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50,000 New Infection Thursday – Happy Holiday!
50,000 new infections!
That's right, that's the 5th time in the past 7 days the US has hit new all-time single-day highs in infections. Over in Japan, six weeks after Tokyo lifted it's State of Emergency, they are back to their May highs in daily infections. At this point, I don't think there is much to do about it. Clearly humanity has no taste for the obvious way to control the disease and very clearly Americans don't. Maybe the "herd immunity" crowd was right – cows don't go into lockdown when a disease strikes – some die, some don't and the rest of the herd moves on…
I don't suppose a cow puts much thought into it's vulnerability or what will become of it's children and loved ones or how it's business will survive or how it's carelessness might affect his fellow cows - AND NEITHER DO AMERICANS APPARENTLY! Maybe we just eat to many cows and we are starting to think (or not think) like them? Texas eats a lot of meat and they had 8,000 new infections yesterday but Arizona, which has 1/4 of Texa's population, had 4,700 new cases – more than half, so about 5 times the infection rate of Texas.
From Japan and other countries that have had re-infections, it's very clear that bars are a major cause of the spread of the infection yet the bars are open in most states for what is usually a big drinking weekend as we bow to pressure from the Liquor Lobby to keep things flowing while completely ignoring the Rational For God's Sake Will Humanity at Least Try to Save Itself Lobby – as usual. As noted by David Leonhardt:
Government policy and economic forces have combined to make corporations and the wealthy more powerful, and most workers and their families less powerful. These workers receive a smaller share of society’s resources than they once did and often have less control over their lives. Those lives are generally shorter and more likely to
…
The US "is not in total control".
Nice move up yesterday, this is a good time to take a look at the Short-Term Portfolio (STP).
The economy is still very much shut-down and yesterday the markets were excited about some production growth in Asia but, when you were down 30%, growing 2% back is not really a reason to put on party hats – certainly not a 500-point rally. But that brings us to the TREMENDOUS amounts of stimulus in the economy.
So, the question is, are we hedged enough or CAN WE BE HEDGED ENOUGH to protect our long positions? Our Long-Term Portfolio is up 70% at the monet at about $850,000 and our Short-Term Portfolio is up 445% at $545,000 so combined $1.395M is more than a double off our $600,000 combined start so all is well but that's because we got lucky and were bearish into the crash (
I guess people ignore stuff all the time.
Holy cow!
This is getting interesting.
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So now the market has dropped 20% and what do you have? You have $92,000 – that's only down 8%. That in itself isn't very exciting but that's where Part 2 of our strategy comes in because, since we are not very damaged by a 20% drop, we are in a great position to go bargain hunting for stocks that over-reacted to the downside (and that is what our Watch List is for) and now we can buy our stocks for a 20% or greater discount and, using our other options strategies and taking advantage of the higher VIX – we can buy stocks closer to a 40% discount with our $92,000 in buying power.
2,347,102 infected Americans.
In 3.5 years, America has become isolated and unloved, with soaring debts and monstrous unemployment. We have far less trade, riots in the streets and our life expectancy is crashing as fast as the stock market is rising. Putin could not possibly be prouder, could he?
Things are looking good so far because those 
Does what you hear about the markets and the economy make sense when you walk on empty streets and eat in empty restaurants? Will it makes sense when we get those quarterly reports for Q2? Does it make sense when you look at the Atlanta Fed's GDP Now forecast, that shows Q2 (the one we just finishing next week) GDP is projected to be DOWN 45.5%.
Yes, I am being lazy (some would say efficient), this is Friday morning's Report because not much is going on and these Reviews take forever to write so I'm getting a jump by doing them as we go along today.
Bolton's book is out.
Wheeee, what a ride!
The Atlanta Fed's GDPNow Tracker still has the 2nd quarter coming in at a 50% contraction to Q1 so, logically, Corporate Profits are going to be headed that way as well yet you wouldn't have known that from the record highs we were setting last week. It was obviously ridiculous and that is why our Short-Term Portfolio, where we manage our hedges for our long portfolios, gained $50,000 last week!
