By EconMatters
By EconMatters
We delve into the agriculture space, specifically the Cattle Industry looking at how the technicals are shaping up for the sector in this video. There are still some Meat eaters left in this world.
© EconMatters All Rights Reserved | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Email Digest | Kindle
Source: Live Cattle, Feeder Cattle, Lean Hogs, Class III Milk (Video)
By Tyler Durden
One month ago, even before the recent surge in mortgage rates to the highest level since April 2014…
… we noted that pending home sales had stalled, rising a barely positive 0.2%,, and well below expected, a number which we predicted was set for much more pain in the months ago.
Moments ago this prediction was confirmed when the NAR reported that November pending home sales plunged to their lowest level in nearly a year, sliding 2.5% in the month well below the 0.5% consensus forecast (and below the lowest -1.5% estimate), “as the brisk upswing in mortgage rates and not enough inventory dispirited some would-be buyers.”
On a year over year basis, the annual drop was the worst since August 2014.
Only the Northeast saw monthly and annual pending sales gains last month.
The details:
The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, declined 2.5 percent to 107.3 in November from 110.0 in October. After last month’s decrease in activity, the index is now 0.4 percent below last November (107.7) and is at its lowest reading since January (105.4).
According to the NAR’s perpetually cheerful chief economist, Lawrence Yun, the ongoing supply shortages and the surge in mortgage rates took a small bite out of pending sales in November. “The budget of many prospective buyers last month was dealt an abrupt hit by the quick ascension of rates immediately after the election,” he said. “Already faced with climbing home prices and minimal listings in the affordable price range, fewer home shoppers in most of the country were successfully able to sign a contract.”
It gets worse: with 2017 at the doorstep, Yun says higher borrowing costs somewhat cloud the outlook for the housing market. This was evident in NAR’s most recent HOME survey, which found that confidence amongst renters about now being a good time to buy has diminished since the beginning of the year1. The good news, according to Yun, is that the impact of higher rates will be partly neutralized by stronger wage growth as a result of the 2 million net new job additions expected next year.
“Healthy local job markets amidst tight supply means many areas will remain competitive with prices on the rise. Those rushing to lock in a rate before they advance even higher will probably have few listings to choose from,” said Yun. “Some buyers will have to expand the area of their home search or be forced to delay in order to save a little more money for their down payment.”
Existing sales are still expected to close out 2016 at a pace of around 5.42 million, which will eclipse 2015 (5.25 million) as the highest since 2006 (6.48 million). In 2017, sales are forecast to grow roughly 2 percent to around 5.52 million. The national median existing-home price is expected to increase to around 5 percent this year and 4 percent in 2017.
“Much more robust new home construction is needed to relieve inventory shortages …read more
Source: Pending Home Sales Tumble As Surging Mortgage Rates Paralyze Housing Market
By Tyler Durden
In the latest snub of president Obama and the US State Department, on Wednesday Turkey and Russia reached an agreement for a ceasefire in Syria, Turkey’s foreign minister said, and according to Anadolu News Agency, will aim to put it into effect by midnight. Anadolu, citing sources, said the two countries have reached a consensus that will be presented to participants in the conflict on expanding the ceasefire that was established in Aleppo earlier this month.
There may be a hurdle however: Ankara would not budge on its opposition to President Bashar al-Assad staying in power. The comments by Mevlut Cavusoglu on Wednesday appeared to signal a tentative advance in talks aimed at reaching a truce, but the insistence that Assad must go will do little to smooth negotiations with Russia, his biggest backer.
Not content with isolating the US, Russia, Iran and Turkey also made a mockery of the UN when they said last week they were ready to help broker a peace deal after holding talks in Moscow where they adopted a declaration setting out the principles any agreement should adhere to. Arrangements for the talks, which would not include the United States and be distinct from separate intermittent U.N.-brokered negotiations, remain hazy, but Moscow has said they would take place in Kazakhstan, a close ally.
“There are two texts ready on a solution in Syria. One is about a political resolution and the other is about a ceasefire. They can be implemented any time,” Cavusoglu told reporters on the sidelines of an awards ceremony at the presidential palace in Ankara.
While Turkey’s insistence has been that Assad must go, perhaps in legacy support of US and NATO positions, with Cavusoglu saing that “the whole world knows it is not possible for there to be a political transition with Assad, and we also all know that it is impossible for these people to unite around Assad”, Turkey’s position appears not set in stone, and last week, Russia’s foreign minister said Russia, Iran and Turkey had agreed that the priority in Syria was to fight terrorism and not to remove Assad’s government.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said earlier on Wednesday Moscow and Ankara had agreed on a proposal toward a general ceasefire. The Kremlin said it could not comment on the report.
Cited by Reuters, a Syrian rebel official said meetings between Ankara and rebel forces were expected to continue this week, but could not confirm whether a final ceasefire agreement had been reached.
