Tag: finance

According to CNBC, Trump is currently meeting with his trade aides…

• TRUMP MEETING WITH HIS TRADE AIDES NOW, CNBC REPORTS

… to decide what additional measures and tariffs to declare against China, and if there is one currency that Trump’s economic team is currently keeping an eye on it is China’s yuan.

What said team is seeing is nothing short of carnage, because – somewhat paradoxically – even as the Bloomberg dollar index is plunging ever since Trump unleashed his tirade targeting China for daring to retaliate to US tariffs, the offshore yuan is plunging even more, tumbling below 7.13 – a new 11.5 year low – in what the White House can correctly interpret as official intervention to weaken the currency which should be rising against the greenback, yet is doing precisely the opposite.

Which brings us to the only possible question: when will the US intervene in the FX market, and how much offshore Yuan will the US Treasury buy. As a reminder, the US could deploy up to $146 billion in yuan purchasing power if intervention was launched, the combination of the Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund and the central bank’s firepower.

“If an intervention does go ahead, I think the US would probably target specific currencies such as the renminbi, rather than attempt to achieve broad-based dollar weakness,” said Stephen Oh, global head of credit and fixed income at PineBridge Capital, which manages $97bn of assets.

The only question then is how will China respond. And luckily, we wrote an article on precisely that last night, and noted that top Chinese bankers in London warned that the “drama” that would follow any US attempt to weaken the dollar by intervening in renminbi markets — a move that would be seen by Beijing as a “political act.” A hostile “political act.”

Yet such an act looks increasingly likely after Trump has repeatedly taken aim at China (and Europe) both on Twitter and elsewhere for “playing currency games” as the trade war has morphed into a currency war, if not a full-blown one yet.

* *  *

Hhow likely is that the US and China would launch all out currency war at each other in the FX market?

Last month US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said there was no change “as of now” to America’s currency policy but added that a different stance could be considered in the future. To be sure, investors are growing more cautious and are increasingly unwilling to short the yuan over fears of a surprise intervention by the US. One head of a currency trading platform that serves US hedge funds told the FT that his clients have begun to stay away. “They don’t want to be on the wrong side of the Fed.” Something tells us that neither does China.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/30xQtnW Tyler Durden

With sales of iPhones having permanently plateaued and now declining year after year, and the state of Apple’s once consistent blowout iPhone numbers under growing threat (explaining the company’s pivot to a “service” company), Apple is now looking to produce new “Pro” versions of its iPhones, along with upgrades to its iPads and laptops, according to Bloomberg. The new products will be rolled out next month. 

As most are well aware, Apple has struggled to generate any “killer” innovation over the last few years – in fact ever since Steve Jobs died – and has instead leaned on its legacy iPhone business and offered relatively tepid new “wearable” products, like Apple Watch and HomePod, while hoping to transition ever more to a services company. 

Here’s what we know so far: Tim Cook will announce three new iPhones at an event next month which will likely go on sale in September. The new products will come in time for the fourth quarter and the crucial holiday season. Apple’s hopes to avoid the enormous earnings miss it posted at the end of the year last year.

As we noted after Apple’s last earnings report, iPhone sales Q3 represented about 48% of revenues, the first time that the product has made up less than half of sales in several years.

In addition to trying to drive up the ASP of iPhones offer “new” phones, a refreshed iPad Pro with an upgraded camera and faster chips and an entry-level iPad with a larger screen will also be on their way. Additionally, the company is going to be updating the Apple Watch and will revamp the MacBook Pro for the first time in three years. Audio accessories like AirPods and its HomePod speaker are also in the works.

The updates continue to make it seems as though Apple has lost its sharpness as an innovator. The “new” phones are being described as looking nearly identical to the old ones, and the main “upgrade” is going to be new camera hardware for photographs and video. Here are more of the detailed updates, according to Bloomberg:

Phone:

• The main feature of the Pro iPhones will be a new camera system on the back with a third sensor for capturing ultra-wide-angle photos and videos. The extra camera will let users zoom out and capture a larger field of view. The sensors will capture three images simultaneously and use new artificial intelligence software to automatically correct the combined photo if, for example, a person is accidentally cut out of one of the shots. The new system will also take higher resolution pictures rivaling some traditional cameras. Photos taken in very low-light environments will improve, too. 

