan to fall further (Reuters)
• Huge blasts at Chinese port kill 44, with hundreds injured (Reuters)
• China efforts to slow yuan fall hoist Europe shares, bond yields (Reuters)
• Greek Economy Unexpectedly Surged Before Capital Controls (BBG)
• Joe Biden Is Sounding Out Allies About a 2016 Bid (WSJ)
• U.K. Tries to Kick-Start Shale Gas With Planning Speedup (BBG)

As we hurtle toward the absolutely critical months of September and October, the unraveling of the global financial system is beginning to accelerate.

When AAPL is moving higher, it can mask a lot of problems in the broader market. Unfortunately for bulls, AAPL is beginning to crack. It began on the day of the July post when it got crushed following its earnings release. It has since broken down more, recently dropping below its post-2009 UP trendline... "no brainer"

The overnight market has been a repeat of yesterday's action, when following China's repeat 1.6% devaluation of the CNY (which was to be expected since the PBOC made it quite clear the fixing would be based off the market value, a value which continues plunging), the second biggest in history following Monday's 1.9% plunge, traders appeared stunned having believed the PBOC's lies that the devaluation was a one-off and as a result the E-Mini tumbled overnight, and is now 30 points lower from last night's PBOC fixing announcement, trading at around 2058, and far below the "magical" 200-DMA support line, which has now been solidly breached.

Recent price volatility in the media sector got us wondering: is “Cord cutting” the home cable box in favor of online entertainment really hitting critical mass?

"The future is unknown and we are not dealing with markets that are free markets anymore...now we have government interventions everywhere. [But] in the last say twelve months, I have observed an increasing number of academics who are questioning monetary policies. That's why I think they will take the gold away and go back to some gold standard by revaluing the gold say from now $1000/oz to say $10,000 dollars. An individual should definitely own some physical gold. The bigger question is where should he store it? because... the failure of monetary policies will not be admitted by the professors that are at central banks, they will then go and blame someone else for it and then an easy target would be to blame it on people that own physical gold because - they can argue - well these are the ones that do take money out of circulation and then the velocity of money goes down - we have to take it away from them... That has happened in 1933 in the US."

"I’ve just slogged through all ninety-two pages of Donald Trump’s financial disclosure submission to the Federal Election Commission, and I can’t make heads or tails of it. I cannot tell how much Trump is worth, if anything. His empire, if he has one, is as mysterious as his haircut, and as impervious as his skyscraper in Chicago - a gigantic phallic mirror named after himself."

We're regularly told by the Fed and defenders of the current incumbent president that the economy is humming along pretty well. People who write columns for the New York Times and who compile government reports are doing pretty well. Unfortunately for those who don't write columns or enjoy comfortable government jobs, things seem less rosy. In fact, in an economy with a rising cost of living (especially in housing), stagnant real wages, and falling worker productivity, many in the so-called working class are very, very worried about the future. And this is a reason that Donald Trump is doing so well in the polls...

• July job gains may favor September interest rate rise (Reuters)
• It's all about Trump at raucous Republican debate (Reuters)
• The 5 Most Important Takeaways From the First Debate of 2016 (BBG)
• Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina wins the Web (Reuters)
• Hedge Fund Losses From Commodity Slump Sparking Investor Exodus (BBG)
• Winners and losers from the first Republican presidential debate (WaPo)
• Bush turns in workmanlike debate performance, but will it be enough? (Reuters)

It has been more of the same in the latest quiet overnight session where many await tomorrow's NFP data for much needed guidance, and where Chinese markets opened weaker, rose during the day, then went through a mini rollercoaster, then sold off in the afternoon.  The Shanghai Composite and HS China Enterprises indices finished down .9% and .3%, respectively. Trading volume continued to be very subdued, running at half the thirty day average as some 20 million "investors" have pulled out of the market to be replaced with HFTs such as Virtu.  But while stock action has been muted, the story of the night so far is oil and the energy complex broke out of a tight overnight range early in the European session to continue yesterday's downward trend, seeing WTI Sep'15 futures fall below the USD 45.00 handle after yesterday's DoE crude oil inventories saw US crude output rise by 0.552%. As of this moment oil was trading at $44.72, just pennies above the low print of 2015.

In the weeks before AAPL's adition to The Dow, the stock soared over 13% (for no good reason). In the almost 4 months since - after some sideways trading - AAPL shares have plunged. The announcement on March 6th, that AAPL would be included in The Dow on March 19th marked the end of exuberance and has now turned into a "no brainer" trade as the curse of The Dow strikes again. Ironically AT&T - which was replaced by Apple - has surged since its removal from the venerable index.