Tag: finance

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter And Scribd Scramble To Scrub NZ Shooting Evidence

Facebook, YouTube, Scribd and several other content platforms are scrambling to remove material related to the New Zealand mosque shootings, including footage livestreamed by 28-year-old shooter Brenton Tarrant of Australia, Bloomberg reports.

49 people were killed and dozens injured in attacks on two Christchurch mosques on Thursday – the deadliest of which occurred at the Masjid Al Noor mosque at approximately 1:45 p.m., where the murders of 41 of the 49 people were broadcast over Facebook live and quickly distributed across various platforms. 

The second mosque shooting was stopped by an armed Muslim who “chased the shooters and fired two shots at them as they sped off,” according to the New Zealand Herald.

In the immediate aftermath, researcher and journalist Nick Monroe quickly determined the shooter’s identity and provided a running Twitter thread as events unfolded – including three links to footage of the shooting. 

Twitter immediately locked Monroe’s account until he deleted the tweet. 

Also deleted was a copy of the shooter’s 74-page manifesto posted to Scribd and included in Monroe’s thread under a DCMA copyright violation. In it, he appears to subscribe to a number of ideologies, writes Breitbart senior tech correspondent, Allum Bokhari. Ultimately, the shooter wanted to “Create conflict between the two ideologies within the United States on the ownership of firearms in order to further the social, cultural, political, and racial divide within the United States.“

The document is riddled with white nationalist talking points, and the shooter describes himself as a “fascist.” He also castigates Muslims as “the most despised group of invaders in the west.”

Yet elsewhere in the document, the shooter describes himself as a socialist, “depending on the definition.” The shooter also declares his support for “environmentalism,” “worker’s rights,” and “responsible markets.”

…

Parts of the manifesto appear to be insincere trolling, aimed at sowing confusion about his motivations. At one point, the shooter blames his action on popular video game titles, saying “Spyro the Dragon 3 taught me ethno-nationalism” and that “Fortnite trained me to be a killer.”

Elsewhere in the document, the shooter identifies black conservative Candace Owens — obviously neither a white nationalist nor a supporter of violence — as the “person that has influenced me above all.” In a video posted online, the shooter also tells viewers to “subscribe to PewDiePie” — the pseudonym of Felix Kjellberg, a comedian and video game streamer who runs the most-subscribed channel on YouTube and whose content is majority non-political.

In both cases, the shooter attempts to link high-profile individuals — who have little in common with his stated ideology yet command large online followings and are frequently the target of unfair media hit pieces — to his attack. If it triggers a war of words between the media and their frequent targets, the result of this tactic would be more publicity for the shooter. –Breitbart

The manifesto can be found here, for now. 

YouTube tweeted late Thursday evening that they are “working vigilantly to remove any violent footage” of the attack.

Prior to the shooting, the New Zealand mosque shooter posted his plans to the ‘8chan’ message board, along with pictures of his weapons. 

Meanwhile, as a debate rages over whether or not content from the shooting should be made available to the public – including the shooter’s name, New Zealand ISPs have reportedly been blocking access to the websites LiveLeak, 4chan, 8chan and many others which are not immediately complying with takedown orders, according to Twitter user @eldarmark. 

According to retired FBI supervisory special agent Steve Moore, a CNN analyst: “What I would tell the public is this: Do you want to help terrorists? Because if you do, sharing this video is exactly how you do it,” adding “Do not share the video or you are part of this“

In the meantime, internet sleuths are piecing together the shooter’s background: 

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2u9QU9C Tyler Durden

Boeing Shares Spike On Software-Upgrade Headlines

Boeing shares have rebounded into the green this morning after AFP reports, citing sources, that Boeing is set to roll out software upgrade for 737 MAX stall prevention in 10 days.

But some context for the bounce is needed…

And as goes Boeing, so goes The Dow…

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Jf8lQk Tyler Durden

World War 3 Coming? Israel On Brink Of War With Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, & Iran All At The Same Time

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

On Thursday, rockets were fired at Tel Aviv for the first time since 2014, and Israel responded by hammering Hamas with airstrikes.  This latest exchange has brought Israel closer to another war with Hamas than ever.  But as you will see below, Israel is also on the brink of war with Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.  And on top of everything else, the most pivotal election in Israel in many years is on April 9th.  If more rockets are fired at Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot afford to look weak because that could cost him a lot of votes in this very tight election.  But he must walk a very fine line, because a military response that is seen as too harsh could potentially spark a major regional conflict.

