Sterling is being pounded back below 1.21 – weakest since the flash crash lows, back to 31 year lows. The drop lacks an obvious trigger (more technical levels), but as The FT reports, nerves appear to be building in the run-up to a scheduled appearance by Bank of England governor Mark Carney to a House of Lords committee at 15:35 London time.
Cable plunged ahead of Carney’s speech…
back to 31 year lows…
It appears the market is not hopeful for Carney’s comments…
Headlines from speech…
*CARNEY SAYS MONETARY POLICY HAS BEEN OVERBURDENED
*CARNEY SAYS MONETARY POLICY CAN’T DO EVERYTHIING
*CARNEY AGREES WITH SPIRIT OF MAY’S COMMENTS ON INEQUALITY
Just as stocks seemed heavy at the open, missing the traditional post-open ramp, the NYSE ARCA Options announced that at 10:12am it had declared self-help and announced it has suspended routing as something broke. The exchange announced that additional information will follow as soon as possible.
However, unlike on previous occasions when market breaks of this kind have resulted in a sharp rebound in risk assets, this time the break appears to have halted the drop in the VIX which leveled out the moment the market broke.
Sometimes it seems like no problem in America is too small to overreact to.
J.D. Tuccille writes:
As troubled as our country is at the moment, divided between two main mutually contemptuous (and contemptible) political blocs, facing a rising generation seemingly frightened by the exchange of ideas inherent in a devotion to protecting free speech, and apparently committed to placing either a psychopath or a sociopath in the White House, at least the country is winding down the depredations caused by drug prohibition. Four states have legalized marijuana for recreational use, and many more have made it available as a medical treatment. Their ranks are likely to be joined after November by—
What’s that you say? Cops are still filling out their arrest quotas with drug busts?
Holy crap. You’re right.
“The highest number of arrests were for drug abuse violations (estimated at 1,488,707 arrests),” the FBI announced about its recently released crime statistics for 2015. Drug busts were followed by “larceny-theft (estimated at 1,160,390), and driving under the influence (estimated at 1,089,171).”
Just as stocks seemed heavy at the open, missing the traditional post-open ramp, the NYSE ARCA Options announced that at 10:12am it had declared self-help and announced it has suspended routing as something broke. The exchange announced that additional information will follow as soon as possible.
However, unlike on previous occasions when market breaks of this kind have resulted in a sharp rebound in risk assets, this time the break appears to have halted the drop in the VIX which leveled out the moment the market broke.
Sometimes it seems like no problem in America is too small to overreact to.
J.D. Tuccille writes:
As troubled as our country is at the moment, divided between two main mutually contemptuous (and contemptible) political blocs, facing a rising generation seemingly frightened by the exchange of ideas inherent in a devotion to protecting free speech, and apparently committed to placing either a psychopath or a sociopath in the White House, at least the country is winding down the depredations caused by drug prohibition. Four states have legalized marijuana for recreational use, and many more have made it available as a medical treatment. Their ranks are likely to be joined after November by—
What’s that you say? Cops are still filling out their arrest quotas with drug busts?
Holy crap. You’re right.
“The highest number of arrests were for drug abuse violations (estimated at 1,488,707 arrests),” the FBI announced about its recently released crime statistics for 2015. Drug busts were followed by “larceny-theft (estimated at 1,160,390), and driving under the influence (estimated at 1,089,171).”
With exactly 2 weeks left until the November 8 presidential election, Wikileaks continues its ongoing Podesta dump by unveiling another 1,299 emails in the latest Part 18 of its release, bringing the total emails released so far to exactly 31,534, with just under 40% of the total dump left to go.
With exactly 2 weeks left until the November 8 presidential election, Wikileaks continues its ongoing Podesta dump by unveiling another 1,299 emails in the latest Part 18 of its release, bringing the total emails released so far to exactly 31,534, with just under 40% of the total dump left to go.
For the first time since June, The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence index declined YoY, plunging from near cycle highs at 104.1 (revised lower to 103.5) to 98.6 (missing 101.5 expectations), this is the biggest monthly plunge since Nov 2015, catching down to UMich and Bloomberg surveys. Employment and Business Conditions sentiment declined notably as did ‘plans to buy’ a home or appliance.
Confidence bounce dies…
Hope declines…
Present situation confidence fell to 120.6 vs. 127.9 last month.
