Wednesday, 29 July 2015

What? Me Worry?



Baltic Dry Index. 1094 +04   Brent Crude 53.12

LIR Gold Target in 2019: $30,000.  Revised due to QE programs.

In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism.

Ebenezer Squid, with apologies to Spiro T. Agnew.

Chinese stocks may have fallen another 1.7 percent yesterday, in a centrally planned “market” that’s being heavily rigged by Beijing to only go up, taking the last two day drop past 10 percent, but in America it was “party on.” The Fed’s talking furniture is about to bring back the punchbowl later today. At least that was yesterday’s good news in the casinos on the RMS Wall Street
Titanic. “Buy the dip” was back in fashion among the HFT algo Muppets, no doubt assisted by the Fedster’s ever ready Plunge Protection Team of fix-its and riggers.

Below, party time returns to Wall Street. What? Me Worry? Bring on the Fed and the Yellen Put.

The American people should be made aware of the trend toward monopolization of the great public information vehicles and the concentration of more and more power over public opinion in fewer and fewer hands.

Spiro T. Agnew.

U.S. stocks end sharply higher after 5-day slump

Published: July 28, 2015 4:47 p.m. ET
A slowdown in China’s stock market along with better-than-expected earnings reports proved enough to spark a relief rally on Wall Street Tuesday, helping snap a five-day losing streak in the main U.S. indexes.

Investors brushed off softer economic reports, while focusing on the two-day Federal Reserve meeting, which kicked off on Tuesday and concludes Wednesday with a policy statement.

The S&P 500 index DJIA, +1.09% added 25.61 points, or 1.2%, to 2,093.25, with the energy and sector leading the gains. The energy sector jumped 3%, following a bounce in oil prices, which settled higher for the first time in five sessions.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.09%  gained 189.68 points, or 1.1%, to 17,630.27, with 27 of its 30 members finishing higher. Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM, +4.06%  share surged 4.1%, while Chevron Corp. CVX, +3.66%  rose 3.7%.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.98%  added 49.43 points, or 1%, to 5,089.21, as biotechnology stocks rose sharply. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF IBB, +2.48%  gained 2.5%.

Global equities rebounded on Tuesday as the selloff in the Chinese benchmark after a dramatic 8.5% loss on Monday was more subdued, ending 1.7% lower.

----Fed meeting: An FOMC statement is due at 2 p.m. on Wednesday after two days of meetings, and is likely to be scrutinized for clues to the timing of an interest-rate hike.

Chairwoman Janet Yellen has previously indicated that a rate increase is in the cards before the end of the year, possibly as early as September.

However, expectations for a September hike have faded recently, partly because of the market turmoil in China and a slide in oil prices.
More

But the party in the casino might be very short lived. One last blast of hopium before the seawater bursts right into the Titanic’s casino. Below, more reasons to be first on the boat deck. Every man for himself.

UPS fires warning shot across the bow of the stock market and the Fed

Published: July 28, 2015 2:29 p.m.

Selloff in UPS stock and the Dow transports is a warning of a similar correction for Dow industrials

United Parcel Service Inc. has fired warning shots across the bow of the Federal Reserve and the stock market, by saying on Tuesday that U.S. economic growth appears to be slowing.

The package-delivery giant’s cautious outlook runs counter to what Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen said earlier this month, when she told Congress she expects the U.S. economy to keep strengthening enough for the central bank to raise interest rates “at some point this year.” The Fed’s outlook could become clearer when it releases its latest monetary policy statement on Wednesday.

It also suggests investors should take the relative weakness in UPS stock, as well as the Dow Jones Transportation Average, more seriously, as a warning that a much bigger selloff may be on the horizon for the broader market.

“If you just look at in January, the GDP forecast we thought was going to be about 3.1%. Now the thinking in July is about 2.3%, so let’s say a pretty significant decrease,” said UPS Chief Executive David Abney in a conference call with analysts, according to a transcript provided by FactSet. “Retail has been uneven and we saw it soften a little bit in June. And so that’s the reason we’re cautious.”

----UPS is the biggest member of the Dow transports, measured by total sales and market valuation, so investors, and even the Fed, should pay attention.

According to the Dow Theory of market analysis, which has remained relevant among market watchers for over a century, members of the Dow transports are believed to have their finger on the pulse of the economy. That’s because they act as the link between those who make the goods—members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average—and those who consume them.

So when the Dow transports and UPS stock underperform the broader market, it could portend weakness in the broader market.
More

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ups-fires-warning-shot-across-the-bow-of-the-stock-market-and-the-fed-2015-07-28

Gucci Owner Calls for Hong Kong Rent Cuts as Market Wilts

July 28, 2015 — 12:08 PM BST Updated on July 28, 2015 — 3:05 PM BST
Luxury companies including Kering SA are demanding lower Hong Kong store rents to reflect the island city’s waning appeal with wealthy Chinese shoppers.

The owner of the Gucci brand may close some of its shops there if those costs don’t come down, Kering Chief Financial Officer Jean-Marc Duplaix said late Monday.

“Many landlords have not necessarily understood that the markets have changed,” Duplaix said, speaking on a conference call with analysts. In some locations, rent is eating into profitability.

U.K. trenchcoat maker Burberry Group Plc said last week it may also try to lower its rent bill after sales growth slowed to a two-year low. Luxury spending in Hong Kong, one of the world’s largest hubs for high-priced shopping, has been suffering since China began discouraging extravagant spending by government officials in late 2012.

Hong Kong and Macau accounted for more than 10 percent of Kering’s first-half luxury retail sales, a spokeswoman said, declining to say how many stores it has in Hong Kong. Burberry, with 17 shops there, gets a similar proportion of revenue from those markets, excluding licenses.