Everyone knows that Israel is simply not going to tolerate rockets being fired at Tel Aviv, and so it was quite a shock to learn what had happened on Thursday.  The following comes from the Jerusalem Post…

The Israeli military confirmed that two rockets were fired towards central Israel on Thursday evening, with at least two loud explosions heard in the Gush Dan region.

According to the IDF, although the Iron Dome missile defense system was activated, there were no interceptions as both rockets fell in open territory.

It was the first time sirens were activated in Tel Aviv since the last war with Gaza in 2014 and several Israelis were treated for shock.

It was inevitable that there would be a substantial response from the Israeli military, and airstrikes were conducted very rapidly.  According to Fox News, a Hamas naval base was one of the primary targets…

The strikes were occurring in Khan Younis, roughly 15 miles south of Gaza City, according to The Associated Press. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

A Hamas naval base was targeted, the outlet reported, citing Palestinian media.

Originally, Hamas had seemed to deny responsibility for the rocket attacks, but the IDF later confirmed that they were fired by Hamas…

We can confirm that the rockets fired from #Gaza at #TelAvivearlier tonight were launched by the Hamas terrorist organization.

If Hamas doesn’t fire any more rockets, this will probably be the end of it for now.

But with Hamas, things are never truly over.

Meanwhile, Israel is also on the brink of war with Hezbollah in the north.

In recent days, Israel has been dealing with massive tunnels that Hezbollah has constructed for the purpose of rapidly moving military forces into northern Israel.  So far, five tunnels have been discovered, but there are probably a lot more.

We are being told that the tunnels are absolutely enormous.  Reportedly, they are large enough “to move heavy military equipment”…

For the first time since 1973, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confronts the very real prospect of a sizable incursion. Years of fighting alongside Russian and Iranian forces in Syria have transformed Hezbollah into a formidable military force capable of launching such a raid, relying on coordinated infantry, artillery, and even armor and drones. This represents a major leap from Hezbollah’s small hit-and-run tactics in the 2006 Lebanon war.

The tunnels are integral to this new threat. Built in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 prohibiting Hezbollah’s rearmament in this area, they are reportedly wide enough to move heavy military equipment and large troop units.

Hezbollah’s leadership continues to threaten Israel with a new war, and it has been estimated that they have built up an arsenal of approximately 150,000 missiles for the next conflict.

Israel is roughly the same size as New Jersey.  Just imagine what would happen if 150,000 missiles were suddenly fired at towns and cities all over New Jersey, and you will have some idea of what Israel is potentially facing.

Of course the Israeli military is far superior to Hezbollah’s forces, but if Israel has to fight Hamas and Hezbollah simultaneously that would be a real challenge.

And then there is Syria.  After eight years of civil war, you would think that Syria would have had enough fighting by now.

Unfortunately, as I pointed out in a previous article, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad just threatened to attack Israel if the Israelis do not leave the Golan Heights.  The following comes from the Jerusalem Post…

Syria vowed to attack Israel unless it withdraws from the Golan Heights, World Israel News reported on Thursday.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad submitted an official warning to the head of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) Kristin Lund, in what seemed to be an attempt to prevent official US recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the Golan.

Can you imagine the stress that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must be going through right now?  A major election is less than a month away and he is literally fighting for his political life, and meanwhile several of Israel’s neighbors appear to be preparing for war with his nation.

And Iran appears to be eager for a fight too.  A few weeks ago, a top Iranian general threatened to completely wipe Israel off the map…

Asked by a reporter in Tehran about Israeli threats to strike Iranian forces deployed in Syria, Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami was quoted by Iranian news outlets as saying, “Our strategy is to erase Israel from the global political map. And it seems that, considering the evil that Israel is doing, it is bringing itself closer to that.”

He added: “We announce that if Israel does anything to start a new war, it will obviously be the war that will end with its elimination, and the occupied territories will be returned. The Israelis will not have even a cemetery in Palestine to bury their own corpses.”

And Netanyahu also seems to anticipate that a conflict with Iran is coming.  The following comes from NBC News…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu startled Iranians and even the White House on Wednesday with a strident call for Israeli-Arab action against the government in Tehran that was translated by his office as urging “war with Iran.”

Although Israeli officials tried to soften the reference by altering the English translation, the provocative comment was likely to further the perception that Israel, its Gulf Arab neighbors and the United States are interested in using military action to topple the government of Iran.

I have been warning that a major war is coming in the Middle East for a long time, and now we are closer than ever.

