News Organization Asks Trump To Declassify Obama’s “Unmasking” Requests On Political Opponents

The NSA is allowed under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to spy on foreign powers without a court warrant.  That said, U.S. law strictly prohibits the targeting of American citizens for such surveillance…that whole pesky ‘4th amendment thing’ was a real thorn in Obama’s side.  As such, protocol requires that if the NSA accidentally intercepts Americans or information about them overseas, it is supposed to legally put the information in a virtual lock box.

But starting in 2011, former President Obama made it easier to access that information, essentially creating keys for intelligence professionals and even his own political aides to unlock the NSA’s lock box to consume surveillance on Americans.  Now, Circa has filed an official request asking the Trump administration to declassify the frequency of Obama’s unmasking requests related to, among other folks, his political opponents.

Circa has formally requested that the Trump administration declassify records showing how often government officials have searched National Security Agency intercepts for intelligence on U.S. presidential candidates, members of Congress, journalists, clergy, lawyers, federal judges and doctors and how often such Americans had their identities unmasked by the intelligence community after Barack Obama made it easier to do so in 2011.

 

The request follows anexclusive Circa report on Wednesday that revealed that the Obama administration conducted more than 35,000 searches on NSA intercepts seeking information about Americans during the divisive 2016 election year.

 

“The law makes President Trump the ultimate declassifying authority, and we believe the president can answer many troubling questions by declassifying this information, including how often First Amendment protected professionals had their privacy impacted by NSA intercepts and why some of Trump’s own aides were unmasked in NSA data by the prior White House,” said John Solomon, the chief operating officer of Circa and the author of Wednesday’s story.

This request comes after it was revealed just yesterday that government officials conducted 30,355 searches in 2016 seeking information about Americans in NSA intercept metadata, which include telephone numbers and email addresses.

In all, government officials conducted 30,355 searches in 2016 seeking information about Americans in NSA intercept metadata, which include telephone numbers and email addresses. The activity amounted to a 27.5 percent increase over the prior year and more than triple the 9,500 such searches that occurred in 2013, the first year such data was kept.

 

 

The government in 2016 also scoured the actual contents of NSA intercepted calls and emails for 5,288 Americans, an increase of 13 percent over the prior year and a massive spike from the 198 names searched in 2013.

 

The searches ultimately resulted in 3,134 NSA intelligence reports with unredacted U.S. names being distributed across government in 2016, and another 3,354 reports in 2015. About half the time, U.S. identities were unredacted in the original reports while the other half were unmasked after the fact by special request of Obama administration officials.

 

Among those whose names were unmasked in 2016 or early 2017 were campaign or transition associates of President Trump as well as members of Congress and their staffers, according to sources with direct knowledge.

As Circa notes, revealing the frequency, timing and category of unmasking requests should pose no national security risk but could reveal the true motives behind Obama’s requests to identify the names of Americans captured in ‘incidental surveillance.’

“We believe these aggregate numbers by year and category pose no risk to national security and will provide significant illumination to the
public about the frequency of unmasked or searched U.S. person identities who were either intercepted or the subject of intercepted conversations,”
Circa wrote.

 

“Such transparency is particularly valuable given the changes to unmasking rules that former President Barack Obama began implementing in 2011 and the special recognition the 2014 revision of minimization rules gave these categories of Americans.”

Of course, this request would seem even more critical after it was revealed last month that Susan Rice, Obama’s National Security Advisor, went on an “unmasking” spree in the final weeks of his presidency, presumably in order to find alleged links between the Kremlin and Trump officials (see “Confirmed: Susan Rice “Unmasked” Trump Team“).

via http://ift.tt/2qAjdxB Tyler Durden

Europe Surges To Highs Ahead Of ‘Riskless’ French Election

The French stock market is up over 7% since Macron won the first round of the French elections. The German stock market just closed at a record high.

 

FX and equity market ‘hedges’ are non-existent as this weekend’s “done deal” election of establishment patsy Macron is 100% priced into markets…

 

As Bloomberg notes, there’s limited scope for a relief rally in the euro if centrist Emmanuel Macron wins the French presidency this weekend, options market data show. The one-month implied volatility of the euro versus the yen has dropped to 10 percent, from more than 20 percent during the first round of the election. That’s a sign of light positioning and low cost of protection against currency volatility ahead of the vote. The low correlation between options of France’s CAC 40 index and its components paints a similar picture.

via http://ift.tt/2phapZI Tyler Durden

ISIS Calls On “Muslims In France” To Launch Election Day Attacks

Authored by Lisa Daftari via ForeignDeskNews.com,

ISIS has called upon Muslims in France to "kill candidates" and "burn down polling stations" as the country prepares to vote in the second round of the presidential election this weekend.