Wheeeeee!
Wheeeee – down we go!
You've got to short the Nasdaq at the 10,000 line!
Keep in mind that stocks are an alternative to bonds and, since bonds are paying less than 2%, what is 50 times earnings but a 2% annualized return. While stocks are risky, there's also a chance the stock becomes more valuable over time and stocks make a better hedge against inflation as Corporate Profits are likely to inflate along with everything else.
The Food Bank provides 21M meals per quarter and the US Government has dropped $2.7Tn (so far) in direct stimulus which has (so far) made 
We're waiting on Payroll Data.
That's why this jobs report tells you nothing about the real health of the economy. It's a fiction that's been concocted by the Government so the people are not generally aware of how hard-hitting this disaster has been. Yesterday, they were already talking about another $1Tn of stimulus by the end of June – anything to keep Q2 GDP from being down more than 50% – which is the current forecast by the Atlanta Federal Reserve.
3,135.
Yawn!
That's right, the Fed now buys junk bonds and the majority of these ETFs are managed by Blackrock (BLK), who also runs the Fed's debt-buying programs (once again, the Fed is NOT a Government Agency – it is a Banking Cartel made up of Bankers to protect the interests of Bankers). Still, even for bankers, this seems a little fishy.
The First Amendment is getting a workout this weekend!
We can only assume that Liquidity Trumps all other things – as does the Oligarchy and that was on full display in this 
This could be the short of a lifetime.
Meanwhile, 
I get it.
You can't make this stuff up.
Mr. Trump publicly embraced hydroxychloroquine as a “game
Nothing happend this weekend.
S&P 2,850.
35M people have lost their jobs in 60 days.
$3,000,000,000,000!
While the Trump Administration is rushing to get the economy opened back up, 
Still, the growth expectations were justified as Corporations no longer have to pay taxes or worry about destroying the environment and, in the golden age of Trump, earnings shot up to $140 per share last year and the S&P hit 3,400 – still with a p/e of 24.28 - as if this growth will go on forever. Why, to keep that kind of growth up you'd have to PAY corporations tax money on top of the profits they make.
Of course, if we are going to be counting on a long-range recovery to justify paying pre-virus prices for stocks that will clearly NOT be making pre-virus money this year – then we should also be taking into account the damage that is being done by the US (and other nations) racking up a $4Tn Deficit in 2020 – and that's ignoring $4Tn added to the Fed's balance sheet and a very likely additional round of stimulus that's coming.
Has it been two months?
Don't ask me to explain this BS.
I don't want to be that guy.
Well, you can see why we call it our "Must Hold Line."
Well this is no surprise.
Trump is officially out of control.
The BEST month!
We have some truly ridiculous gains in our portfolios thanks to this epic bounce and we're coming back to test the 200-day moving average on the S&P at the 3,000 line and we didn't think we'd get back over our Must Hold line at 2,850 but, on the other hand – as I said back on March 24th: "
As investors, we don't really care, FREE MONEY is FREE MONEY…
Will Powell be wearing pants?
The last time I was on the show was March 11th
Cognative Dissonance.
I WAS going to write an upbeat article.
Oil is back over $15.
The ETF is reverse-splitting 1 for 8 as of April 29th, so we'll have to be out by then as it's more likely than not that oil will plunge into negative numbers again at the May, taking USO down with it, no matter what price they reset it too. So far, Trump has offered to buy 75M barrels of oil for the SPR and Trump has attempted to raise hostilities with Iran in attempts to boost the price of oil and it's working somewhat, with oil back to $15 but we just had a 25M barrel build in inventores yesterday so even if they fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the brim – we still can't handle 4 more weeks of build like that!
Another $500Bn is being thrown on the fire.
Republicans had initially wanted only to replenish the small-business fund (which they looted), while Democrats wanted to also boost money for hospitals, testing, food stamps and state and local governments. Although under pressure last week from some centrist Democrats uncomfortable with delaying the small-business aid, Democratic leaders saw several of their requests met in the emerging deal.