Let us hope for peace, but as we have seen in the past, any peace in the region is always just temporary.

Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran are all fundamentally committed to the complete and total destruction of the state of Israel and nothing is going to change that.  War is coming at some point, and it is going to be extremely bloody.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2O7Zfn4 Tyler Durden

What the exodus from these states teaches us

Every week in Notes, we highlight the most important things happening around the world that can impact your wealth and your freedom.

But there are so many more things happening than we’re able to cover in these pages. So, we’re trying something new today.

Once a week, we’re planning to share a collection of stories we think are important, scary, amusing or maybe all of the above.

You can find the first edition below. We’ve seen a current theme recently…

Lots of people are breaking up with their states… and finding ones that treat them better.

New Jersey, this is an intervention… you’re only hurting yourself

Record numbers of rich are fleeing New Jersey, including billionaire David Tepper who alone took hundreds of millions of annual tax dollars with him.

Yet the state continues to raise taxes.

When the governor called for the newest proposal, he specifically targeted and demonized millionaires.

He wants to apply the state’s top income tax rate of 10.75% to anyone making over $1 million per year. Currently only those earning $5 million or more pay that rate.

Slow your roll New Jersey… apparently these people love you (for some reason), but they aren’t going to continue enabling this behavior much longer.

I love New York (I just can’t afford the taxes)

We’ve said it many times before, reducing your tax bill is one of the easiest ways to boost your bottom line.

We also talked about how the Socialist backlash, led by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, helped chase away Amazon–and millions of jobs, and billions of dollars–from New York City.

Turns out high New York City real estate taxes also chased away none other than AOC’s mom.

She now saves $9,600 per year on taxes living in Florida.

It’s not over until the dog moves out

Yes, sometimes you have to break up with your state, even if you used to love it. But that doesn’t mean the state is just going to let you go… after all, you’ve been through a lot together.

 Wherever you move, bring the dog. Otherwise you’re just sending mixed signals. If you say you moved, but leave the dog in New York, New York still thinks you’re together.

With so many rich people moving out, New York is doing deep-dive audits to make sure you really moved out… or if you just added another residence for tax purposes.

And where the dog lived was the deciding factor in one recent tax case.

1% of California Taxpayers pay 50% of the taxes… so what if they leave?

It would take just a few thousand of California’s richest residents fleeing to cause a budget catastrophe from which it would be hard to recover.

Meanwhile, the state only has 12% of the country’s population, but over a third of US welfare recipients.

With the new federal tax law capping state and local deductions at $10,000 California is looking less and less attractive.

And into Arizona’s loving embrace they go

Most of the 122,000 people who moved to Arizona last year came from high tax states.

People are likely moving to Arizona because they have less restrictive business regulations than most states.

One area where Arizona does need improvement is in their excessive occupational licensing requirements.

But unlike New Jersey, which doubles down on failing policies, Arizona is reversing course to welcome professional newcomers.

Legislators are working on laws to recognize out of state professional licenses, reduce fees, and waive requirements for certain jobs like salon workers.

State power is a great Plan B for a collapsing Fed

During the government shutdown earlier this year, the Governor of Utah offered an obvious remedy.

He wrote an article arguing that the solution to the instability caused by government shutdowns is to give states their power back… the way it was always meant to be.

And this separation of power actually makes the USA more antifragile against major crises stemming from mismanagement, and corruption in Washington DC.

So make sure you’re living in a state that would thrive without the feds, if that shutdown ever becomes permanent.

Source

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US Job Opening Soar To All Time High: 1.3 Million More Than Unemployed Workers

The Fed’s dovish U-turn appears in jeopardy again.

After a modest slowdown in job openings which started in September and continued through November, today’s JOLTS report – Janet Yellen’s favorite labor market indicator – for the month of January  showed an unprecedented surge in job openings across most categories at the start of 2019, with the total number soaring from an upward revised 7.479 million (from 7.335 million), to an all time high 7.581 million, smashing expectations of a 7.225 million print.

And thanks to the surge in job openings, this will be the 11th consecutive month in which there were more job openings then unemployed workers: considering that according to the payrolls report there were 6,235MM unemployed workers, there are now exactly 1.346 million more job openings than unemployed workers currently, (how accurate, or politically-biased the BLS data is, is another matter entirely).

In other words, in an economy in which there was a perfect match between worker skills and employer needs, there would be zero unemployed people at this moment (of course, that is not the case.)

