Trump Fires Defense Secretary Mark Esper Tyler Durden
Mon, 11/09/2020 – 13:01
President Trump on Monday announced that Defense Secretary Mark Esper had been ‘terminated’ – and that the “highly respected Director of the National Counterterrorism Center,” Christopher C. Miller, will serve as Acting Secretary of Defense, “effective immediately.“
…Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.
We have preliminary results from a randomized control trial of a COVID-19 vaccine developed jointly by the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech. The news is good: The vaccine appears to be 90 percent effective in preventing infections caused by the coronavirus.
This is especially welcome news right now, since diagnosed cases are accelerating in many countries around the world, including the United States and most of Europe. The vaccine requires two doses and becomes effective 7 days after the second injection, according to the companies. The Data Monitoring Committee overseeing the trial has not reported any serious safety concerns.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required the companies to follow trial participants for two months to collect further data on the safety of the vaccines. Pfizer and BioNTech report that additional safety data will be available by the third week of November. If all is well, the companies will seek an Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA, enabling them to deploy the vaccine before the end of the year. The companies project that they can produce up to 50 million vaccine doses globally in 2020 (enough to treat 25 million people) and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021 (enough to treat 650 million people).
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine involves a synthetic version of the messenger RNA (mRNA) that the coronavirus uses to construct the proteins that let it infect human cells. The injected mRNA tricks the body into making some of the viral proteins that then induce the immune system to produce antibodies in response. Antibodies bind themselves onto attacking viruses and bacteria, disabling them or marking them for death by other parts of the immune system, like the cell-devouring macrophages.
Moderna is another company using mRNA vaccine technology. The Jerusalem Postreports that the company expects to release the clinical trial results of its two-dose vaccine in early December. If the results are positive, the company says it can produce 20 million doses by the end of the year and between 500 million and 1 billion in 2021.
If these results stand the test of time, the development of the mRNA vaccine platform is really good news for humanity in the long term. This platform makes it much easier to devise new vaccines and much faster to scale up their production.
The mRNA platform is not the only contender in the global race to create and deploy a coronavirus vaccine. The global pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca expects to report its vaccine clinical trial results before the end of the year. AstraZeneca bases its single-dose vaccine on a chimpanzee cold virus modified to express COVID-19 viral proteins. Its clinical trials were halted briefly so that researchers could investigate a couple of instances in which clinical trial participants experienced concerning medical conditions. CEO Pascal Soriot says that the halt has delayed the deployment of the vaccine but, assuming its safety and efficacy are proved, the company expects to deliver hundreds of millions of doses of its vaccine in 2021.
The Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed, through which the federal government loosened regulatory rules and speculatively awarded billions of dollars to vaccine makers, deserves a lot of the credit for the amazing speed with which COVID-19 vaccines are being developed and rolled out. It is worth noting that Pfizer did not accept federal funding for the research and development of its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, although the company did sign a $1.95 billion contract with the federal government to manufacture the vaccine.
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Nio Launches New 100kWh Battery Alongside “BaaS” Battery Swap Program Tyler Durden
Mon, 11/09/2020 – 12:40
Today in “a company that is actually offering to swap batteries for its customers” news…
Electric vehicle company Nio announced today that it is launching its 100kWh battery pack that is going to be able to provide its vehicles with 615km/~385 miles of range.
The company has filed over 300 patents for the battery, which is based on “cell-to-pack” technology that Nio jointly developed with CATL. The technology allows for 37% higher energy density, according to Chinese EV site Gasgoo. The design of the pack can also help streamline the company’s manufacturing process by 40%.
The company says it is starting 2 shifts at its factory in Hefei later this month and is making 5,000 cars per month, according to Bloomberg. CEO William Li says the company is being approached by “many investors” about its battery asset management unit.
The company says pre-order of models with the new battery pack will start on November 7th and that those with 70kWh packs can upgrade by paying at all once, or monthly. Nio also offers BaaS, “battery as a service”, where they allow drivers to pay monthly and use whatever battery suits their needs best.
If a buyer signs up for BaaS for $220 per month, they can subtract $19,105 off the price of their new car.
Li continued: “The BaaS model has long been planned with our unique battery swap technologies. The successful launch of the BaaS model will enable NIO users to benefit from the lower initial purchase prices of our products, flexible battery upgrade options and assurance of battery performance.”