An article appearing in the French edition of the terror group’s monthly propaganda magazine “Rumiyah” addresses all Muslims in France stating: “Don't forget your duty as a Muslim. Choose a candidate to kill & polling station to burn.”

Likening Western democracies to '?âghût' or idol worship, the Islamic State advises supporters to instead put their faith in Allah over a ‘false deity’ and not vote in this weekend’s crucial runoff between Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and his rival, Right-wing candidate Marine Le Pen in which Macron is widely expected to emerge the winner.

Addressing the option of voting for one candidate over the other as the ‘lesser of the two evils’ (presumably a reference to Macron), the writer rejects the argument, because both candidates are '?âghût' or idolaters.

Instead, the article advises supporters to not stand idly on the sidelines but instead to destroy ‘idolatrous’ voting booths, calling them “places of shirk” or sin.

Seeking to draw inspiration from history, the writer references the Biblical Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) who destroyed the idols of his father’s household.

“Our father Ibrâhîm was thrown into the fire by his people after having destroyed and denigrated their idols,” notes the author, before concluding with a chilling message “Burn these places of shirk (sin), kill the candidates, the voters and the polling station staff. Spare no disbelievers.”

Analysis

Although attempting to encourage Muslim migration to its caliphate and continuing with its reign of global terror, ISIS seems uninterested in influencing the outcome of an election by endorsing an anti-Muslim candidate that would speed up any such process.

Marine Le Pen, the candidate of much anti-Islam rhetoric, has vowed to oppose Islamist fundamentalism and has been critical of Muslim women wearing headscarves.

In the final days leading up to the U.S. Presidential election of 2016, ISIS released “The Murtadd Vote,” an essay advising would-be attackers to target the American voter with an argument suggesting that since “voters are directly involved in the decision making process by choosing delegates to represent them and their whims executively, judicially, and legislatively, the blood of Crusader voters is even more deserving of being spilled than the blood of Crusader combatants.”

In the essay, there was no distinction between Republican or Democrat voters, nor any exception for women or Muslim voters as targets.

via http://ift.tt/2qIgxeu Tyler Durden

Bubble Watch: Risk Parity Funds Are Going to Trigger Another 1987-Type Crash

The markets are being rigged before our very eyes.

Time and again, stocks start to breakdown and then suddenly BOOM they erupt higher. CNBC and other financial media outlets then trot out various narratives to explain the action.

“Stocks went up because the data was strong and the economy is improving!”

“Stocks went up because the data was weak and the Fed will have to intervene!”

These narratives, while amusing, are complete fiction.

Stocks are rallying due to abject intervention. That intervention is occurring when the Fed has one of its proxies (one of the TBTF banks) engage in obvious and clear manipulation.

Now, market manipulation is a normal facet of the world ever since the 1987 Crash forced Reagan to cerate the Plunge Protection Team.

The irony here is that the manipulation taking place in the market today is going to cause another 1987-type Crash.

 It is employing the exact same computerized buying.

Here’s how this scam works.

One of the biggest investment fads today is a type of fund called risk-parity funds.

If you're unfamiliar with risk-parity funds, they are meant to achieve "risk parity" for investors by buying or selling stocks and bonds based on the perceived risk in the markets via the VIX.

If the VIX is falling, meaning the perceived “risk” in the markets is falling, these funds sell bonds and buy stocks. If the VIX is rising, meaning the perceived “risk” in the markets is rising, these funds BUY bonds and SELL stocks.

The problem with all of this is that these actions are ENTIRELY based on algorithms, NOT human decision making. Put another way, whatever the VIX does, these funds will be buying or selling stocks and bonds without judgment.

All told there are over $400 BILLION allocated to these funds globally. So… if you want to force a stock market rally, all you need to do is push the VIX lower and BOOM! you’ve got $200 billion or so in buying pressure hitting the stock market.

You can see this scam in the chart below: anytime stocks begin to break down, someone SLAMS the VIX lower. This is ridiculous because the VIX should be RISING when stocks are breaking down. Instead, it suddenly reverses for no reason leading to indiscriminate buying of stocks.

This is market rigging plain and simple. “Someone” (likely the Fed” is causing this to happen).

This rig, like all market rigs, will stop working. And when it does, some $400 billion in capital (not to mention the trillions of $’s worth of funds that have bought stocks based on this stupid scheme) will adjust leading to another 1987-type Crash.