Another issue: with the Fed positioned for an economic slowdown, the JOLTS data better turn negative fast or else Powell will soon be facing some very unpleasant questions why the Fed’s rate hikes are on pause when the number of job openings in the economy is soaring to unprecedented levels.

According to the BLS, job openings increased in a number of industries, with the largest increases in wholesale trade (+91,000), real estate and rental and leasing (+60,000), government (+59,000) and information (+42,000). The job openings level decreased in other services (-98,000), retail trade (-97,000), and arts, entertainment, and recreation (-40,000).

Adding to the unexpectedly strong labor picture to close the year, as job openings soared, the number of total hires also increased, rising by 95K in January to just shy of an all time high, and printing at 5.801 million. The hires level was little changed for total private and for government. The number of hires was little changed in all industries and all four regions. According to the historical correlation between the number of hires and the 12 month cumulative job change, the pace of hiring right now is precisely where it should be relative to the cumulative change in hiring.

Meanwhile, the so-called “take this job and shove it indicator”, the quits level, also confirmed the latest labor market strength, rising by 99K to 3.490MM, and was little changed for total private but increased for government (+20,000). Quits increased in arts, entertainment, and recreation (+19,000) and in state and local government education (+17,000). Quits decreased in federal government (-6,000).

Putting all this in in context

  • • Job openings have increased since a low in July 2009. They returned to the prerecession level in March 2014 and
    surpassed the prerecession peak in August 2014. There were 7.6 million open jobs on the last business day of
    January 2019.
    • Hires have increased since a low in June 2009 and have surpassed prerecession levels. In January 2019, there were
    5.8 million hires.
    • Quits have increased since a low in September 2009 and have surpassed prerecession levels. In January 2019, there
    were 3.5 million quits.
    • For most of the JOLTS history, the number of hires (measured throughout the month) has exceeded the number of
    job openings (measured only on the last business day of the month). Since January 2015, however, this relationship
    has reversed with job openings outnumbering hires in most months.
    • At the end of the most recent recession in June 2009, there were 1.1 million more hires throughout the month than
    there were job openings on the last business day of the month. In January 2019, there were 1.8 million fewer hires
    than job openings.

 

 

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2O4ls5L Tyler Durden

A Precarious Revolution Is Brewing

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Once again profound social and economic forces are changing the nation in ways that are difficult to understand in real time.

The American Revolution arose not from politics but from rapid social and economic changes that revealed the precariousness of the colonists’ prosperity. Conventional histories focus on the political context (Boston Tea Party, etc.), but more important were the changes in social relations, and the impact of the economy moving from quasi-feudal forms of patronage to an economy of impersonal market forces.

The political revolution was the result of profound shifts in social and economic structures.

As Gordon Wood explains in his seminal book The Radicalism of the American Revolution, it was these social changes that nurtured the revolutionary zeal of the average (non-elite) male citizen.

Americans came to appreciate the precariousness of their prosperity, and this led to a deep split in the populace. Around 25% to 30% of the populace remained loyal to the British Crown/King, and these Loyalists reckoned it a political and economic disaster to separate from the “Mother Country.”

The majority felt the exact opposite: their prosperity and liberties were all too easily snatched away by a Parliament and/or a Monarch who had little to no regard for their prosperity or liberties.

The precariousness of the relatively widely distributed prosperity and political liberties drove average people into an all-or-nothing choice: there was no middle ground, and the bitterness of the divide was life-changing. Benjamin Franklin, for example, completely cut off his eldest son when the son remained a Loyalist, despite the decades of affectionate intimacy they’d shared.

Such prosperity and liberties that existed were reserved for Caucasian males, of course; women had the right to divorce and own property but no political suffrage, and slaves had no rights unless they were freed by their owners.

The social changes in the family and economy Wood describes are of especially keen interest, as they mirror the present era in so many ways. Parents in the 1760s were admonished to treat their children as individuals and to use reason rather than punishment. Parental authority was thus reduced from rigid authoritarianism to a much more nuanced and difficult process of nurturing and guidance–a process familiar to every parent today.

The economy was changing rapidly as well, as the lines of authority that were once personal became market-contractual. Where small farmers in the early 1700s sold their harvests to gentry planters or merchants, by mid-century Scottish trading houses were buying small farmers’ harvests directly, requiring written contracts rather than personal trust.

Small farmers made more money, and the landed gentry lost power over the flow of goods.

This disruption of traditional authority stretched from the home to the marketplace and ultimately to the British Crown and Parliament, which saw the rebellious colonists as wayward children who needed a good lashing to set them straight.

