Tag: news

With headline-scanning algos focused only on soundbites related any new stimulus deal and changes in the probability of a fiscal stimulus getting done soon, moments ago stocks were whiplashed when moments ago Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said during an event in Kentucky that “we do need another Covid-19 aid package”, but then immediately poured cold water on “optimism” when he warned that a new stimulus deal is “unlikely in the next three weeks.”

New stimulus deal “unlikely in the next three weeks” McConnell saying in event in KY

— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) October 9, 2020

McConnell also said that there’s “widespread agreement airlines need aid” and added that the economy is struggling to get back to normal.

The KY Senator then reiterated that he hasn’t seen Trump in person since August but they speak almost every day. “The telephone was invented in the late part of the 19th century and it works quite well.”

McConnell also refused to say when he was last tested for covid. “Have I ever been tested? Yeah. But am I going to make a daily report? No. It’s not necessary.”

Of all those, algos only cared about the first, and amid some initial confusion…

… sent the Russell 2000 – which had benefited in recent days amid surging “stimulus optimism” -lower…

… while the dollar posted a modest bounce.

Attorney General Bill Bar has begun telling Republican leaders that the DOJ’s sweeping review into the ‘Russiagate’ investigation won’t produce results before the election, according to Axios.

Recall last month that Democrats were frothing at the mouth over the investigation, conducted by US Attorney John Durham – with the Democratic chairs of four House committees demanding an “emergency investigation” into the probe out of fear of an “October surprise.”

Now, it looks like that was much ado about nothing – as Barr “has made clear that they should not expect any further indictments or a comprehensive report before Nov. 3,” according to the report.

“This is the nightmare scenario. Essentially, the year and a half of arguably the number one issue for the Republican base is virtually meaningless if this doesn’t happen before the election,” a GOP aide told Axios.

And as Politico notes, “Senate Republicans running similar investigations were told of the intention within the last week — and it’s why they’ve been stepping up their releases of declassified documents.”

“BUT TRUMP AND HIS ALLIES were pushing for much more than that; they wanted DOJ to indict their Obama-era foes as they seek to rewrite the Russia investigation and turn it against Democrats. The president channeled his grievances by retweeting supporters demanding that Barr immediately arrest and jail Trump’s political enemies like Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Late Wednesday afternoon, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said his office ‘has now provided almost 1,000 pages of materials to the Department of Justice in response to Mr. Durham’s document requests.’” –Politico

In recent weeks, we’ve learned that US intelligence officials forwarded an investigative referral to former FBI officials James Comey and Peter Strzok concerning allegations that Hillary Clinton approved a plan to smear then-candidate Donald Trump by tying him to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian hackers, according to information given to Sen. Lindsey Graham by the Director of National Intelligence.

Notably, former CIA Director John Brennan briefed then-president Obama on Hillary’s alleged approval.

BREAKING: According to handwritten notes, Brennan briefed Obama on Hillary’s approval of a proposal to attack Trump in the 2016 election by tying him to Putin pic.twitter.com/lnwTFwjoAf

— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) September 29, 2020

As part of his investigation, Durham has interviewed Brennan and others, allegedly regarding the CIA’s assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind interference in the 2016 US election in order to help President Trump.

In an August 13th interview, Barr said he expects “significant” developments to come out of the investigation before the election. Days later, former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty to fabricating evidence used to obtain surveillance warrants on former Trump adviser Carter Page. Clinesmith -who worked on both the Hillary Clinton email investigation and the Russia probe, was part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, and interviewed Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos.

We can’t help but wonder if Durham’s report will look the same if Biden wins in November.

By Michael Every of Rabobank

Earlier in the week I warned of a lot more US election wackiness to come.

Well, Exhibit A: The debate commission decided the upcoming presidential debate on 15 October will be virtual rather than in person, logical given President Trump has Covid-19; and Trump refused to attend a virtual debate….perhaps understandable given the experiences many of us have had recently: “I can’t use Teams, do you have Skype? No? Can I use Zoom? It’s banned? Oh.” And can you imagine a debate which was all “Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?“ Not that live debates are seeing any answers to the key questions though. Even the Vice Presidential debate was actually akin to the 1970’s Two Ronnies’ Mastermind sketch:

Q: Your chosen subject last time was answering questions before you are asked. This time, you`ve chosen to answer the question before last, each time, is that correct?

A: Charlie Smithers.