• The high-end handsets will have significantly upgraded video recording capabilities, getting them closer to professional video cameras. Apple has developed a feature that allow users to retouch, apply effects, alter colors, reframe and crop video as it is being recorded live on the device.  Another notable new feature: A reverse wireless charging system so that a user can power-up the latest AirPods in the optional wireless-charging case by leaving it on the back of the new Pro phones.

• The high-end iPhones will look nearly identical to the current models from the front and feature the same size screens, but at least some colors on the back will have a matte finish versus the existing glossy look. The new models should hold up better when they’re dropped due to new shatter-resistance technology. 

• All of the new iPhones will have faster A13 processors. There’s a new component in the chip, known internally as the “AMX” or “matrix” co-processor, to handle some math-heavy tasks, so the main chip doesn’t have to. That may help with computer vision and augmented reality, which Apple is pushing a core feature of its mobile devices.  None of the new models will include 5G, but next year’s will. They’ll also have rear-facing 3-D cameras that will boost augmented reality capabilities. 

iPad:

• The 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros will get similar upgrades to the iPhones, gaining upgraded cameras and faster processors. Otherwise, the new iPads will look like the current versions.  The low-end iPad’s screen will be 10.2-inches. That means Apple will likely no longer sell a new model with a 9.7-inch display, discontinuing the original display size after using it for nearly a decade. 

Mac: 

• Apple is planning a revamped MacBook Pro with a screen over 16-inches diagonally. The bezels on the new laptop will be slimmer so the overall size of the laptop will be close to the current 15-inch models. The new laptop would mark Apple’s largest since the 17-inch MacBook Pro was discontinued in 2012. It’s part of an effort by Apple to retain and woo professional computer users.  Apple is also launching the previously announced Mac Pro and 32-inch XDR Pro Display later this year. 

Apple will also launch a refreshed Mac Pro and accompanying monitor, while software updates for iPhone, iPad, AppleTV, Mac and Apple Watch will also be on their way.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Z9psdP Tyler Durden

Authored by Marie Huillet via CoinTelegraph.com,

At least three of Facebook’s early backers for its planned Libra stablecoin launch are considering withdrawing their support in light of the fierce regulatory pushback.

image courtesy of CoinTelegraph

A report from the Financial Times on Aug. 23 alleges that two founding partners of Facebook’s Libra Association have held discussions about what their “right next steps” should be. 

One further — again unnamed — backer is purportedly concerned that their public support for Libra will draw unwanted regulatory scrutiny of their own, independent businesses.

Blame games

As previously reported, the Libra Association is the newly-established, independent governance consortium for Libra. It counts 28 founding members — including Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Uber and Spotify — each of which was required to invest $10 million to join.

In an interview with the Financial Times, one partner noted that:

“I think it’s going to be difficult for partners who want to be seen as in compliance [with their own regulators] to be out there supporting [Libra].” 

Another backer criticized the social media giant for its ill-conceived strategy, saying that:

“Some of those conversations [about regulation] should have taken place before the launch, to understand how regulators would think about this, so there wasn’t so much pushback.”

The tension reportedly goes both ways. One partner admitted that Facebook is itself becoming “tired of being the only people putting their neck out.”

Both Facebook and the Libra Association have reportedly declined to comment.

Regulators swoop in

As reported this week, the European Commission’s antitrust regulators —  have become the latest to join the rounds of regulatory probes into Libra since the project’s unveiling this June.

The regulatory backlash governments, regulators and central bankers worldwide reached such a fever pitch that by late July, Facebook was prompted to warn its investors that the stablecoin may never be released.

During a hearing at the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee earlier that month, lawmakers had asked Facebook how they could be expected to trust a firm whose collection, storage and misuse of customer data had landed it a $5 billion penalty.

The furore has not, nonetheless, quite prevented new potential members from pursuing their interest — including Monex Group Inc — owner of the hacked Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck — Taiwanese digital currency trading platform Maicoin, and evenZckerberg’s arch-rivals, the Winklevoss Twins.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2KR043T Tyler Durden

Anyone who was hoping for a quiet end to the week will be severely disappointed when first China announced new tariffs on the US, then Powell’s J-Hole speech came and went, and then, as we expected, Trump responded to China’s trade war escalation when in a barrage of 4 tweets he lashed out at China, saying “We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far better off without them“, and ordered “Our great American companies… to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.“

And the punchline: “I will be responding to China’s Tariffs this afternoon.”

From Trump:

Our Country has lost, stupidly, Trillions of Dollars with China over many years. They have stolen our Intellectual Property at a rate of Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year, & they want to continue. I won’t let that happen! We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far better off without them.

