Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Caught On Tape – CNN Reporter Cut Off Air As She Critiques Hillary Clinton
By Tyler Durden
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
So did CNN intentionally pull the plug on its reporter, or was it just a convenient coincidence.
I’ll let you decide.
Source: Caught On Tape – CNN Reporter Cut Off Air As She Critiques Hillary Clinton
Ackman Crushed: Herbalife Soars 14% After FTC Concludes "Not A Pyramid Scheme"
By Tyler Durden
Two years after Bill Ackman unleashed the longest presentation in the world and battled Carl Icahn over his “take it to the grave” short position in Herbalife, it seems the hedge fund manager just got a death blow from The FTC:
- *FTC SAID TO DETERMINE HERBALIFE IS NOT PYRAMID SCHEME: DJ
- *HERBALIFE TO ANNOUNCE $200M SETTLEMENT WITH FTC TODAY: DJ
And HLF is soaring 14% in the pre-market.
As Bloomberg report:
- Herbalife, FTC expected to announce settlement today, DJ said, citing people familiar.
- HLF to pay $200m over claims of misrepresentations
- HLF agrees to change some business practices
- Settlement requires HLF to prove retail sales
- HLF up 15% premkt
- HLF short interest 21% of float: Markit
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has determined Herbalife is not a pyramid scheme, according to a report by Dow Jones, citing sources.
Under the settlement with regulators, Herbalife is expected to pay $200 million over claims of misrepresentation, Dow Jones said. The company also agreed to change some of its business practices and will have to prove its retail sales numbers are accurate.
Source: Ackman Crushed: Herbalife Soars 14% After FTC Concludes "Not A Pyramid Scheme"
Global Corporate Defaults Just Hit 100, On Pace To Surpass Financial Crisis Record
By Tyler Durden
The bizarre financial paradoxes unleashed by central planning continue.
While the S&P rises to new all time highs day after day, the IMF is about to downgrade global growth again, $13 trillion in global bonds trade with a negative yield, and the shape of the US yield curve is where it was the last time the US entered a recession. But what remains the most perplexing aspect of the unprecedented disconnect between market surreality and fundamentals, is the ongoing surge in corporate defaults, which is now on pace to surpass 2009, the worst year in history for corporate bankruptcies.
According to S&P, with half of 2016 in the history books, corporate bond defaults just hit the milestone “century” mark, or 100, last week, rising by 50% from the number of bankruptcies at this time last year and the highest level since the US emerged from recession in 2009. The number rose by four to 100 in the first full week of July, as defaults in the US oil and gas sector ratcheted higher, according to Diane Vazza of S&P Global Ratings, the FT reports.
As a result, the total amount of defaulted debt has risen to $154 billion.
But what is most troubling is that at the current run-rate, with half of 2016 still to come, the global debt default total is on pace to surpass 2009 for the all time corporate bankruptcy record.
And somehow this soon to be historic default cycle is supposed to be taking place in a time when not only has no major economy admitted it is in a recession (because, as everyone knows, it is all about confidence) but the S&P 500 keeps making new record highs daily.
Defaults have – so far – been led by energy companies, specifically low-rated crude producers, which have been slammed with a shortage of liquidity unable to secure (or refi into) new debt since oil began to tumble two years ago, while collateral bases shrunk substantially. That has forced many companies to renegotiate debt obligations with creditors, file for bankruptcy protection or miss interest payments.
More bankruptcies in the massively indebted energy sector are guaranteed as oil still trades at prices below profitable levels for many energy producers, and especially those with significant junk debt.
The latest defaults included distressed debt exchanges from oil group MD America Energy and FTS International, the largest private well servicer in the US, as well as a missed payment by telecommunications group Goodman Networks. S&P believes US defaults will rise to 5.3% less than one year from now, up from 3.8% a year ago.
“So far, there has been little spillover effect into other sectors, but we are not ruling this out in the coming quarters,” Vazza said. “We also expect this stress on many US oil and gas companies to persist with continued low oil prices.”