This rig, like all market rigs, will stop working. And when it does, some $400 billion in capital (not to mention the trillions of $’s worth of funds that have bought stocks based on this stupid scheme) will adjust leading to another 1987-type Crash.

Here's the market leading up to the 1987 Crash.  

Here's the market today.

The only reason stocks are not more extended is because unlike the late '80s, the macro environment is weak. But the same issues of computerized buying and systemic risk are the same.

Fortunately there are ways to profit from this.

To pick up a FREE investment report outlining three investments that you could make you a ton of money when the markets collapse… 

CLICK HERE!

Best Regards

Graham Summers

Chief Market Strategist

Phoenix Capital Research

 

 

 

 

 

via http://ift.tt/2p4vhXO Phoenix Capital Research

Wall Street Reacts To April’s Payrolls: Goldman Sees 90% Odds Of June Hike, Citi Expects Weaker Dollar

With the initial Wall Street reactions to today’s payrolls report coming in, we present readers with two different takes on today’s jobs number.

The first, and far more bullish one, from Goldman’s Jan Hatzius, notes that “the composition of the report was solid with a further drop in the unemployment rate to 4.4%, matching the lows achieved in the last cycle and three tenths below Fed officials’ estimate of its structural rate.” As a result Goldman has increased its June 2017 rate hike probability from 70% to 90%, to wit:

The first is from Goldman, Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 211k in April, moderately above consensus forecasts. The composition of the report was solid with a further drop in the unemployment rate to 4.4%, matching the lows achieved in the last cycle and three tenths below Fed officials’ estimate of its structural rate (4.7%). Average hourly earnings were in line with expectations, but negative revisions to prior months reduced the year-over year rate to 2.5%. We increased our subjective probability that the next hike occurs at the June 2017 meeting from 70% to 90%.

A less upbeat reaction came from Citi’s Todd Elmer who writes that “the strongest signal is for a bit of drift lower in USD” as the the report is mixed. Headline employment beat, there was a downward revision, unemployment beat expectations, the participation rate declines and average hourly earnings were a bit downbeat, missing on a year on year basis and seeing a downward revision.”

Elmer also argues for a lower dollar because “jobs have been so strong for so long that investors are more concerned with whether there is pass through to wages in terms of implications for Fed policy. Speaking to this release, there was likely some lean in favor of a stronger wages outcome following the recent surprise on ECI, which may exacerbate market disappointment.” That said, For now the dollar is trying to find direction, declining against the EUR and rising against the Yen. Citi’s full note below:

Ultimately, the payrolls should not be a major signal to the market and the proximity of the speech by Fed Vice-Chairman Fischer may limit market response. That said, we believe the strongest signal is for a bit of drift lower in USD. The report is mixed. Headline employment beat, there was a downward revision, unemployment beat expectations, the participation rate declines and average hourly earnings were a bit downbeat, missing on a year on year basis and seeing a downward revision. That is a lot for the market to digest, but the recent pattern is that average hourly earnings has mattered the most. This points slightly lower for USD and is consistent with the knee-jerk response across the market.

 

This patterns makes some sense to us since jobs have been so strong for so long that investors are more concerned with whether there is pass through to wages in terms of implications for Fed policy. Speaking to this release, there was likely some lean in favor of a stronger wages outcome following the recent surprise on ECI, which may exacerbate market disappointment.

Below, several other banks share their kneejerk takes, courtesy of Bloomberg:

Deutsche Bank (Alan Ruskin, note)

  • Data shows “economy is at or very close to full employment”
  • The 2-, 3- and 4-month average of job growth is 136k, 164k and 174k
  • Downward revision to average hourly earnings “will ease the Fed’s mind that they are falling behind the inflation curve”
  • “No reason for the Fed not to march the funds rate up”
  • Firm still forecasts 25bp hikes in June and September

Saxo Bank (John Hardy, interview)

  • “It’s not particularly USD-positive due to the average hourly earnings fizzle”
  • “I’m not sure the market will want to do much with this data ahead of French election weekend”
  • “There are very few takeaways here. Most positive is the household survey showing strong gains and unemployment rate continuing to crash lower. Least impressive is the increasingly influential average hourly earnings — disappointing that the year-on-year is still so low”

FTN Financial (Jim Vogel, note)

  • Wage data in jobs report raises “no alarms”
  • Overall labor figures for April ’’on target’’
  • Friday’s report “makes Fed speeches today just a bit more important”

BMO (Ian Lyngen, note)

  • Average hourly earnings, along with recent wage inflation reports, “counters any urgency the FOMC might have to tighten based on wage/pricing concerns”