The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP.

Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.

I will be responding to China’s Tariffs this afternoon. This is a GREAT opportunity for the United States.

Also, I am ordering all carriers, including Fed Ex, Amazon, UPS and the Post Office, to SEARCH FOR & REFUSE, all deliveries of Fentanyl from China (or anywhere else!). Fentanyl kills 100,000 Americans a year. President Xi said this would stop – it didn’t.

Our Economy, because of our gains in the last 2 1/2 years, is MUCH larger than that of China. We will keep it that way!

Both yields and stocks tumbled on this “unexpected” escalation…

… while the dollar plunged amid the earlier concerns that Trump may announce FX intervention, which in turn sent gold soaring to $1,530.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2PcE7QV Tyler Durden

While Trump’s latest Powell lashing on twitter was most notable for the dramatic criticism of the Fed chair, after Trump said “My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powel or Chairman Xi?”, what was far more interesting in the Trump tweet and what got far less attention, was Trump’s disclosure that the Fed is speaking “without knowing or asking what I am doing, which will be announced shortly.“

The question, of course, is what will Trump be announcing that the Fed is still not privy of, with speculation spreading among trading desks that, as discussed last night, Trump may have had enough of a soaring dollar, which just hit an all time high against in trade weighted terms, and will instruct the Treasury’s Exchange Stabiliziation Fund to intervene, potentially by buying yuan in the offshore market, to devalue the USD against the Chinese currency.

Sure enough, one look at the suddenly plunging dollar and it’s immediately clear that traders are suddenly terrified that the US may take aggressive – and unilateral – action against the USD “shortly.”

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2NsL3ai Tyler Durden

Moments after J-Powell’s J-Hole speech hit, we summarized our longish take as follows: in the aftermath of Trump daring the Fed to “show their stuff”, Powell did not do that and instead…

TL/DR: The Fed did not show their stuff.

And now, over to Trump’s twitter account

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 23, 2019

We didn’t have long to wait, because with stocks unsure initially how to respond – they eventually did trade in the green as algos convinced themselves that Powell’s speech was more dovish than hawkish or just because shorts were forced to cover once again – Trump who was expecting much more from Powell, apparently he was hoping for a 100bps rate cut announcement or at least “some QE”, the president lashed out at Powell, and blasted on twitter:

As usual, the Fed did NOTHING! It is incredible that they can “speak” without knowing or asking what I am doing, which will be announced shortly. We have a very strong dollar and a very weak Fed. I will work “brilliantly” with both, and the U.S. will do great. My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powel or Chairman Xi?”

….My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powel or Chairman Xi?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019

It was not immediately clear what Trump was referring to by Powell not knowing what Trump “is doing”, or what he will announce shortly. 

However, it is ironic that after stocks eventually hit session highs just before Trump’s tweet, they have since drifted lower, even as yields and the dollar slump, while gold is soaring. In other words, if stocks end up dropping now, and if Trump is looking for a culprit for today’s market action, he should look in the mirror.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/30slVEd Tyler Durden

Earlier in the week, President Trump tweeted (once again) frustratedly towards The Fed:

“We are competing with many countries that have a far lower interest rate, and we should be lower than them. Yesterday, ‘highest Dollar in U.S.History.’ No inflation. Wake up Federal Reserve. “

So-called “fact-checkers” went wild proclaiming this fake news, lies, and more confirmation that President Trump is against the historical establishment line of a “strong dollar” policy.

There’s just one thing! They’re all wrong! And Trump was right. The naysayers mistake was to use individual FX pairs or simple narrow dollar indices to judge the relative strength of the dollar.

The FACT is that the USDollar  – at its broadest against all of its world trading partners – has never, since Bretton Woods, been stronger than it is today…

Source: Bloomberg

The point of bringing this up now – other than fact-checking the fact-checkers and confirming President Trump was right – is that this record high value of the USDollar against all of its trading partners suggests USD intervention (oral or actual) is virtually assured.

However, the dollar is losing ground against one form of ‘money’…

Source: Bloomberg

That is a serious regime change, trade accordingly.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2ZrFr6c Tyler Durden

Authored by Sara Cowgill via LibertyNation.com,

When the earth tilts on its axis a bit too far to the left, Karma and her bitchy sister Justice throw a cocktail party and invite conservatives to indulge in a bit of hope while bearing the extremes the bizarro-world has thrust upon them of late.  In a brash and sassy move this week, Silver Lake Neighborhood Councilperson Maebe A. Girl – yes, that’s her drag queen name and elected office  – has thrown her tiara into the 2020 congressional race with glittery hopes and unicorn dreams of unseating Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) from his lofty perch.