Nio already has 158 battery swap stations in China and has offered the service more than 1.18 million times. Any word on how Tesla’s once heavily touted battery swap program – from seven years ago – is doing?
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2JQQH6e Tyler Durden
Amid all of the election ramifications and discussions, Donald Trump Jr. outlined a thought today that has likely been on the mind of many, myself included.
I have spent a great deal of time thinking about this since the media began their insufferable onslaught and “president-elect Biden” narrative. The time has long past for President Trump to fully demand his executive cabinet members declassify the evidence outlining intrusive government surveillance upon not only himself, but all Americans.
CTH has a rather unique perspective on the declassification angle. This conversation has traveled with me for over two years as I have talked to people inside the machinery. Ultimately the discussion ends around something like this:
Is the DC political surveillance state, and all of the ramifications within that reality, so fundamentally corrupt and against our nation’s interests, that no entity dare expose the scope and depth of it? And ultimately… is it the preservation of institutions that is causing so many disconnected outcomes from evidence intentionally downplayed?
If we assume the scale of unconstitutional conduct has become systemic, that likely answers the questions. Personally, I believe this is the most likely scenario.
“Likely” meaning the entire apparatus, DOJ, FBI, Legislative Oversight and the Intelligence Community (IC), is now so enmeshed within this corrupt out-of-control state that no-one, even the good guys, is willing to expose it because the institutional collapse would be devastating.
This is what I would call the Biggest of the Big Ugly.
This catastrophic outcome, in combination with DC having made the system the primary source of their income, is what unites the Republicans and Democrats to stop anyone from exposing it. Once any elected official goes inside this system, they end up serving it.
All of that said, I have previously outlined a pre-election process for President Trump to declassify information that would lay the system naked to We The People.
However, I don’t think post-election this will work, because the executive branch cabinet officers will refuse to support it. The enemies inside the gate will protect DC.
Understanding the ordinary process of declassifying documents is a request and authorization to the executive officers and stakeholders of classified information; and understanding the current authorization is is not ordinary because the intelligence community stakeholders are adverse to the interests of the office of the president; here is a process to cut through the chaff and countermeasures.
The background here is that any unilateral declassification request, demand or authorization by President Trump puts him opposition to a variety of corrupt interests.
As a direct result the executive office of the president will be facing legal action, likely from unified democrats and republicans in the legislative branch. With that accepted, here is the most strategic approach.
In anticipation of litigation:
President Trump informs the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, that he wishes to have a full intelligence briefing on the following documents (more may be added), all documents are to be presented without a single redaction:
All versions of the Carter Page FISA applications (DOJ) (FBI) (ODNI).
All of the Bruce Ohr 302’s filled out by the FBI. (FBI) (ODNI)
All of Bruce Ohr’s emails (FBI) (DOJ) (CIA) (ODNI)
All relevant documents pertaining to the supportive material within the FISA application. (FBI) (DOJ-NSD ) (DoS) (CIA) (DNI) (NSA) (ODNI);
All supportive documents and material provided by Bruce Ohr to the FBI. (FBI)
All intelligence documents that were presented to the Gang of Eight in 2016 that pertain to the FISA application used against U.S. person Carter Page; including all intelligence documents that may not have been presented to the FISA Court. (CIA) (FBI) (DOJ) (ODNI) (DoS) (NSA)
All unredacted text messages and email content between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok on all devices. (FBI) (DOJ) (DOJ-NSD) (ODNI)
The originating CIA “EC” or two-page electronic communication from former FBI Agent Peter Strzok: and all communication between former CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey that started Operation Crossfire Hurricane in July 2016. (CIA) (FBI) (ODNI)
The full and unredacted April 2017 FISA court 99-page opinion written by Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer outlining the compliance audit conducted by the NSA in 2016. (NSA) (ODNI) (DOJ) (FBI) (DOJ-NSD)
ADD TO THIS – Everything and Anything related to contracts, vendors, services and the intelligence apparatus connected to the 2020 United States election.
The President selects a date for this briefing and through direct orders to his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, informs the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, to advise and coordinate with all executive branch lead intelligence officials, who were/are stakeholders in the compartmented intelligence products as described above, of their request be present for the briefing.
The White House counsel’s office is not to be informed of the intent or purpose of the meeting; however the Presidents’ White House counsel is requested to attend. Further, all of the compartmented intelligence is to be collectively assembled by the ODNI (Ratcliffe) into one volume of a singular Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB). There are to be eighteen printed copies of the PDB assembled and secured for the briefing, post haste.
