Baltic
Dry Index. 1477
+19
Brent Crude 63.19
With
still no fix (or contact from Microsoft level two,) and an early
morning appointment far away, a shortened bubble and war update
today. For President Trump, a hard decision. A first strike or no first strike?
Put up time or shut up time. That’ll be shut up time according to
our long complacent, bubbly markets. Nuclear war, no way.
Below,
marketeers ignore President Trump and North Korea. President
Trump may huff and puff up a storm all he likes, but like Presidents Clinton, Bush
and Obama before him, when it comes to North Korea and nuclear war,
the markets think he’s a paper tiger.
Stocks rally to records as Republican tax bill moves toward Senate vote
Published:
Nov 28, 2017 4:59 p.m. ET
Stocks closed
at records Tuesday after bouncing around during the regular session
as geopolitical tensions and domestic developments pulled the market
in different directions.
All three main indexes had traded in
record territory earlier but came off highs as North Korea tested a
ballistic missile for the first time in more than two months. But the
indexes soon regained lost ground after a Republican tax proposal
moved a step closer to a Senate vote.
The
three equity benchmarks have set multiple records in 2017, boosted by
factors such as an expanding U.S. economy, rising corporate profits,
anemic expected returns for other assets and bets that the Trump
administration will deliver tax cuts and other business-friendly
policies.
The Senate
Budget Committee voted
12-11 to advance the Republican tax bill after Sens. Bob Corker
and Ron Johnson joined fellow Republicans as “yes” votes. A full
Senate vote could be possible as early as Thursday.
North Korea fired
a ballistic missile around 3 a.m. local time which is believed to
have flown about 620 miles before landing in the water between the
Korean Peninsula and Japan. In retaliation, South Korea launched a
“precision strike” missile exercise, according to Korean and U.S.
news reports.
Earlier, Jerome Powell, President
Donald Trump’s pick to run the Federal Reserve, testified
at a Senate confirmation hearing, giving investors their first
big clue on how he hopes to operate at the Fed. His opening statement
for the hearing was released Monday, indicating he
expects to stay on the course set by the current Fed chief, Janet
Yellen.
More
Asia Stocks Mixed as Missile Offsets U.S. Rally: Markets Wrap
By Adam Haigh
November
28, 2017, 10:06 PM GMT Updated on November 29, 2017, 6:24 AM GMT
Asian stocks were mixed as Chinese
shares swung between gains and losses and a North Korean missile test
overshadowed a surge in U.S. equities. The dollar was steady as U.S.
tax cuts inched closer to reality.
Shares in Tokyo ended higher with
bank and insurers underpinning gains, and the S&P 500 Index
jumped 1 percent on Tuesday as the Senate budget committee advanced
the Republican tax bill, also buoying the greenback. Australian
shares rose and Hong Kong equities fluctuated. Stocks in Seoul gave
up earlier gains as investors considered the latest intercontinental
ballistic missile launch
from North Korea. Bitcoin surpassed $10,000 for the first time,
bringing this year’s price surge to more than 10-fold.
“The
crux of it is that people ascribe a very low likelihood of it
developing into something more sinister,” said Mark Lister, head of
private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners in Wellington,
which manages about $7 billion. “Markets are choosing to focus on
the positives: that tax reform might be more likely, we’re still
getting good corporate news, and all the economic data is ticking
over pretty nicely.”
North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un said
his regime completed its nuclear program after firing a missile that
put the entire U.S. in range. The missile launch shattered a
two-month period of relative quiet in its first provocation since
U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision this month to label the
country a state sponsor of terrorism. Trump responded that “we will
take care of that situation.” The U.S. and Japan said the
projectile was fired early Wednesday Japan time from North Korea’s
west coast at a lofted trajectory before landing in the Sea of Japan.
The
Senate tax bill is headed for a marathon debate this week after the
budget committee voted Tuesday along party lines to send the
Republican plan to the floor. Republican holdouts, Bob Corker of
Tennessee and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, dropped their objections
shortly before the vote.