$38.50 per barrel.
Still if you are doing the math, you might be able to make all that work for under $38,500 but then you still need to find someone who will buy the oil from you for less than zero and, while -$38.50 did not last long – oil is still trading at -$4 this morning. Those are the contracts that expire today for May delivery as there is simply nowhere left to put the oil.
This actually happened this weekend:
Did I know that a viral pandemic would be the catalyst that would take down the global markets? Of course not, but I did KNOW FOR A FACT that valuations were stretched and we had made a ridiculous amount of money in our Long-Term Portfolio (based on…
It's over.
When will things get back to normal?
Now, unlike many other ghost towns across the world, South Korea’s cities are full of people going about their usual business. Crucially, many are practicing social distancing and almost everyone is wearing face masks. To counter the risk of travelers from abroad spreading the virus, authorities announced on Wednesday strict rules for anyone arriving from abroad, including a mandatory two-week quarantine.
“It’s a make-or-break moment.”
We'll hear more about this at the IMF's annual meeting, which starts tomorrow. At the same time, emerging markets are facing a massive liquidity crisis as they don't have Central Banks that can simply crank up the printing presses when they need to throw money around. Capital has simply flown out of Emerging Markets and is continuing to do so and those are the people who supply a lot of the parts and materials that make American factories run.
We're short.
What does the Fed think?
Are you down 50% one or more of your stocks?
Wheee, that was fun!
Still, we don't want to be greedy so we'll set a stop at $22.50 once 
Wimps!
Why do we listen to these people? When have they ever been right? The same thing happened in 2008 when the people who had the money (the Top 1%) got their bailouts (TARP) and then went about telling the Bottom 99% that the World was going to end and they should dump all their stocks – the same stocks the Top…
What is your plan?
The virus rages on.
85,996!
$4.5 TRILLION!
We still need the House to confirm the bill but let's keep in mind this is only our FIRST bailout package. If things drag on, there will cerainly be others and the way our Government is responding, things are certainly going to drag on. If you wonder what FEMA is doing during this emergency, New York, Hawaii and North Carolina have issued an urgent request to FEMA for emergency mortuary assistance as deaths mount across the states.
MORE FREE MONEY!!!
There's a great article in Bloomberg
I want free money NOW!!!
Hi ho silver!
Trillions of Dollars are being committed to "fix" the economy.
Bloomberg reporters are reporting from their homes – how's that for inspiring confidence!? As I noted this morning in an Alert to our Members:
How low can we go?
After finishing down 2,000 (10%) points on the Dow and 260 (9.55%) on the S&P, this morning the Futures are limit up.
What will it take?
Yet the markets are not doing better at all. Despite yesterday's impressive "rally", we remained firmly on the sidelines as we never even came close to our "Weak Bounce" line at 2,960 and that's not even a recovery until we cross back over the "Strong Bounce" line at 3,070 and hold that for 2 consecutive days.
China's President Xi went to Wuhan this morning.
President Trump stayed safe on the golf course yesterday but made it back in the evening to announce he will seek further tax cuts (duh!) and "very substantial relief" for 
Well, you can't say we didn't see this coming.
Wheeee, this is fun!
Notice we're not playing the Futures this week.
What the Hell were people expecting?
Keep in mind the lunacy that is going on here – we are having emergency G7 meetings led by Steve Mnuchin (a Goldman Sachs Bankster) who is telling the Global Finance Leaders that they must lower rates to prop up the markets BECAUSE THEY ARE 8% below their all-time record highs. Propping up the markets is very expensive and it adds to government debt and it only helps the Top 1%, who own 90% of the stocks – what is the real agenda here?
Warsh agrees with my take that the Fed doesn’t have a lot of ammunition to help markets and the economy, but he thinks that means it needs to act quickly in a coordinated fashion with other Central Banksters like the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the People’s Bank of China and the Bank of Japan…
Down we go again.
Wheeee – that was fun!
We can go bearish below our lines with the same rules we went bullish with – that's what's fun about the Futures – our stops had us risking very little to make what is already (8:07 am) over $600 per contract – not bad for 97 minutes work!