Additionally, the office of the president personally informs the ODNI (Ratcliffe) of the executives’ request to invite for the briefing each member of the legislative branch Intelligence Community oversight known as the Gang-of-Eight.
Immediately after the briefing by the executive level (cabinet) department officials, while remaining in a closed and classified session, the full and comprehensive content of this collective intelligence product will be discussed with the full assembly of the U.S. Legislative Branch Intelligence Oversight known as the Gang of Eight.
Therefore, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien is instructed to coordinate with the ODNI (Ratcliffe) for the attendance of the Gang of Eight: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Minority leader Kevin McCarthy, HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff, HPSCI Ranking Member Devin Nunes, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, SSCI Chairman Richard Burr and SSCI Vice-Chair Mark Warner. [Topic “TBD”]
In order to facilitate the briefing. Each member of the participating group will be provided with one full printed copy of the material assembled by the ODNI during the briefing.
[Each of the participants carries the prerequisite clearances, legal and constitutional authority to engage with the classified document according to their position and status. Only the executive can assemble the product for Go8 review and feedback]
At the conclusion of the briefing; and after hearing from, and engagement with, each of the participating members of the executive intelligence offices and duly authorized legislative oversight representatives; and after listening to their opinion as to the subject material discussed; the president announces to the fully assembled leadership of both the Executive branch (cabinet) and Legislative branch (Go8), it is his opinion the National Interests of the United States can best be served with the American people having a full, transparent and honest review of the material assembled and discussed.
The President, no-one else, only the President, then collects the printed portfolios as they were distributed to the participants, exits the briefing, and walks directly into the James Brady press briefing room within the White House; handing each of the awaiting twelve members of the national media a copy of the briefing material to be published on behalf of the American people.
At exactly the same time as President Trump enters the briefing room, one copy of the assembled portfolio is hand delivered, by President Trump only, to White House communications director Alyssa Farah with instructions to scan and release the content to the public through the White House website.
Done.
The American people are aware…
The system will now turn immediately to destroy Donald J Trump…
…while we show up en-masse to support him.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3eFsWJA Tyler Durden
Janet Yellen Said To Be Biden’s New Favorite For Treasury Secretary Tyler Durden
Mon, 11/09/2020 – 12:04
Following up on our Sunday preview of what Joe Biden’s cabinet may look like – in the event the Electoral College joins the MSM in crowning him the next US president – this morning Charlie Gasparino writes that there is “lots of talk among Dems that Biden’s first cabinet pick will be Treasury Secretary” and notes that the choices are Fed’s Lael Brainard, and Roger Ferguson of TIAA-CREF, while progressives such as Elizabeth Warren are “seen off the table given divided Senate and the need for Dems to preserve seats.”
BREAKING: Lots of talk among Dems that @JoeBiden‘s first cabinet pick will be Treasury Secretary. Top choices: The Fed’s Lael Brainard, and Roger Ferguson of TIAA-CREF. Progressives ie @SenWarren seen off the table given divided Senate and the need for Dems to preserve seats
And while it has rapidly emerged as a consensus view that Brainard will indeed be Biden’s pick for Treasury Secretary, this morning Prospect Magazine’s Robert Kuttner writes that “one interesting name has surfaced for the key post of Treasury secretary. That would be former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.”
Which is ironic, because as we discussed ahead of the Fed’s revision of its Inflation Targeting policy, an August 31 op-ed by Fed vice-chair Richard Clarida admitted that the Fed’s models may “have been wrong” ultimately costing Hillary the election by keeping financial conditions too tight. Kuttner picks up on this too, pointing out that Yellen was “surprisingly hawkish” on monetary policy, to wit:
Yet in office, Yellen was surprisingly hawkish on monetary policy. As the economy stumbled toward a too-slow recovery, Yellen and her colleagues acted to raise interest rates several times beginning in 2015, on the premise that it was time to end the heroic bond purchases that had kept the economy afloat during and after the financial collapse, and the even odder presumption that rates needed to be raised now in case they had to be cut later.
Only in 2019, after overly tight money had done a lot of economic and political damage, did the Fed relent and target lower rates. The sluggish recovery, especially in the Midwest, helped lay the groundwork for Trump’s conversion of once Democratic working-class voters.
Of course, all of that changed in recent years as “Yellen has been sounding like a born-again monetary dove.”