----Hong Kong’s “halcyon days are gone,” said Exane BNP Paribas analyst Luca Solca. He expects watch and jewelry makers in particular to close sites there, and rents to come down, helping “moderate adverse developments for luxury players.”

Rental costs for luxury companies in Hong Kong could drop 20 percent in the next 18 months, according to John Guy, an analyst at MainFirst Bank AG, who also said luxury consumption has peaked in the island city.
More


And on to this afternoon’s (7 pm BST,) message of cheer and “all’s well” from the Fed. I wonder what Jon Hilsenrath will leak in today’s Journal?

I apologize for lying to you. I promise I won't deceive you except in matters of this sort.

Yellen, Draghi, Obama, Juncker, and Co., with apologies to Spiro T. Agnew.

At the Comex silver depositories Tuesday final figures were: Registered 58.56 Moz, Eligible 119.68 Moz, Total 177.24 Moz. 

Crooks and Scoundrels Corner

The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
Back in the dying EUSSR, yet more proof that the inmates are now running the asylum. Bring on Brexit.
There are people in our society who should be separated and discarded.

Spiro T. Agnew.

Yanis Varoufakis faces criminal prosecution over clandestine 'Plan B' currency plot

Supreme court lodges legal case to Greek parliament as "treason" charges escalate against former finance minister

Greece's state prosecutors have set their sights on former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis who faces possible criminal charges over plans to set up a parallel payments system inside the monetary union.

The Greek parliament received two sets of legal complaints about the economist's "surreptitious" blueprint to introduce a euro-denominated alternative currency as a precursor to an exit from the eurozone.

The cases were bought to the parliament by the Supreme Court following complaints from a Greek lawyer and mayor, and separately by a group of opposition conservative parliamentarians.

As an MP, Mr Varoufakis has immunity over criminal prosecution. But this could now be overturned by the Greek parliament which is set to review the allegations.

The self-styled "erratic Marxist" convened a five-man team to oversee clandestine plans to introduce "parallel liquidity" in Greece in order ease the credit strangulation imposed by the European Central Bank.

Mr Varoufakis' team included respected US economist James K. Galbraith, and touted the use of smartphone apps to allow the state to continue making its domestic obligations to suppliers and collecting tax revenues. Mr Galbraith could also be facing a criminal trial over his involvement.

Controversy centres over whether or not the finance minister ordered a childhood friend and now professor at Columbia University to "hack" into government computer systems to gain access to sensitive taxpayer information and duplicate files for use under the parallel system.

In a recorded phone conversation to private investors, the finance minister is heard saying his team "decided to hack into my minister’s own software programme" to make the copies of taxpayer files and pin codes.

Mr Varoufakis has since said the nascent plans were all carried out within "the laws of the land, and at keeping the country in the eurozone".

Following the news, Mr Varoufakis told The Telegraph he feared being hung up on charges of "treason" by political forces in the country.

"It is all part of an attempt to annul the first five months of this government and put it in the dustbin of history," he said on Sunday.

The former minister said he was tasked with the responsibility to devise the contingency plan by prime minister Alexis Tsipras as early as December. He maintains the "Plan B" was fully disclosed to finance ministry officials and journalists when he resigned from office earlier this month.

Nevertheless, the airing of a private audio recording has caused a fresh political storm in the country. Brussels has been forced to deny accusations it controls of Greece's public revenues body, the equivalent of Britain's Inland Revenue.

During the conversation held by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum and co-hosted by former Tory chancellor Norman Lamont, Mr Varoufakis said the Troika was "fully and directly" in charge of the country's Secretariat of Public Revenues, forcing him to devise a way to access its computer network.

But the European Commission denied the allegations as "false and unfounded".
More

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11769089/Yanis-Varoufakis-facing-criminal-prosecution-over-Plan-B-as-Troika-deny-allegations-they-control-Greek-tax-system.html

I am not asking for government censorship or any other kind of censorship. I am asking whether a kind of censorship already exists when the news that forty million Americans receive each night is determined by a handful of men responsible only to their corporate employers and filtered through a handful of commentators who admit to their own set of biases.

Spiro T. Agnew.

Solar  & Related Update.

With events happening fast in the development of solar power, I’ve added this new section. Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable cheap AC energy mankind’s future from the 21st century onwards? A quantum computer next?

A Laptop-Sized Solar Panel Is Lighting Rural Africa

July 28, 2015 — 6:12 AM BST
Erasmus Wambua no longer has an excuse for not doing his homework.

In the past, the 18-year-old would have to find light elsewhere when his family's off-grid home in the village of Ndela, 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of then Kenyan capital, ran out of paraffin. That's changed since his mother, Rebecca, signed up with M-Kopa, a Nairobi-based provider of solar-lighting systems.

The 35-year-old mother says she was paying 100 shillings ($1) a day for kerosine. Her daily expense has since plunged to 42 shillings a day, she said. The laptop-sized solar panel and battery generates about 8 watts of energy, enough to run two LED light bulbs.

M-Kopa is using technology to make solar panels affordable in a country where two out of three people have no access to the grid. So far, about 230,000 people have signed up with the company.

"The number goes up so quickly," says Julian Mitchell, director of calls and credit operations at M-Kopa. "On a typical day, we're selling something like 500 units."

Customers agree to pay for the solar panel with regular instalments. M-Kopa then monitors payments that are made using a mobile-phone money-transfer service. If payments are missed, the panel is deactivated via the SIM card. Once the panel is paid for, clients keep it.
More

The monthly Coppock Indicators finished June

DJIA: +98 Down. NASDAQ: +192 Down. SP500: +127 Down. 

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