As Reuters also adds, a major sticking point in negotiations between rebel groups and Turkey was that Russia wanted to exclude the Damascus countryside from the ceasefire, but the rebels refused to do so. A second rebel official told Reuters there was no agreement yet from the side of the rebel factions.
“The details of the ceasefire deal have yet to be officially presented to the factions, and there is no agreement so far,” the second official said.
Russia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday the Syrian …read more
Source: Another PR Fiasco For Obama: Russia, Turkey Agree On Syria Ceasefire Plan, Snub Washington
By Tyler Durden
For 10 straight days, progonosticators have promised that the Dow Jones Industrial Average will break gloriously above 20,000 for the first time in history, proving how great the economy must be (or will be) and leading investors to the next secular bull leg of this miracle of wall street.
So far it hasn't happened… (Dow +11.75% post-Trump)
But halfway around the world, Chinese fears (of capital controls and devaluation) have sparked an exodus into alternative currencies – most notably Bitcoin as it soars towards $1000. (BTC +42% post-Trump)
So which comes first – the greed of Dow 20,000 or the fear of $1000 Bitcoin?
Source: Which Comes First – Dow 20k Or $1000 Bitcoin?
By Tyler Durden
When we observed yesterday that according to the latest Conference Board data, US consumer confidence had soared to 113.7, the highest print since August 2001, we had just one question: would Trump take credit for the spike…
… which even the organization behind the index admitted was driven entirely by hope in the Trump administration, as the rebound was “due solely to increasing Expectations which hit a 13-year high”
“The post-election surge in optimism for the economy, jobs and income prospects, as well as for stock prices which reached a 13-year high, was most pronounced among older consumers.”
Meanwhile, absent hope for the future, reality for most US consumers deteriorated and their assessment of current conditions declined, with those saying business conditions are “good” decreased slightly from 29.7 percent to 29.2 percent, while those saying business conditions are “bad” increased from 15.2 percent to 17.3 percent.
As the Conference Board correctly notes, consumers’ “continued optimism will depend
on whether or not their expectations are realized.”
One person, however, who is quite confident the surge in confidence will continue, was President-elect Donald Trump, who in a late Tuesday night tweet, credited himself for the surge in optimism on Twitter, writing “Thanks Donald!”
The U.S. Consumer Confidence Index for December surged nearly four points to 113.7, THE HIGHEST LEVEL IN MORE THAN 15 YEARS! Thanks Donald!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2016
Trump’s latest tweet follows a similar one from Monday night when he tweeted that “The world was gloomy before I won – there was no hope. Now the market is up nearly 10% and Christmas spending is over a trillion dollars!”
The world was gloomy before I won – there was no hope. Now the market is up nearly 10% and Christmas spending is over a trillion dollars!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2016
As we asked on Monday, “we wonder what Trump will sat if/when Goldman Sachs stops rising and stocks tumble (“never gonna happen”, probably The Fed’s fault after all), but perhaps even more importantly, how does he feel about the $1.2 trillion of value he has erased from global capital markets (equity and debt) since his election?”
For now Trump is clearly eager to take credit for the surge in markets to record highs, as well as the associated surge in consumer confidence, both of which however have been driven by market hopes that Trump will reflate assets, something which was clearly lost on the latest UMichigan consumer confidence survey which showed US inflation expectations are the lowest on record. We doubt he will be as vocal when the hangover from the recent rally finally hits, unless of course, stocks manage to last the next four years without any corrections, an otherwise laughable prospect which however in this strange “new abnormal”, has to be taken quite seriously.
By Tyler Durden
With each passing year, SHTFPlan.com's Mac Slavo notes there are more and more challenges to personal property and individual sovereignty.
Despite the resilience it lends to our national security, the government has proven again and again that it wishes to clamp down on the ability to prep, survive and self-sustain off grid, and without the need for the system’s supply chain.
You can hardly build your own place, grow your own food, collect your own water or take care of yourself without the intervention of those in authority. There is need to push back against this continued intrusion of our lives.
Authored by Claire Bernish via The Free Thought Project,
An Oregon couple has been told they must destroy a 2-acre pond on their land — the property’s most attractive feature — because the government said so.
Although Jon and Sabrina Carey purchased the 10-acre property near Butte Falls two and a half years ago, the pond has been in place for 40 years — but that fact doesn’t matter to the Jackson County Watermaster’s Office.
“I basically bought a lemon,” said Jon, who became teary-eyed at the edge of the partially ice-covered body of water being targeted by government, in an interview with the Mail Tribune. “That’s how they explained it to me.”
But the couple desperately wants to keep the stunning longstanding feature in tact, so, as the Mail Tribune reports, the Careys have “pleaded with the Medford Water Commission to adopt the pond and treat it as a municipal water source, something Jackson County Watermaster Larry Menteer has opposed because of the precedent it would set.
“The Water Commission has rights to the watershed around the Careys’ property, where dozens, if not hundreds, of ponds are located, as well as Medford’s primary source of water, Big Butte Springs.”