We, on the other hand, expect that – as the following chart from Morgan Stanley clearly shows – as the corporate default cycle is only now starting to ramp …read more
Source: Global Corporate Defaults Just Hit 100, On Pace To Surpass Financial Crisis Record
Global Stock Rally Halted In Aftermath Of Latest French Terror Attack
By Tyler Durden
The tremendous rally of the past 4 days that has sent global stocks soaring in recent days has finally been capped and European shares, S&P futures are all modestly lower following a deadly terror attack in Nice, France. Meanwhile Asian stocks rose as Chinese economic data beat estimates, with Q2 GDP rising by 0.1% more than the estimated 6.6% on the back of stronger housing data. European stocks halted this week’s rally as French shares retreated following a deadly terror attack in Nice.
As expected in the aftermath of another tragic terrorist attack on French soil, which killed at least 80 and prompted France to extend a state of emergency, travel and leisure shares were among the worst performers on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index briefly exceeded its highest close of the year as the Hong Kong-listed stocks of Chinese companies extended their biggest weekly gain in four months and Taiwan’s equities entered a bull market. Japan’s Topix index capped its best week since 2009 and the yen slid on prospects for stimulus: Japan’s currency has now seen the biggest weekly drop in the 21st century on the back of rising chatter of helicopter money. The pound strengthened, oil fell and gold was poised for its first weekly loss since May.
The impact of the Nice terror attack on markets is not expected to have a lasting impact: past terror attacks on financial markets has typically proved short-lived and actually led to market rebounds. Multiple attacks in Paris in November that left 130 dead, as well as bombings that killed 191 people on Madrid commuter trains in March 2004 and left more than 50 dead in London in July 2005 spurred selloffs in equities that were erased days or weeks later.
“The attack in Nice is of course truly a horrible accident, but in terms of the market reaction, these kinds of shocks do not last very long,” said Michael Kapler, an equities manager at Mittelbrandenburgische Sparkasse in Potsdam, Germany. “There are rumors that the Japanese central bank will deliver the next liquidity push to the markets, and we are expecting the Bank of England to ease in August. The focus is there, as well as on the earnings season both in Europe and the U.S.”
More than $4 trillion has been added to the value of global equities since June 27 as the U.S. economy outperforms projections and speculation mounts that policy makers will take steps to limit the fallout from the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union.
“We’re seeing better-than-expected growth, particularly in the U.S. economy, and we’ve got a higher likelihood of central bank stimulus,” Michael McCarthy, the Sydney-based chief market strategist at CMC Markets, told Bloomberg Radio. “These ideas are opposing, but at the moment they are both supporting equities. At some point there is going to have to be a resolution of that.”
But not yet, and as the chart below shows, global equities are now valued at $64.5 trillion, the …read more
Source: Global Stock Rally Halted In Aftermath Of Latest French Terror Attack
Could Italy Bring Down The Euro?
By Tyler Durden
Submitted by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,
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A move by Italy — the third-largest economy in the eurozone — to abandon the euro could strike a potentially fatal blow to the currency and to the bloc itself.
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Meanwhile, at more than 130% of GDP, Italy has one of the biggest public debt burdens in Europe, second only to Greece.
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“A perfect storm of slow or zero Italian economic growth, low interest rates and politically connected, often corrupt, lending have combined to create a situation where the Italian financial system is in need of a large rescue.” — Mihir Kapadia, Sun Global Investments.
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M5S blames the euro for Italy's woes, and many Italians agree.
The eurosceptic Five Star Movement (M5S) has overtaken Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) in several opinion polls and is now the most popular political party in Italy.
The poll results represent a significant shift in Italy's political landscape and have potentially far-reaching implications for the future of the European Union.
M5S, which would win national elections if they were held today, has called for a referendum on whether Italy, which is facing the collapse of its banking system, should keep the euro, the single currency of the European Union, or bring back the Italian lira.
A move by Italy — the third-largest economy in the eurozone — to abandon the euro could strike a potentially fatal blow to the currency and to the bloc itself.
An Ipsos poll, published by the newspaper Corriere della Sera on July 5, gave M5S 30.6% of the vote, up from 28.9% in April, while Renzi's center-left PD fell to 29.8% from 31.1%.
A Demos poll, published by La Repubblica on July 1, gave M5S 32.3% of the vote, compared to 30.2% for the PD. An EMG Acqua poll for TeleGiornale La7 television on June 28 gave M5S 31.7%, compared to 31.2% for the PD.