All of which brings us to the present, when once again profound social and economic forces are changing the nation in ways that are difficult to understand in real time. Traditional authority is weakening, and traditional social relations and markets are being disrupted, leaving most participants far more financially precarious than they were a few decades ago.

To take one important example: where owning a home once meant counting on slow and steady appreciation of home equity, in today’s bubble-and-bust economy, timing is everything: poor timing can trigger the loss of one’s down payment and home equity, and capturing that equity requires selling at the top.

As I noted last week in What If Politics Can’t Fix What’s Broken?, politics as practiced in a bygone era of stability no longer offers any solutions to these profound disruptions. Middle ground has vanished, and ideologies have become quasi-religious because they no longer offer any practical guidance to a society and economy that are being transformed by the 4th Industrial Revolution, resource depletion and demographics.

Once again Americans are awakening to the precariousness of their prosperity and liberties, and traditional forms of belonging, loyalty and authority are unraveling. As the pie shrinks, the struggle to maintain one’s own share at the expense of others becomes Darwinian, and so it’s no surprise that finance and politics are increasingly winner-take-all or winner-take-most zero-sum endeavors.

The elite college admissions scandal is a timely example of this dynamic: those with $500,000 can bribe the right people in the centralized hierarchy to get their Little Darling onto a winner-take-most career track.

A precarious revolution is brewing, as the old social, political and economic structures unravel and fail. The sober politics of compromise is giving way to the expedient politics of bread and circuses, borrowing whatever sums are needed to placate every corrupt, parasitic elite and every demanding constituency. This is the pathway to financial ruin as the currency will be destroyed by the politics of expediency.

New social, political and economic structures will arise that are stable because they reflect new realities. Describing these structures is the purpose of my books:
Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic

Money and Work Unchained

A Radically Beneficial World: Automation, Technology and Creating Jobs for All: The Future Belongs to Work That Is Meaningful.

The politics of failed ideologies and financial expediency will not end well.

*  *  *

Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ($6.95 ebook, $12 print, $13.08 audiobook): Read the first section for free in PDF format. My new mystery The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake is a ridiculously affordable $1.29 (Kindle) or $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free (PDF). My book Money and Work Unchained is now $6.95 for the Kindle ebook and $15 for the print edition. Read the first section for free in PDF format. If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

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

‘Hope’ Rebound Sparks Surge In UMich Sentiment Despite Inflation Slump

University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey was expected to rebound further in March and it did…dramatically, from 93.8 to 97.8.

In preliminary data, ‘Hope’ led the way, spiking from 84.4 to 89.2 (above 88.1 exp) with current conditions rising from 108.5 to 111.2 (below 112.0 expectations)

Nearly equal proportions of income groups reported improved finances in early March, but the factors underlying those gains were distinct. Households with incomes in the bottom two-thirds were more likely to cite net income gains compared with last month (+11 percentage points); in comparison, upper income households were more likely to report declines (-4 percentage points) from last month.

Short-term (1Y) inflation expectations tumbled from 2.6% to 2.4%, but longer-term (5-10Y) expectatiosn rose from 2.3 to 2.5%…

Finally we note that the spread between current (high) and future expectations (low) remains extremely wide (pre-recessionary) but has started to correct back…

The difference that accounted for the divergence was how households evaluated their personal finances, as lower income households expressed much more positive assessments. The divergence was due to a monthly jump of one-percentage point in income expectations among middle and lower incomes compared to a change of just one-tenth of a percentage point among those with incomes in the top third. Rising income expectations were accompanied by lower expected yearahead inflation rates, resulting in more favorable real income expectations…

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2FdP2me Tyler Durden

“Obscene”? Sanders Shutters Institute Over Pay-To-Play Accusations

Reflecting on accusations of pay-to-play influence-peddling at The Clinton Foundation, Senator Bernie Sanders told CNN in March of 2016 that:

“It is obscene that Secretary Clinton keeps going to big-money people to fund her campaign…”

All of which makes the news, via AP, that the “nonprofit” think tank founded by Sanders’ wife and son is closing up shop after drawing criticism over the donations it’s been receiving all the more intriguing.

The institute was founded to promote liberal policies less than two years ago by Sanders’ family with the backing of pro-Sanders celebrities and advocates – though Sanders himself had no formal role. While it operates at a fraction of the scale of the Clinton Foundation, it has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars during its brief existence and has declined to disclose its donors.