And, while we don't have the exact figures, I know when I go on a trip, the airfare is generally less than 1/3 of what I spend overall so we can assume another $1Tn of capitalization damage to the travel, entertainment and restaurant sectors so now we're chopping 1.5% off the Global Markets. 
Everything is fine.
Virus, what virus?
The Nasdaq (
Germany looks like they are heading into a Recession and now Japan is at the brink with 
Happy Valentine's Day!
Unfortunately, that's also how viruses work and I'm not going to bore you with any doom and gloom stuff other than to point out that we are heading into a 3-day weekend in the US (President's Day on Monday) and, even if we are only adding 4,000 new cases per day, that means we'll be at about 80,000 on Tuesday and around 100,000 by next Friday so I'm still very concerned about next week – as people tend to freak out about 6-digit numbers.
60,329 infected, 1,369 dead.
45,204 infected, 1,116 dead, 5,085 recovered.
The non-hidden forms of debt have jumped up $50,000,000,000,000 in the past decade and that's another 5% of Global GDP added in debt each year as well so of course it FEELS like we're doing great – just like your children feel like you are doing great when you put a trip to Disneyland on the credit card – it's the time of their lives for them and you have to deal with the bills when you get home.
You know it's true because Tom Cotton has now CHALLENGED "The Chinese" to prove him wrong and, guess what? They haven't! That's certainly guilty enough for me and you, right?
Last week, the markets got a pop on word there was a "cure" (viruses are not cured) and a vaccine (vaccines take months to create and more months to manufacture) in China and both turned out to be BS but, as we have learned in the age of Trump, it doesn't matter if something is true or not – as long as it works. In fact, just this weekend, 
Yet our markets are marching along as if the virus is a one-time thing, even though it's the 4th big one of this century. There was SARS in 2003, H1N1 in 2009 and MERS in 2012. I think that merits at least considering the potential risks going forward, don't you? A 2.5% pullback is all this outbreak warranted on the S&P, not to mention the Impeachment of Donald Trump and the ongoing Boeing Debacle, that's certainly going to put a dent in the US economy, which is only expected to grow 1.5% in Q1, except by the Atlanta Fed, who somehow sees 2.5% suddenly.
Up and up the markets go (again).
Back in China, the PBOC pumped another 400 Billion Yuan ($57Bn) into the banking system through reverse repo operations in extreme emergency measures to keep the markets afloat or, what our own Federal Reserve calls: "Tuesday." Of course China's economy is half our size so it is a very large anount of money – more like a Friday for our Fed…
17,400 infected (
China is trying to stop the slide by stepping in economically, with the PBOC pushing in a massive stimulus measure as well as a cut in the reverse-repo rate to push liquidity back into the system. Apparently, oil demand in China (the World's 2nd largest consumer) was down 20% in January and that will get worse for February as more and more people are in the ever-expanding quarantine zone.
AMZN's stock price is still out of control at $2,085 this morning as their "terrific" earnings were actually just $6.47/share so $23.01 total for 2019 means they are still trading at close to 100x their actual earnings and, on the whole it's barely up from 2018's $19.80/share.
8,000 infections, 170 deaths.
6,000 infections.
4,500 infections.
Hong Kong has 8 virus cases and will be implementing a broad series of restrictions aimed at controlling the spread of the coronavirus by limiting the number of mainland Chinese travelers entering the territory. The restrictions, which included the suspension of high-speed and other train services between Hong Kong and the mainland, a 50 percent reduction in the number of flights, and a ban on tourism visas for many travelers, were announced by Carrie Lam, the city’s chief executive.
Again, I am…
We're in danger of having a down week.
Well, it had to happen some time.
We played yesterday bearish because there was now NEW news that justified the move up and, this morning, there's no NEW news justifying the move down so we'll cash out and wait for something interesting to happen. The most interesting thing happening at the moment is the Chinese coronavirus that has sent the Chinese markets down 5% already this week and our 5% Rule™ says a weak bounce is 1% and a…/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-sltrib.s3.amazonaws.com/public/2STTLO77QRAHBJBKY3AGSPDPRI.jpg)
Impeachment begins in earnest this week.