According to Ipsos pollster Nando Pagnoncelli, the polls show that M5S “is increasingly viewed as a political force that is capable of governing the country.”
The anti-establishment M5S was founded in 2009 by Beppe Grillo, a well-known comedian and blogger who has led a popular fight against rampant corruption in Italy's political system. The party advocates for direct democracy — a system in which political decision making is devolved from the government to citizens — as a way to bypass traditional political parties embroiled in corruption scandals.
M5S, which portrays itself as post-ideological and draws support from both the left and right sides of the political aisle, has leveraged the internet to attract millions of voters, especially among the young.
The 67-year-old Grillo recently handed over the reins of the party to a new “directorate” of five young leaders, of which 30-year-old Luigi Di Maio has become the most prominent. He is widely expected to be the party's candidate for prime minister at the next election.
M5S achieved a major breakthrough in municipal elections on June 20, when it won 19 out of the 20 cities — including Rome and …read more
Source: Could Italy Bring Down The Euro?
The UK Is Now "At The Front Of The Queue" As America Rushes To Pass A Trade Deal
By Tyler Durden
Less than 3 months ago, on April 22, in an address to the British people that may have cost David Cameron his job and led to the ever more rancorous divorce between the UK and the EU, Barack Obama warned that the UK would be at the “back of the queue” in any trade deal with the US if the country chose to leave the EU, as he made an emotional plea to Britons to vote for staying in.
Two months later, a majority of Brits gave Obama the finger and Britain is no longer part of Europe.
But while that story in itself would be quite satisfying, it turns out that Obama lied. Again.
As it turns out, not only is the UK not at the back of the queue, it now finds itself at the very front. As reported by the FT, the Obama administration has begun preliminary discussions with senior UK officials about how they might pursue a trade agreement between the two countries following Britain’s exit from the EU, Washington’s top trade official said.
The discussions were revealed on Thursday by Mike Froman, the US trade representative, and coincide with a growing push by Republican Brexit supporters in Congress for President Barack Obama to launch talks on a commercial pact quickly.
So much for yet another typically hollow, worthless threat by the well-spoken, teleprompted golfer in chief. Even the FT is amused by the idiotic diplomacy of the president, which highlights “how quickly the president and his administration have backed away from his warnings before last month’s referendum that Britain would be at the “back of the queue” for any trade deals with the US if it voted to leave the EU.”
So what does Britain’s “most favored nation in the queue” status get it? As the FT explains, “Froman said he had discussed Britain’s plans and a possible bilateral trade pact with a number of senior British officials since the referendum. In the past week alone he spoke with Sajid Javid and Mark Price, the UK’s outgoing business and trade secretaries. He had not yet spoken with Liam Fox, the incoming minister for international trade in the new government of Theresa May, who took over as the UK’s prime minister on Wednesday.
But Mr Froman warned that there was still significant uncertainty surrounding what sort of agreement the US and UK would or could negotiate, primarily because a lot depended on the exit deal and trading relationship with the EU that Mrs May’s government ended up negotiating. “What precisely they negotiate with their other trading partners will depend in part on what model they develop in their relationship with the EU,” Mr Froman told a breakfast discussion organised by the Christian Science Monitor.
“Will they have sovereignty over tariffs? Will they have sovereignty over regulations? . . . Until you get more clarity around that it’s hard to determine precisely what kind of trade relationship they might be able to negotiate with …read more
Source: The UK Is Now "At The Front Of The Queue" As America Rushes To Pass A Trade Deal
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Fed Loses Another Excuse As China "Super Friday" Data Dump Beats Expectations
By Tyler Durden
China's 'Super Friday' data dump arrived and despite the 10% devaluation in the Renminbi basket over the past year, and an utterly incredible spike in borrowing (new loans spiked again in June!!), China economic data merely muddles through in its centrally-planned goal-seeked way. Earlier 'researchers' proclaimed Chinese GDP at around 6.5% but China GDP grew at 6.7% YoY (beating expectations of 6.6%). While Fixed Asset Investment disappointed (+9.0% vs +9.4% exp), Retail Sales (+10.6%) and Industrial Production (+6.2%) beat expectations.