As The New York Post reports, the Vermont-based Sanders Institute is looking to suspend all operations by May – “so there could not even be an appearance of impropriety” – now that the Independent state lawmaker is running for president, his wife explained Thursday.

The decision was reportedly made in late February after Sanders launched his campaign.

“I think that was the most important thing to do — to not accept donations,” said Jane Sanders in an interview with the Associated Press.

“Nobody should think that they’re giving money to an organization and that gains them access or favor to anybody else and anybody running for office.”

Jane Sanders told the New York Times that they “didn’t think about the Clinton or Trump foundation” when deciding whether it was right to stop taking donations.

“We just thought, I’m going to be very active [on the campaign trail],” said Jane, 69.

“It’s just too mushy — it could become too mushy. We wanted to safeguard it.”

Mushy indeed.

Sanders’ Senate campaign has stressed that both Our Revolution and the Sanders Institute have independent boards and are not directed either by his presidential campaign or his Senate office. But some figures have crossed easily between the groups. Institute fellow and Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner recently resigned as president of Our Revolution to be co-chairwoman of Sanders’ presidential campaign.

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

Bears Capitulate With Massive Equity Inflow

After 13 weeks of near constant selling by institutional and retail investors, which as we noted last Friday resulted in the worst start to a year for equity flows since 2008, paradoxically even as the market was grinding ever higher…

… the bears finally threw in the towel in the latest week, when according to EPFR data compiled by Bank of America, investors bought a whopping $27.26bn of US stock funds and ETFs in the week ending on March 13th. This was the second largest inflow on record, behind $38.30bn from March of last year, and contrasts with a mix of small inflows and outflows earlier this year, including a $5.83bn outflow in the prior week. Drilling down, despite this week’s rather dreary volumes, BofA also notes that the $12.1bn equity buying on Tuesday largest daily bid since Sept. 20, 2018, the S&P 500 market top.

Yet in the latest confirmation of the ongoing confusion of capital allocation, unlike prior episodes of risk on capitulation which saw a wholesale selling of fixed income, buying of bonds also accelerated for a 10th consecutive week, to $7.01bn from $2.74bn on stronger flows for high yield and government bonds while inflows to high grade remained relatively stable

Drilling down into bond flows, last week saw net inflows to high grade of $5.10bn, similar to a $4.68bn inflow a week earlier and $5.01bn inflow for the week ending on February 27. The split between short-term and ex. short-term flows was also little changed. Short-term high grade inflows declined a bit to $2.36bn from $2.55bn, while ex. short-term inflows increased to $2.74bn from $2.13bn. On the other hand, a decline in inflows to funds (to $2.58bn from $4.24bn) was offset by an increase in inflows to ETFs (to $2.52bn from $0.44bn).

Continuing with credit, flows turned positive for both high yield (to +$1.18bn from -$0.93bn) and government bonds (to +$0.09bn from -$1.95bn). Inflows also improved for munis, rising to $1.20bn from $0.76bn. On the other hand outflows from leveraged loans accelerated to $0.55bn from $0.13bn, a 17th straight week of outflows, while inflows to global EM bonds declined to $0.93bn from $1.61bn. Finally, money markets reported a $1.27bn outflow this past week and a $30.43bn inflow in the prior week.

Going back to equity flows, here are the details:

  • Biggest US equity inflows in a year ($25.5bn)
  • Japan: 5th week of outflows ($1.1bn)
  • Europe: chunky outflows again ($4.6bn)
  • EM: biggest outflows since Jun’18 ($2.8bn)
  • By style: inflows US large cap ($17.1bn), US small cap ($2.5bn), US growth ($1.0bn), US value ($5.2bn)
  • By sector: inflows healthcare ($1.6bn), telcos ($0.6bn), utilities ($0.2bn), real estate ($0.2bn), financials ($8mn), materials ($0.2bn); outflows energy ($1.0bn

Commenting on the latest fund flows, BofA’s CIO Michael Hartnett notes the ongoing resilience of risk assets: minimal “profit-taking” on US-China trade truce news, poor Asian export data, ECB capitulation, and concludes that the “pain trade” is still up.

Why? The answer is familiar and simple: the new highs in IG & HY bond prices, new lows in volatility (e.g. MOVE index), shows that central banks “all-in”, and more importantly, “markets are not yet willing to trade policy impotence.” Of course, if and when “policy impotence” becomes the dominant trading theme, it’s all over.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2UJ5vVb Tyler Durden