It's Martin Luther King day so the markets are closed.
Will this rally ever stop – or even pause?
Despite the slowing growth, trade issues and 6 months of protests in Hong Kong, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 22% last year because – why not? – everyone else is ignoring the macros, why shouldn't Chinese Traders too?
I mean, seriously, TSLA is delivering about 100,000 cars in Q4 and about 350,000 cars for the year while Nissan delivers 350,000 cares PER QUARTER – and they are in 5th place in US Sales (where Tesla only sold 36,000 cars as the rest are global sales). This is part of the problem traders have as they don't differentiate numbers when they hear about Tesla's "amazing" market share. It's not amazing at all – it's only slightly better than Volvo in the US and, internationally, Volvo kicks their ass!
Today is the day!
What a boring weekend!
It will be a good test to see how rational traders are getting (if at all) in this ultra high-value market environment. Bank America (BAC) and Wells Fargo (WFC) are also expected to be making less money than they did last year and they too are at year highs – might be an interesting time for a little correction?
So much for shorting the Nasdaq.
The entire planet's GDP is about $90Tn and it grew at 3.5% so there's $3.15Tn, so I guess maybe the entire World put 2/3 of their 2019 growth into those 5 stocks but the rest of the markets did expand as well – up 24% Globally – and that means we're right about the $100Tn mark in global equities, having started 2018 at $77.5Tn.
That's kind of crazy, but crazy is pretty normal these days so we'll just have to go with the flow and see what happens, I suppose. In an unfortunate coincidence last night, 
All this peace breaking out has sent Oil (
Whee, what a ride!
Happy New Year!
The attack, the most forceful move yet by the U.S. to target Iran-backed militias, represents a fresh escalation of tensions between the U.S. and Iran and undermines relations between Washington and Baghdad. It drew condemnation from across the political spectrum including Iraq’s most influential Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and revived calls for the departure of American forces, which returned to Iraq in 2014 to help fight Islamic State.
Greetings from Thailand!
Merry Christmas!
The momentum is still going.
'Twas the weekend before Christmas and all through the mall,
According to UBS, Online Sales are currently 16% of Retail Sales and will rise to 25% by 2026, which could, in turn, force up to 75,000 additional stores to close, including 20,000 clothing stores and 10,000 consumer electronic stores. Moody's lowered its outlook on Department Stores heading into the holiday season but it shouldn't affect things much as retailers like Macy's (M), Kohls (KSS), Gap (GPS) and L Brands (LB) are already in the bottom 20 of the S&P 500 in 2019 performance.
This is not the first time Trump has been accused of flashing the White Power symbol during a speech and it's a very interestering time to be stirring it up again, what with him being impeached on the same day and all but 
I say we give Trump a pass on using the OK sign because 
I don't think people understand math.
Will this one matter? It's hard to say. There are plenty of people who go outside in lightning storms and very few are actually struck by lightning. That doesn't mean it's safe to go out in a lightning storm and those who don't go outside are never struck by lightning while those who do are only rarely struck by lightning. The people who stay inside are not foolish and the people who go outside are not really foolish either – as statistics are very much on their side.
Go KC!
We have a Trade Deal – now what?
Dow 30,000 or 10,000?
As to the "Trade Deal", although not fully announced, it seems that China is agreeing to purchase $50Bn worth of US Agricultural Products (they used to buy $40Bn anyway) in exchange for $50Bn worth of tariff reductions so, essentially – we are GIVING China $50Bn worth of Agricultural Products and the differenct to the Treasury will, of course, be paid by the American people – as usual. What a deal!
"
The trade war has hit swing states particularly hard. In seven of the top swing states (Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin), Americans have paid a combined additional $7.66 billion in taxes because of these tariffs. In Michigan alone, businesses, farmers and consumers have paid an additional $1.8 billion in taxes. For the month of October, people in these seven states have paid an extra $687 million, including almost $138 million in Ohio alone.