In any case, bygones will be bygones, and while Yellen would not control interest rates, “she would have a great deal of influence over how Biden dealt with the tricky question of the federal deficit.”
So does this mean that Lael Brainard’s star has set? Citing a source, Kuttner writes that “Lael peaked too soon,” and as he concludes, “paradoxically, the closely divided Senate not only gives Republicans more power over key nominations. It gives progressives such as Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, Bernie Sanders, and Jeff Merkley more power too. All could live with Yellen.”
Why? Because when it comes to politics, what really matters is that the monetary status quo remains unchanged and stocks keep rising.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3kcetGb Tyler Durden
We have preliminary results from a randomized control trial of a COVID-19 vaccine developed jointly by the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech. The news is good: The vaccine appears to be 90 percent effective in preventing infections caused by the coronavirus.
This is especially welcome news right now, since diagnosed cases are accelerating in many countries around the world, including the United States and most of Europe. The vaccine requires two doses and becomes effective 7 days after the second injection, according to the companies. The Data Monitoring Committee overseeing the trial has not reported any serious safety concerns.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required the companies to follow trial participants for two months to collect further data on the safety of the vaccines. Pfizer and BioNTech report that additional safety data will be available by the third week of November. If all is well, the companies will seek an Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA, enabling them to deploy the vaccine before the end of the year. The companies project that they can produce up to 50 million vaccine doses globally in 2020 (enough to treat 25 million people) and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021 (enough to treat 650 million people).
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine involves a synthetic version of the messenger RNA (mRNA) that the coronavirus uses to construct the proteins that let it infect human cells. The injected mRNA tricks the body into making some of the viral proteins that then induce the immune system to produce antibodies in response. Antibodies bind themselves onto attacking viruses and bacteria, disabling them or marking them for death by other parts of the immune system, like the cell-devouring macrophages.
Moderna is another company using mRNA vaccine technology. The Jerusalem Postreports that the company expects to release the clinical trial results of its two-dose vaccine in early December. If the results are positive, the company says it can produce 20 million doses by the end of the year and between 500 million and 1 billion in 2021.
If these results stand the test of time, the development of the mRNA vaccine platform is really good news for humanity in the long term. This platform makes it much easier to devise new vaccines and much faster to scale up their production.
The mRNA platform is not the only contender in the global race to create and deploy a coronavirus vaccine. The global pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca expects to report its vaccine clinical trial results before the end of the year. AstraZeneca bases its single-dose vaccine on a chimpanzee cold virus modified to express COVID-19 viral proteins. Its clinical trials were halted briefly so that researchers could investigate a couple of instances in which clinical trial participants experienced concerning medical conditions. CEO Pascal Soriot says that the halt has delayed the deployment of the vaccine but, assuming its safety and efficacy are proved, the company expects to deliver hundreds of millions of doses of its vaccine in 2021.
The Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed, through which the federal government loosened regulatory rules and speculatively awarded billions of dollars to vaccine makers, deserves a lot of the credit for the amazing speed with which COVID-19 vaccines are being developed and rolled out. It is worth noting that Pfizer did not accept federal funding for the research and development of its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, although the company did sign a $1.95 billion contract with the federal government to manufacture the vaccine.
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President Donald Trump is still in denial about the outcome of the presidential election. That is, perhaps, an understandable human reaction to such a loss, but the presidency is an office that demands that the occupant be able to overcome some of their all-too-human emotions. Admittedly, Trump is not a run-of-the-mill president.
It is important that presidents be able to deliver an appropriate concession speech. It is not legally necessary for a sitting president to concede that he has lost. The loss is real regardless of whether it is acknowledged by the chief executive, and the current incumbent will no longer perform the duties of his office after the inauguration of his successor. But as Joe Biden demonstrated with his victory speech, concession speeches are important moments for reuniting the country after a hard-fought electoral campaign.
Democratic elections are by their nature divisive, and they are all the more so in our current polarized age. We tolerate and even encourage the citizenry to divide itself into partisans under competing banners and struggle with their fellow Americans for control over the levers of political power. Campaigns can be personal and bitter. The stakes of an election can be high. But when the election is over, we need to reunite under a common flag and take up our common identity as American citizens with allegiance to a common government. Politicians facilitate that task by encouraging their supporters to beat their metaphorical swords into plowshares, to accept the loss, and move on to the shared task of governing under a new leader. The competitor must accept their new role as part of the loyal opposition. Partisans must lick their wounds and bide their time until they can once again contest for leadership.