Consumer confidence expectations fell to 83.9 vs. 87.2 last month.
“Consumer confidence retreated in October, after back-to-back monthly gains,” said Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board. “Consumers’ assessment of current business and employment conditions softened, while optimism regarding the short-term outlook retreated somewhat. However, consumers’ expectations regarding their income prospects in the coming months were relatively unchanged. Overall, sentiment is that the economy will continue to expand in the near-term, but at a moderate pace.”
Consumers’ outlook for the labor market was also less optimistic than in September. The proportion expecting more jobs in the months ahead decreased from 15.7 percent to 13.1 percent. However, those anticipating fewer jobs declined from 18.1 percent to 17.0 percent. The percentage of consumers expecting their incomes to increase was unchanged at 17.5 percent, while the proportion expecting a decline decreased from 10.4 percent to 9.8 percent.
We assume this will all be blamed on the election and that in reality everything is awesome… except it’s not is it?
Some fascinating comments from the overtly liberal, Hillary-supporting Michael Moore, who in a recently leaked speech comes perilously close in a speech explaining why on November 8, what is left of middle America will look to cast its vote for Donald Trump for one reason:
Americans might be penniless, they might be homeless, they might be fucked over and fucked up it doesn’t matter, because it’s equalized on that day – a millionaire has the same number of votes as the person without a job: one. And there’s more of the former middle class than there are in the millionaire class. So on November 8 the dispossessed will walk into the voting booth, be handed a ballot, close the curtain, and take that lever or felt pen or touchscreen and put a big fucking X in the box by the name of the man who has threatened to upend and overturn the very system that has ruined their lives: Donald J Trump.
He concludes:
Yes, on November 8, you Joe Blow, Steve Blow, Bob Blow, Billy Blow, all the Blows get to go and blow up the whole goddamn system because it’s your right. Trump’s election is going to be the biggest fuck ever recorded in human history and it will feel good.
* * *
His full remarks below:
I know a lot of people in Michigan that are planning to vote for Trump and they don’t necessarily agree with him. They’re not racist or redneck, they’re actually pretty decent people and so after talking to a number of them I wanted to write this.
Donald Trump came to the Detroit Economic Club and stood there in front of Ford Motor executives and said “if you close these factories as you’re planning to do in Detroit and build them in Mexico, I’m going to put a 35% tariff on those cars when you send them back and nobody’s going to buy them.” It was an amazing thing to see. No politician, Republican or Democrat, had ever said anything like that to these executives, and it was music to the ears of people in Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – the “Brexit” states.
You live here in Ohio, you know what I’m talking about. Whether Trump means it or not, is kind of irrelevant because he’s saying the things to people who are hurting, and that’s why every beaten-down, nameless, forgotten working stiff who used to be part of what was called the middle class loves Trump. He is the human Molotov Cocktail that they’ve been waiting for; the human hand grande that they can legally throw into the system that stole their lives from them. And on November 8, although they lost their jobs, although they’ve been foreclose on by the bank, next came the divorce and now the wife and kids are gone, the car’s been repoed, they haven’t had a real vacation in years, they’re stuck with the shitty Obamacare bronze plan where you can’t even get a fucking percocet, they’ve essentially lost everything they had except one thing – the one thing that doesn’t cost them a cent and is guaranteed to them by the American constitution: the right to vote.
They might be penniless, they might be homeless, they might be fucked over and fucked up it doesn’t matter, because it’s equalized on that day – a millionaire has the same number of votes as the person without a job: one. And there’s more of the former middle class than there are in the millionaire class. So on November 8 the dispossessed will walk into the voting booth, be handed a ballot, close the curtain, and take that lever or felt pen or touchscreen and put a big fucking X in the box by the name of the man who has threatened to upend and overturn the very system that has ruined their lives: Donald J Trump.
They see that the elite who ruined their lives hate Trump. Corporate America hates Trump. Wall Street hates Trump. The career politicians hate Trump. The media hates Trump, after they loved him and created him, and now hate. Thank you media: the enemy of my enemy is who I’m voting for on November 8.
Yes, on November 8, you Joe Blow, Steve Blow, Bob Blow, Billy Blow, all the Blows get to go and blow up the whole goddamn system because it’s your right. Trump’s election is going to be the biggest fuck ever recorded in human history and it will feel good.