More
Bitcoin Blasts to Record $10,000 as Bubble Warnings Multiply
By Todd White and Julie Verhage
November
29, 2017, 1:29 AM GMT Updated on November 29, 2017, 3:07 AM GMT
Bitcoin surpassed $10,000 for the
first time, taking this year’s price surge to more than 10-fold
even as warnings multiply that the largest digital currency is an
asset bubble.
The euphoria is bringing to the
mainstream what was once considered the providence of computer
developers, futurists and libertarians seeking to create an
alternative to central bank-controlled monetary systems. While
the actual volume of transactions conducted in cryptocurrencies is
relatively small, the optimism surrounding the technology continues
to drive it to new highs.
Bitcoin has risen by more than 50
percent since October alone, after developers agreed to cancel a
technology update that threatened to split the digital currency. Even
as analysts disagree on whether the largest cryptocurrency by market
capitalization is truly an asset, its $167 billion value already
exceeds that of about 95 percent of the S&P 500 Index members.
“This is a bubble and there is a
lot of froth. This is going to be the biggest bubble of our
lifetimes,” hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz said at a
cryptocurrency conference Tuesday in New York.
Novogratz, who’s says he began
investing in bitcoin when it was at $90, is starting a $500 million
fund because of the potential for the technology to eventually
transform financial markets.
More
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-29/bitcoin-leaves-skeptics-behind-while-blasting-to-record-10-000
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The
bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
Below,
it’s put up or shut up time for President Trump. North Korea trumps
Trump. The markets say loud and clear “shut up!”
November
28, 2017 / 6:43 PM
North Korea says new ICBM puts U.S. mainland within range of nuclear weapons
SEOUL/WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - North Korea said it had successfully tested a powerful
new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that put all of the
U.S. mainland within range, declaring it had achieved its long-held
goal of becoming a nuclear power.
Wednesday’s
missile test, North Korea’s first since mid-September, came a week
after U.S. President Donald Trump put North Korea back on a U.S. list
of countries it says support terrorism, allowing it to impose more
sanctions.
North Korea has conducted dozens of
ballistic missile tests under its leader, Kim Jong Un, in defiance of
international sanctions. In September, it conducted its sixth and
largest nuclear test.
North Korea said the new powerful
missile reached an altitude of around 4,475 km (2,780 miles) - more
than 10 times the height of the international space station - and
flew 950 km (600 miles) during its 53 minute flight.
In
the statement, North Korea described itself as a “responsible
nuclear power”, saying its strategic weapons were developed to
defend itself from “the U.S. imperialists’ nuclear blackmail
policy and nuclear threat”.
Many nuclear experts say the North
has yet to prove it has mastered all technical hurdles including the
ability deliver a nuclear warhead reliably atop an ICBM, but likely
soon will.
“We don’t have to like it, but
we’re going to have to learn to live with North Korea’s ability
to target the United States with nuclear weapons,” said Jeffrey
Lewis, head of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the
Middlebury Institute of Strategic Studies.
U.S., Japanese and South Korean
officials all agreed the missile, which landed within Japan’s
exclusive economic zone, was likely an ICBM. It did not pose a threat
to the United States, its territories or allies, the Pentagon said.
“It went higher frankly than any
previous shot they’ve taken, a research and development effort on
their part to continue building ballistic missiles that can threaten
everywhere in the world, basically,” U.S. Defense Secretary Jim
Mattis told reporters at the White House.
----Trump spoke by phone with
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon
Jae-In, with all three leaders reaffirming their commitment to combat
the North Korean threat.
“It is a situation that we will
handle,” Trump told reporters.
Moon told Trump that North Korea’s
missile technology seemed to have improved, a spokesman for the South
Korean leader’s office said.
More
Technology Update.
With
events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene,
I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported. Is
converting sunlight to usable cheap AC or DC energy mankind’s
future from the 21st
century onwards? DC? A quantum computer next?
No
update today.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished October
DJIA:
23,277 +233 Up.
NASDAQ:
6,728 +284 Up.
SP500:
2,575 +183 Up.
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