I kid you not.  And yes, the party is in full swing.

Maebe A. Girl

From Obscurity To National News

Girl is the first elected trans official in the US and reigns over a respectable 31,603 constituents with a laundry list of other elected coffee shop dwellers – 21 members in all — in the Los Angeles neighborhood.  She first took office in April 2019 but the call to greater heights in ivory halls has prompted her to challenge her own incumbent congressman.  It’s partly because she believes “When we think about politicians, what do we think about? We think about old white guys in suits.”

Admittedly, that does describe Schiff to a tee. Not so much Girl.  She attends campaign functions in multi-colored lace-front wigs, gaily colored pantsuits, high, high heels, and a lot of pancake makeup with winged black eyeliner.  She will stand out on the campaign trail:

“It really took a minute for people to take me seriously, to realize that I’m not doing this as a stunt, I’m not doing this as a statement. I’m doing this to run an election and win it. Maebe A. Girl’ is, yes, it’s my stage name, but it’s also part of my identity and who I am.  I started realizing how much I enjoy being in drag and how, for me, it didn’t feel like a costume. It just felt like a natural extension of myself.”

I for one cannot wait to see Schiff’s “natural extension” of himself in response.  A thinking person would surmise that Schiff really has no competition from the drag queen but let’s review the recent upsets in the Democratic Party:

• Joseph Crowley (D-NY) who know one remembers since the media’s overselling of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) unprecedented win.

• Remember Rep. Mike Capuano (D-MA)? Yeah, well he was the 10-term incumbent in a high-profile Democratic primary and soundly beaten by political newbie and radical left Ayanna Pressley now holding court in John F. Kennedy’s former district.

• Oh, and then there is the community activist who hopped to the US Senate and then the presidency forcing a political dynasty to sit out the 2008 presidential race. Yes, Barack Obama smashed Hillary Clinton’s hopes the first time around.

Schiff could be in trouble with this Girl – just not in a #MeToo way.

He’s Okay But…

The drag queen, Girl, does like to express her political views on a range of topics including LA’s homeless and disease pandemic and LGBTQ issues.  Her four-month record is extremely localized – adding a LGBTQI Committee in the LA Neighborhood Council system and worrying about the homeless folks on the streets, advocating they all get HIV tested.  And that’s it.

But she has opinions on Schiff, who she says has done “okay” but is clearly past his due date:

“I strongly disagree with his War Hawk voting record that includes voting for the Iraq War, voting to keep troops in Afghanistan, his support of the Saudi invasion of Yemen (a still ongoing humanitarian crisis), and his votes to increase military spending -which should come as no surprise considering his large political donations from defense contractors and weapons makers.”

And she may just beat the man if the increasing popularity of other America haters – Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) — is any indication.  On Girl’s Facebook page she writes: “America disgusts me,” while calling the for the abolishment of Immigration Customs Enforcement.  Schiff could be in trouble.  And it could not happen to a more obnoxious person.

Adam Schiff

And let’s face it, just keeping the stage names straight in his mind could be the first hurdle – Girl also goes by Georgie Pudlo.  So far, the incumbent has not commented on his new opponent, but Girl is commenting on every social media platform and talking to whomever in the leftist legacy media dials up her phone.

She told People Magazine most recently, “We need more everyday people in Congress—its overwhelmingly older, white, wealthy men, and that’s just not representative of America, or my district.”

But without the stage make up and women’s clothes, isn’t Girl, Georgie Pudl, just another white man seeking power in the halls of congress?   Let Karma bring the hors d’oeuvres and holler at Justice to shake up another dirty martini as the show is about to make the conservatives one happily drunk electorate.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2TWQjUC Tyler Durden

Algos appeared to initially like Powell’s promise to “act as appropriate to sustain the expansion,” but it seems like that was not enough as stocks are giving back kneejerk gains.

Algos ran the stops up to unchanged then dumped…

But bond yields are a one-way street lower…

Source: Bloomberg

Along with the dollar…

Source: Bloomberg

Odds of a 50bps rate cut moved up to 11%.

This is exactly the kind of reaction you’d expect from a market that doubts the Fed will do enough  to offset “significant risks.”

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2TXeTEK Tyler Durden