Donald Trump has thus far continued to encourage divisiveness rather than reconciliation. This is a dangerous state of affairs that is corrosive of a democratic civil order. He is not the first sore loser who might continue to question the legitimacy of the electoral victor, but he is the most prominent and perhaps the least restrained. It should be hoped that he will eventually embrace a post-presidential role that will serve the country and do honor to his historical reputation, but such hopes might well be disappointed.
More immediately, the Trump administration has not yet accepted the electoral loss, and that has implications for the presidential transition. The transition between administrations is a monumental task, and a smooth transition is all the more important in the midst of the difficult situation created by the ongoing pandemic. The head of the General Services Administration, which manages presidential transitions, has not yet begun the process. That does not prevent Biden from beginning to prepare his administration, but it severely hampers the planning and coordination that is necessary for continuity of governance. It cannot reasonably be expected that the head of the GSA will act contrary to the will of the president, but the president must quickly (if privately and quietly) release her to perform her duties for facilitating the transition.
The Trump administration should distinguish itself from the Trump campaign. Trump should recognize that Biden is the presumptive president-elect and allow the executive branch to begin planning accordingly. The Trump campaign can continue to contest the election results, pursuing recounts and litigation as it feels necessary to satisfy the president that he has indeed lost. If necessary, the campaign could drag that out for weeks until elections results are certified by the states and presidential electors are designated and ultimately cast their ballots. None of that necessitates that the transition planning be put on hold.
There is good reason for the Trump administration to accept that planning for a transition is necessary at this point. The initial count of votes is nearly complete. The path to victory for the Trump campaign through recounts and litigation is essentially non-existent. The situation might be different if Biden’s electoral vote total were smaller, but a 76-vote gap cannot be closed by changing the result in a state or two. The situation might be different if the gap between Biden’s vote total and Trump’s in a large number of states was extremely small, but it is not. This is not the 2000 election, where everything turned on a small number of votes in a single large state. Winning a recount in one or even two states would make no difference to the ultimate outcome.
The math for a Trump victory simply does not work at this point.
state
vote gap
percentage gap
electoral votes
cumulative
GA
10,353
0.21%
16
AZ
16,985
0.52%
11
27
WI
20,540
0.63%
10
37
PA
45,727
0.68%
20
57
NV
34,283
2.65%
6
63
MI
146,123
2.69%
16
79
Biden has a 76 electoral vote lead on Trump. There are four states that Biden won and where the candidates are currently separated by less than one percent. The number of votes that would have to be switched are in the tens of thousands in each state. The prospect of switching those votes in any single state through some combination of recount and litigation is extremely small. Trump would need to swing all four and also swing the result in two additional states where the margin is well over two percent in order to overcome Biden’s apparent electoral vote lead.
Even if you are convinced—and there is no reason for you to think so given any known facts—that there were significant irregularities in the voting or in the vote counting, and you were convinced that all those irregularities worked in the favor of Biden, the odds that any such irregularities were large enough and distributed in just the right states that, if corrected, Trump would be proven to be the legal winner of the election are essentially nil.
It is time for transition planning to begin, and really it is time for Trump to concede that he has lost and bring his campaign to a close. Even if he cannot yet bring himself to do the latter, there is no excuse not to do the former.
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Russian Mi-24 Helicopter Shot Down By Azerbaijan Forces Over Armenia, 2 Pilots Killed Tyler Durden
Mon, 11/09/2020 – 11:50
There are breaking reports out of Interfax and Sputnik Armenia that a Russian helicopter has been shot down by Azerbaijan forces over Armenian territory related to intense fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh contested border region.
Interfax is reporting that two Russian pilots were killed in the fiery crash and at least one other injured. Rescue operations and an investigation are underway.
Russian Mi-24 gunships have reportedly been active over Armenian territory.
A Russian helicopter has crashed in Armenia’s Ararat Province, the Ministry of Emergency Situations reports. The Ministry says it received an alarm from Ararat Regional Crisis Management Center at 6:39 pm today.
The helicopter crashed in the gorge between the villages of Yeraskh and Paruyr Syak. Fire and rescue brigades have been dispatched to the scene.
Armenian military news sites are circulating nighttime footage of what appears to be a helicopter going down, but the video is unverified.
