Hussman Funds – John P. Hussman, Ph.D.: Capitulation Everywhere The bears are gone, extinct, vanished. Among the ones remaining, many are people whom even I would consider to be either permabears or nut-cases. And yet, the historical evidence for major defensiveness has rarely been stronger. The newest iteration of the bullish case is the idea… Continue reading Have Stock Market Bears Gone Extinct Because Of QE?
Zero Hedge – Santelli And Biderman Slam The Market’s Four Faltering Fallacies There are numerous myths flying around the screens we all remain glued to – from inflows suddenly becoming correlated with equity market performance to a ‘real recovery’ in housing. TrimTabs CEO Charles Biderman paid a brief but fact-full visit to CNBC’s Rick Santelli… Continue reading More On Stock Inflows
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Bernanke Seen Buying $1.14 Trillion in Assets in 2014 Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s latest round of bond buying will reach $1.14 trillion before he ends the program in the first quarter of 2014, according to median estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Bernanke will… Continue reading Is Federal Reserve Policy A Failure?
Seeking Alpha (Blog) – Earnings And Revenue Beat Rates For Q4 2012 This week, we’ll reach the midpoint of the fourth-quarter reporting period and so far the results have been pretty good. As shown below, 63.9% of the companies that have already reported earnings have beaten earnings estimates. If this level sticks, it will be… Continue reading An Earnings Update
<Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> MarketWatch.com – November home prices tick down, Case-Shiller says| U.S. home prices declined in November on seasonal weakness, with 10 of 20 major cities seeing lower prices, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index released Tuesday. “Winter is usually a weak period for housing,… Continue reading Updated Look At Home Prices
The Telegraph (UK) – France ‘totally bankrupt’, says labour minister Michel Sapin France’s labour minister sent the country into a state of shock on Monday after he described the nation as “totally bankrupt” Michel Sapin made the gaffe in a radio interview, which left French President Francois Hollande battling to undo the potential reputational damage.… Continue reading Is France Bankrupt?
Bloomberg – William D. Cohan: Dimon in Davos Won’t Worry About Whales Unfortunately for Dimon, his appearance at Davos comes a week after an internal bank task force issued a 132-page report about what went wrong at the chief investment office in London last year that resulted in the huge trading loss. Even though the… Continue reading A Dimon In Davos
The Wall Street Journal – FRANCESCO GUERRERA: Too Soon to Celebrate for Europe’s BanksAfter years worrying themselves sick about the future of the euro zone, the stuttering U.S. recovery and a potentially fraught leadership transition in China, the self-styled “global elite” concluded that the world in 2013 looks better than in 2012 and 2011. The… Continue reading European Banks
The Wall Street Journal – U.S. Wants Criminal Charges for RBS U.S. authorities are pushing for a settlement of interest-rate-rigging allegations with Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC that would result in a unit of the big British bank pleading guilty to criminal charges in addition to paying a penalty, according to people briefed on… Continue reading Not Too Big To Jail?
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Military chief warns of Egypt’s collapse Egypt’s defence minister has warned that continuing political conflict could lead to “the collapse of the state”, in an apparent rebuke to Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist president, and his liberal and leftist opponents. General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is… Continue reading Egypt?
The Wall Street Journal – Media Firms Probed on Data Release Investigators Examined if Economic Figures Were Given Early to Clients; No Criminal Charges Seen Law-enforcement authorities have conducted a wide-ranging investigation into whether media companies facilitated insider trading on Wall Street by prematurely releasing market-moving government data, according to people familiar with the probe.… Continue reading Is 1/100th Of A Second Advantage Cheating?
Zero Hedge (blog) – Bernanke To Oprah: “I’ve Been Doping for Years” It seems The Federal Reserve has been forced to ‘fess up in this entertaining interview as Bernanke sits sobbing across from Ms. Winfrey – and comes clean to years of monetary policy artificial stimulation and performance-enhancing economic-doping. Just like Armstrong, Bernanke admits that… Continue reading Cartoons