And the Careys aren’t the only people in the watershed who’ve had difficulties with, well, ‘the government’s’ water.
Eagle Point resident Gary Harrington spent 90 days in jail for illegally harboring some 13 million gallons of illicit rainwater — that’s enough rain to fill around 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Harrington masterfully crafted several ponds on his property — even building docks for one, and stocking it with largemouth bass — but his insistence the water would assist in fire control and prevention didn’t satisfy the government, since a “1925 state law dictates that the water belongs to the Medford Water Commission.”
As Mother Nature Network‘s Matt Hickman reported in 2012,
The bigger story here is that rainwater collection is indeed kosher in Oregon, provided that you’re capturing it from an artificial, impervious surface such as a rooftop with the assistance of rainwater barrels. But an extensive reservoir set-up complete with 10- and 20-foot-tall dams is verboten without the proper, state-issued water-right permits — after all, Oregon law dictates that water is a publicly owned resource — and Harrington did not possess said permits.
Harrington and the Oregon Water Resources Department waged an extended <a target=_blank rel="nofollow" …read more
Source: Government Destroys Couple’s Rights Over Rainwater: "If You’re Honest, They Take Everything Away"
Toshiba’s stock is tanking after the company flagged huge losses for its nuclear business. …read more
Source: Toshiba shares plummet 20%
By Tyler Durden
As president-elect Trump plays Boeing and Lockheed off against each other, China flexed its military muscles once again – after sending its aircraft carrier Liaoning into the western Pacific – by testing the latest version of its fifth-generation stealth fighter, state media reported on Monday, as it tries to end the West’s monopoly on the world’s most advanced warplanes.
As The South China Morning Post reports, the newest version of the J-31, now renamed the FC-31 Gyrfalcon, took to the air for the first time on Friday, the China Daily reported.
The so-called “fifth-generation” twin engine jet is China’s answer to the US F-35, the world’s most technically advanced fighter.
The new FC-31 has “better stealth capabilities, improved electronic equipment and a larger payload capacity” than the previous version which debuted in October 2012, the newspaper said, quoting aviation expert Wu Peixin.
“Changes were made to the airframe, wings and vertical tails which make it leaner, lighter and more manoeuvrable,” Wu told the paper.
The jet is manufactured by Shenyang Aircraft Corp, a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corp of China.
The manufacturer has said that the FC-31 will “put an end to some nations’ monopolies on the fifth-generation fighter jet”, the China Daily reported.
Source: China Rattles Sabre – Tests Prototype Fifth-Generation Stealth Fighter
By Tyler Durden
Submitted by Josepth Jankowski via PlanetFreeWill.com,
While the development of new genome-editing technology that could one day ensure that children do not inherit unwanted diseases and disorders sounds like a magnificent breakthrough, one scientist is warning that the latest technology runs the risk of eliminating future geniuses like Thomas Edison and Stephen Hawking.
According to Dr. Jim Kozubek, author of Modern Prometheus, eliminating conditions such as depression, autism, schizophrenia or Asperger's through the new Crispr-Cas9 human genome editing technology runs the risk of seeing future generations of geniuses wiped out.
Express reports:
Dr Kozubek said a world without depression, autism, schizophrenia or Asperger’s might also mean one without the likes of playwright Tennessee Williams, as figures show that writers are ten times more like to suffer from bipolar than the general population and poets are 40 times more likely to be diagnosed with it.
Dr Kozubek said: “Thomas Edison was ‘addled’ and kicked out of school. Tennessee Williams, as a teenager on the boulevards of Paris felt afraid of ‘the process of thought’ and came within ‘a hairsbreadth of going quite mad’.
Kozubek says that “Darwin showed us that evolution does not progress toward an ideal concept or model, but rather is a work of tinkering toward adaptation in local niches.”
He added that a condition like autism should be thought of as a “gift” that has made its was through human genes for millions of years.
“Before we begin modifying our genes with gene editing tools such as Crispr-Cas9, we’d be smart to recall that genetic variants that contribute to psychiatric conditions may even be beneficial depending on the environment or genetic background,” Kozubek said.
Crispr-Cas9 is a new technology that enables geneticists and medical researchers to edit parts of the genome by removing, adding or altering sections of the DNA sequence.
Dr. Kozubek’s rather shocking warning comes as human trials using Crispr are already underway inside the United States.
The first human trials involving the method began in China where oncologists at Sichuan University were the first in the world to insert Crispr edited cells into a patient suffering from an aggressive form of lung cancer.
Last year, British scientists at the University College London used a similar gene editing technique to help a 17-month-old girl with leukemia.
Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have recently used CRISPR/Cas9 gene targeting system to mice to treat hemophilia B.
Source: Scientist Warns That Gene Editing Could Wipe Out Future Generations Of Geniuses
Welcome to Esh Carmel Blog.