Q: And your time starts now. What is palaeontology?

A: Yes, absolutely correct.

Q: What is the name of the directory that lists members of the British peerage?

A: A study of old fossils.

Q: Correct. Who are Len Murray and Sir Geoffrey Howe?

A: Burkes.

Q: Correct. What is the difference between a donkey and an ass?

A: One is a Trade Union leader, the other one is a member of the cabinet.

Q: Correct. Complete the quotation “To be or not to be…”

A: They are both the same.

Q: Correct. What is Bernard Manning famous for?

A: That is the question.

Q: Correct. Who is the current Archbishop of Canterbury?

A: He is a fat man who tells blue jokes.

Trump has now been given a clean medical bill of health to start public events again from Saturday, and is holding a rally…so is the rescheduled debate date of 22 October still virtual? Joe Biden is doing an ABC Town Hall on 15 October now; will Trump do one too? Might it be with Joe Rogan, as Twitter is urging? Confusion reigns. Clear and substantive debate does not.

Exhibit B: Nancy Pelosi will today push a bill to give the House, not the Cabinet, power to remove a president from office for medical reasons under the 25th amendment. A few quick comments:

1) Is this needed by a party up 14-16 points in the polls and three weeks away from a sweep of the White House, House, and Senate?;

2) It will not remove Trump from office. Even if passed in the Democrat-majority House, the bill requires passage in the Republican-majority Senate and a presidential signature – which won’t happen;

3) If it did, it would just put Mike Pence into office for a few days, after which Trump could self-certify himself fit to take over again, and over-ruling that would require a two thirds majority in both the House and the Senate;

4) The move is likely to fire up the base – but possibly the Republicans more as Trump is selling it as an “attempted coup”; and

5) That should be relative risk off for markets, if they can read the political tea leaves – but I am not sure they cocoa, as said in the UK in the era of the Two Ronnies.

Exhibit C: The shocking news of the arrest of anarchist/”extremist libertarians” who had planned to kidnap Michigan governor Whitmer and hold a “treason trial” over her virus-related restrictions. This should underline just how worrying downside scenarios are in this present crisis.

Exhibit D: We are apparently closer to a comprehensive fiscal stimulus after all(?), after the Democrats had rejected offers for a series of clean bills for airlines and households. Perhaps Mnuchin and Pelosi can find a window today to continue their push-me-pull-you as the Fed sits in the background with its head in its hands. Rosengren yesterday called this all “tragic”, and for once it’s hard to disagree with the Fed. “The Fed can ease financial conditions. We can’t replace lose income, though. That’s uniquely suited to fiscal policy.”

On which (lost income), more pubs are closing in the UK, as people old enough to remember the Two Ronnies sadly start to fill the hospitals again. The UK looks set to go back to shielding the vulnerable indoors again for months. Spain is also following suite with a 15-day emergency lockdown in Madrid, while a Spanish virologist warns of up to two years of mask-wearing ahead.

Meanwhile, also very important at the margin is that last night the US imposed sweeping sanctions on another 18 Iranian banks, which now effectively cuts Iran off from the global financial system completely. The US may be a house divided at home, but abroad it is still capable of major action: critics say this US masterplan will backfire, but the campaign of maximum pressure continues. Markets must not forget that there are other countries potentially heading for similar treatment for a variety of different reasons – some of their currencies are recognising it, while one is merrily going on its way as if that kind of thing can’t happen to it. Quite the Masterminds at work there answering the previous question of financial inflows rather than the current one of (more) potential sanctions.

Of course, whether you are long or short MXN or RUB, as just two examples, is now very dependent on what you think is going to happen on 3 November; which is why you have to keep looking at the election campaign in all its shambolic glory.

One of the most significant changes forced by the virus pandemic has been companies allowing their employees to work from home. A couple of months after Microsoft unveiled its plans to reopen US offices in January 2021, the software maker is now letting some employees work from home on a “permanent” basis, according to The Verge. 

Microsoft’s new internal guidance on remote working, viewed by The Verge, outlines the workplace of the future, or rather the “hybrid workplace,” that allows “employees to work from home freely for less than 50 percent of their working week, or for managers to approve permanent remote work.” 

The Verge noted some employees “will be able to easily take advantage of the less than 50 percent working from home option,” though certain roles within the company might find remote working challenging, or near impossible to transition to remote permanently.