BREAKING NEWS: VIDEO REPORTEDLY SHOWING THE RUSSIAN HELICOPTER GETTING SHOT DOWN IN ARMENIA BY AZERBAIJANI FIRE FROM NAKHICHEVAN. pic.twitter.com/PHV0I2J6g9
Early reports also suggest the downing may have been from a MANPAD fired from the ground.
The Russian Ministry of Defense appears to have confirmed that it’s lost one of its Mi-24 gunships over Armenian territory near the border.
“The Russian Mi-24 helicopter crashed in Armenia after being subjected to fire from the ground, the Russian Defense Ministry reports,”according to Russia’s RT.
developing…
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3pf97xx Tyler Durden
With 10Y Yields Soaring, Traders Start Pricing In Rate Hikes Tyler Durden
Mon, 11/09/2020 – 11:39
As Bloomberg’s Edward Bollingbroke writes, a massive block sale in 10-year note futures pushed yields up to March levels and within a short leap of 1% again.
The trade he is referring to is a “punchy block sale” from this morning, which netted almost $8 million, and “drawing a line in the sand on a 10-year yield move beyond 0.95%.”
He adds that in assessing the potential for a sustained break-out above 1% for 10-year yields, traders will be looking at what today’s vaccine news means to a fiscal package and ultimately the Federal Reserve’s monetary-policy response.
One response to how high the 10Y could go comes from BMO’s Ian Lyngen, who writes this morning that “the combination of the vaccine news and ‘clarity’ on the political front has cleared the way for a meaningful selloff in Treasuries and outperformance in risk assets” a move which reflects “the progress toward a vaccine and an eventual end to the pandemic” than a Biden’s victory.
And while there is little question the Presidential election will be contested for a while – the duration of this challenge is yet another uncertainty, “the risk is on” with 10-year yields reaching the highest level since March 20th and our 1-handle target close at hand.
Once the 10Y does breach 1%, there is very to stop the move until an opening gap from March at 1.112% to 1.140% according to the rates strategist who adds that “this will present meaningful support in the event 1.0% is breached in this move and we suspect will eventually slow any bearishness.”
He then reminds readers that he has been warning about a bearish breakout for some time “and are willing to go with the move through 1.0% until the opening gap.”
In terms of positioning, the charts below show that while positions in 10s are relatively flat…
… there is still a huge and expanding short in the classic bond contract.
BMO’s read is that this allows further room for 10s to selloff – especially ahead of tomorrow’s auction.
And sure enough, Eurodollar traders are starting to see more hikes getting priced into 2023/2024 again according to Bloomberg’s Bollingbroke, who adds that there have also been some aggressive mid-curve put option buys – hedging more hike re-pricing in this part of the curve, to wit:
Eurodollar futures curve sharply steeper with blue-pack contracts (Dec23-Sep24) lower by up to 12.5 basis points, as rate-hike premium starts to build beyond 2023. In options, demand for downside hedges emerges across mid-curve structures which covers around this area of the strip.
Sep24 eurodollar futures lower by 12.5bp on the day, steepening 24-month spreads such as Sep22/Sep24 by 8bp on the day; price action on white-pack (Dec20-Sep21) and red-pack (Dec21-Sep22) relatively calm, with contracts unchanged to lower by 3.5bp
In short: while stocks are delighted by today’s newsflow, the surge higher in yields – and inflation expectations – may have sowed the seeds of the market’s next destruction once the realization that the Fed’s next rate hike may come much sooner than expected, starts spreading across trading desks.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3nbWaCL Tyler Durden
Ben Carson Latest Top Trump Official To Test Positive For COVID-19 Tyler Durden
Mon, 11/09/2020 – 11:33
As the US reported a record number of daily COVID-19 cases over the weekend (128k new cases reported on Saturday), HUD Secretary Ben Carson has reportedly tested positiive, becoming the latest member of the Trump inner circle to test positive.
The news follows news of Mark Meadows’ positive test, as well as news that a handful of other West Wing aides had tested positive.
Carson is unique among top Trump officials in that he is a doctor – a renowned neurosurgeon, in fact, who famously emerged as a flash-in-the-pan challenger to then-candidate Trump before Trump swept the primaries. He’s also unique in that he’s served in his post since the beginning of the Trump Administration, keeping out of sight with a host of low-profile assignments like being one of the administration’s point men on “Opportunity Zones”.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/35d8AEs Tyler Durden