The devaluation against the USD is starting to accelerate as the broad Renminbi basket has now dropped 10% in the last year (against all of China's major trading partners)…
The search for yield has once again led to Chinese Corporates, which have rallied back to almost record bubble low yields (despite the utter carnage in Chinese balance sheets as leverage rises). Bonds have replaced stocks for now as the bubble-du-jour in China…
Not easily seen in this chart but SHCOMP has actually rallied bak to April levels in recent weeks amid the world's flood of central bank largesse.
As Bloomberg notes, whenever China's GDP beat or met market consensus, the country's stock market fell. Here's how the Shanghai Composite did following the last four GDP releases:
- 1Q on April 15, 2016: +6.7%; SHCOMP -0.1%
- 4Q on Jan. 19, 2016: +6.8%; SHCOMP +3.2%
- 3Q on Oct. 19, 2015: +6.9%; SHCOMP -0.1%
- 2Q on July 15, 2015: +7%; SHCOMP -3%
But it has not helped the macro-economic data much…
- Industrial Production rose 6.2% (acclerating from 6.0% in May) BEATING expectations of a 5.9% rise (5.3 to 6.2% range)
- Retails Sales printed +10.6% (faster than May's 10.0%) BEATING expectations of a 9.9% gain (with 40 economists estimating between 9.2 and 10.2% gains)
- Fixed Assets Investment rose 9.0% YoY (slowing from 9.6% in May) MISSING expectations of 9.4% (between 8.8 and 9.8%) – lowest since 2000.
- GDP printed +6.7% (flat from May) BEATING expectations of 6.6% YoY rise (6.3 to 6.8% range among 46 economists) – equal lowest since 2009.
And all of this was achieved with another massive surge in credit…
So The Fed loses another excuse – US Jobs – Fixed! BREXIT – handled! China Growth Fears – No Worries!
Source: Fed Loses Another Excuse As China "Super Friday" Data Dump Beats Expectations
America Wastes About HALF The Food That It Produces While Hunger Runs Rampant Around The Globe
Is the United States the most wasteful nation on the entire planet? We are all certainly guilty of wasting food. Whether it is that little bit that you don’t want to eat at the end of a meal, or that produce that you forgot about in the back of the refrigerator that went moldy, the truth is that we could all do better at making sure that good food does not get wasted. It can be tempting to think that wasting food is not a big deal because we have so much of it, but an increasing number of people around the world are really hurting these days. In fact, it has been estimated that there are more than a billion hungry people around the globe right now. So as a society we need to figure out how to waste a whole lot less food and how to get it into the mouths of those that really need it.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, close to a third of all food in the United States gets wasted after it gets to the store. This is commonly referred to as “downstream” waste. When you add all of this “downstream” waste up, it comes to a grand total of 133 billion pounds of food each year…
Nearly a third of the 430 billion pounds of food produced for Americans to eat is wasted, a potential catastrophe for landfills and a wake-up call to officials scrambling to feed the hungry, according to a stunning new report from the Department of Agriculture.
The just-issued report revealed that in 2010, 31 percent, or 133 billion pounds, of food produced for Americans to eat was wasted, either molded or improperly cooked, suffered “natural shrinkage” due to moisture loss, or because people became disinterested in what they purchased.
How many people do you think we could feed with 133 billion pounds of food?
But that isn’t all of the food that we waste. In addition to “downstream” waste, we also have to add “upstream” waste to the equation. Massive amounts of food are wasted each year because American consumers don’t want to eat fruits and vegetables that are “imperfect”. The following comes from the Guardian…
Americans throw away almost as much food as they eat because of a “cult of perfection”, deepening hunger and poverty, and inflicting a heavy toll on the environment.
Vast quantities of fresh produce grown in the US are left in the field to rot, fed to livestock or hauled directly from the field to landfill, because of unrealistic and unyielding cosmetic standards, according to official data and interviews with dozens of farmers, packers, truckers, researchers, campaigners and government officials.
And I know that as a consumer I am guilty of this. Just yesterday, I was picking through the apricots at the grocery store looking for the prettiest ones that I could find. Of course they were all good to eat, but most of us are in the habit of wanting produce that looks …read more
Source: America Wastes About HALF The Food That It Produces While Hunger Runs Rampant Around The Globe