Microsoft said specific roles within the company would require those to return to the company’s offices. Those who work in hardware labs, data centers, along with in-person training, will still need access to buildings. 

Under the “hybrid workplace,” employees will be allowed to relocate domestically with approval from management. There are options for certain employees, that could allow them to work remote in foreign countries.

“While Microsoft employees will be allowed to move across country for remote work, compensation and benefits will change and vary depending on the company’s own geopay scale. Microsoft will be covering home office expenses for permanent remote workers, but any that decide to move away from Microsoft’s offices will need to cover their own relocation costs. Flexible working hours will also be available without manager approval, and employees can also request part-time work hours through their managers,” The Verge said. 

Earlier this week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said online meetings could make employees tired and make it difficult to focus. 

“When you are working from home, it sometimes feels like you are sleeping at work,” Nadella said. 

Microsoft unveiled a new product that attempts to address this problem, called Together Mode, where participants are on video calls in a virtual space. 

Of course, with Microsoft becoming the latest big tech company to throw support behind a future of “flexible” work, the tech industry is positioning itself to use this as another ‘perk’ to attract the ‘top talent’ from America’s colleges – while JP Morgan pushes Wall Street to call employees back to the office – regardless of the risks – for fear of diminishing “creative intelligence.” 

After spiking on Tuesday after Trump’s “no deal” tweet, the USDollar has been in free-fall, tumbling to three-week lows this morning…

Source: Bloomberg

That USD weakness has sparked a bid under precious metals, pushing gold futures back above $1900…

And silver futures are breaking out…

As Peter Schiff recently noted,

“The problem is once you accept the false premise that government stimulus actually helps the economy – that it really is a stimulus – then you’ve kind of lost the argument. Because if borrowing and printing $1.6 trillion, if that’s a good thing, why isn’t borrowing and printing $2.4 trillion a better thing? Because you put the Republicans in the position of arguing that 2.4 trillion is too much of a good thing — that somehow, if we just create 1.6 trillion out of thin air and spend it, that’s really going to help. But if we push it to 2.4, it’s actually going to hurt. Why? I mean, when does something good suddenly become something bad? “

Is this the start of a herd-panic at the prospect of $7 trillion in Biden/Harris/AOC stimulus/MMT?

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

A California-based media outlet late Thursday posted a story falsely reporting that Vice President Mike Pence tested positive for COVID-19, sparking conspiracy theories among the left.

Deadline Hollywood claimed that Pence tested positive for the new disease. The headline stated, “PREP. DO NOT PUBLISH UNTIL THE NEWS CROSSES.”

“The two most powerful men in America now have coronavirus,” the story began. It then said Pence announced on Wednesday that he had tested positive.

Katie Miller, Pence’s director of communications, criticized the story, calling it “IRRESPONSIBLE & UTTERLY FALSE.”

Deadline later removed the story.

“A draft post of a story about Vice President Mike Pence testing positive for coronavirus that was never meant to publish was accidently posted on Deadline. It was pulled down immediately. It never should have been posted and Deadline will take steps to see this kind of thing never happens again. Apologies to the Vice President and our readers. We regret the error,” the outlet said in a correction notice.

The story sparked conspiracy theories among the anti-President Donald Trump crowd, who said the story, though removed, must mean something was going on.

“Never meant to be published but the actual article has quite a lot of detail. it’s not just some blank webpage. What are you guys hiding,” one wrote on Twitter.

“The fact that specific details were included and that chances were pretty slim that Mike got covid makes me wonder,” another said.

[ZH: Here is the full story…]

h/t @mcm_ct

Deadline was started in March 2006. It is described on its website as “the authoritative source for breaking news in the entertainment industry.”

The outlet is still running a story about “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah claiming there was a real chance Pence contracted COVID-19.

Trump tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, last week. He received treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center but returned to the White House on Monday. His doctor said earlier Thursday that Trump is able to resume public engagements this weekend.

President Donald Trump looks over at reporters and photographers as he departs Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., on Oct. 5, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Speculation about Pence’s condition stemmed from the cancellation of a planned appearance in Indianapolis.

Marty Obst, senior political adviser for Pence, told WISH-TV that the schedule change “was merely a scheduling issue and definitely not health-related.”

Pence tested negative for COVID-19 on Thursday morning, Devin O’Malley, his spokesman, said. Pence has tested negative each day for months.

Both Pence and Trump are tested every day, according to White House officials.