500,000 Jobs!
There's a bit of noise in the report as 
Also note that 3.1% increases in labor costs are ahead of the sub 2% official inflation rate and that puts the squeeze on Corporate Margins and, as labor gets tighter, wages tend to go even higher. That's why Trump is trying to force 1M people off food stamps and back to work – his Top 1% buddies need to put supply back into…
Trump is at the NATO meeting – which means he's not meeting with China or his handlers in Russia – so a mixed blessing there but there's a looming Dec 15th deadline on trade and no progress is being made and that is spooking investors. Trump also has no friends at the NATO meeting – even Boris Johnson won't talk to him as he's facing an election and people already think he's "too Trumpy."
Getting ready for Thanksgiving?
Macy's has been entertaining the idea of SPENDING about $1.5Bn to build 1.2M feet on top of the existing structure and use that space to generate about $1Bn a year in rental income. They already have to maintain the building so, aside from the building costs – they wouldn't be taking on a lot of running expenses – so it's a very good idea and, when you consider that Macy's "only" drops about $1Bn a year to the bottom line (on $25Bn in sales) – it's a GREAT idea.
We might have another trade deal!
The Futures are up again – yawn!
Democratic candidates on Hong Kong ran on a central theme of "Five Key Demands" from the protests, which boil down to this:
The madness continues!
Water freezes at 32 degrees.
For example, trade could be up 3% from last year but, if the Dollar is 5% weaker, then our Import Spending would rise 8% while our Export Revenues would fall 0.2%, leading one to conclude that the trade gap had widened by 10%. Of course, it's much more complicated than that because each trading partner has their own currency exchange and some goods are price flexible and some are not and some, like Oil, are priced in Dollars anyway. All in all it's enough to make your head spin if you think about it – so most people don't.
What are they so afraid of?
In fact, the headline in the South China Morning Post is: "
Curiouser and curiouser.
Uh oh! The last time I started making Alice in Wonderland references about the stock market being ridiculous was 
And now there's no trade deal – again.
As you can see, the NYSE has indeed been drifting along under the 13,500 line for two years after breaching it early in 2018. The NYSE is the…
Speaking of which, I guess I will have a better publicist as we move some of our Member Portfolios over to TheStreet.com starting with our 
Here we go!
James McCord: One of the Watergate burglers who used to be in the CIA and the FBI. Security officer for the Committe to RE-Elect the President (CREEP). McCord wrote a letter to Judge Sirica claiming the defendents had pled guilty under pressrue and committed purjury. In January 1973, WH Security Liaison Caulfield had told McCord the White House would grant him clemency, money and a job if he accepted his prison sentence and didn’t testify against members of the administration. When McCord relayed he had been offered clemency “from the highest levels of the White House” before the Senate Watergate committee on May 18, 1973, Nixon’s ties to the efforts of the White House to break into Democratic National Committee Headquarters finally surfaced.
Wow.
Perhaps if Trump hadn't already had Barr make a fool of himself attempting to exhonerate the President in the Meuller Report, Trump would still have some political capital to spend but the sheer volume of scandals surrounding the President makes it hard for Barr to be the point man defending every crime – lest he himself become an impeachable obstructor.
I feel like we're playing Peek-a-Boo!
Another day near 3,100 on the S&P.
Meanwhile, 
Also according to Bloomberg
The Dow is up another 125 points (0.5%) this morning.
Our market rally has clearly been led by the Information Technology sector, which is up 36% and companies like Apple (AAPL), Chipotle (CMG) and Target (TGT) are up over 60% for the year, boosting the large-cap sector. The S&P 500 is now trading at 20 times the earnings of it's components - another all-time high and significantly higher than other countries are trading.
How "great" are things?
Undercounts in the census lead to under-representation in Congress and Trump has already kicked over 300,000 people out of the country, leading to an environment of fear that will cause census responses to go even lower as people are suspicious that it's a trick to get them to reveal relatives who are potentially illegal. Imagine if you were a Jew in Germany in the 30s…