TD Securities (Michael Hanson, Brittany Baumann, note)

  • “Drop in the unemployment and underemployment rates will get the attention of Fed officials”
  • Wage growth was a miss yet “real wage gains remains positive”
  • “The case for a June hike remains strong on this report”
  • Possible that “Fed officials sound a bit more hawkish with an unemployment rate now at their expected low for the end of this year”

ING Bank NV (James Knightley, note)

  • Data support Fed’s “policy of gradually raising rates”; jobs added and fall in unemployment rate were all “good news”
  • “The one disappointment was the fact that annual wage growth slipped”
  • Speed of wage growth means “no real pressure on Fed to accelerate the pace of interest rate hikes”
  • Rebound in employment bolsters Fed view that Q1 slowdown was “transitory”

CIBC (Royce Mendes, in note)

  • Turnaround in data was “necessary to see the Fed go in June, and today’s payroll report got the ball rolling”
  • Headline gain in payrolls, decrease in unemployment rate is “a step in the right direction”
  • Only disappointment was annual rate of wage growth

Cambridge Global Payments (Karl Schamotta, note)

  • Data suggests Fed’s “confidence in the US economy is justified”
  • Job market strength puts Fed “on course to tighten policy through the months ahead”
  • More Fed normalization will ‘lift real rates and support the dollar’’
  • A Fed “June rate hike look increasingly likely”

Pantheon Macroeconomics (Ian Shepherdson, note)

  • Expect payroll growth to average 200k or so over next few months, putting further pressure on unemployment rate
  • “June hike is more or less done, but we think markets hugely underestimate the risk for Sep, when we expect the Fed to hike again”

Bloomberg Intelligence (Carl Riccadonna, Yelena Shulyatyeva, Richard Yamarone)

  • Most important takeaway from April report is that signal of March hiring lull was probably “a one-off anomaly”
  • Continued decline in unemployment and backsliding of wage pressure is “compelling sign” that labor-market slack is being reduced, yet not causing acute wage inflation

Morgan Stanley (Ted Wieseman, note)

  • April NFP is “very strong report”
  • “There wasn’t much doubt in our view before this report about a Fed rate hike in June, and there’s less now”
  • Upside risks to future wage growth were raised by another new low in unemployment rate

 

via http://ift.tt/2pgR4I9 Tyler Durden

Was SNL Hacked? Is this the Cold Open Trumpskit?

Cold Open

(Setting: Trump lying in bed watching TV, wearing Hello Kitty pajamas. In gold bold script above the bed are the words “Best President Ever”.)

Trump: Ivanka, could you come in and read me a story?

(Ivanka enters)

Ivanka: (Aghast) What are you watching!

Trump: It’s an old John Holmes movie, ‘The Real Sword of Damocles’. Great movie. Unbelievable. You know, the producers wanted me for that role.

Ivanka: Dad, I’ve seen your John Thomas, and you’re no John Holmes.

Trump: Who’s John Thomas?

Ivanka: It’s a Brit word for your…..never mind. Why you watching this?

Trump: Since Pravda changed their night time line up, I can’t sleep.

Ivanka: Prav..? You mean Fox.

Trump: Yea, that’s it. Fox. You know I hate using animal words after all that trouble I got in during the campaign talking about small kittens. So unfair!

Ivanka: Well, that’s over.

Trump: Yea, but Melania really bitched at me for that. I had to threaten to trade her in for a younger model and cut off her clothing allowance. So what you reading me?

Ivanka: The Bill of Rights.

Trump: Bill O’Reilly! Love that guy! He still on vacation?

Ivanka: Bill of Rights, Dad. The Bill of Rights.

Trump: Whatever. Start reading, dear. I like the way you move your lips…you know what I mean, like that Jesse Watters said.

Ivanka: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right…….

Trump: Wait! Hold it! What’s this speech and press stuff? Sounds like Fake Rights. Who wrote that?

Ivanka: Well, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, among others…

Trump: They sound like Bad Hombres. Remind me to get Steve Bannon and Devin Nunes on those two guys. Tap their phones. Follow them. Are they citizens?

Ivanka: Well, technically, when they wrote the thing, I’m not sure the United States was officially a country, so maybe not. I don’t know.

Trump: Good. Deport’em.

Ivanka: But they’re…never mind. What they wrote are basic rights, basic human freedoms.

Trump: Don’t need’em. We got guns. We have the 2nd Amendment. For my supporters, that’s plenty. All that other stuff is just Fake Rights. Noise. Let that stuff go unchallenged and the New York Times will be writing more bad things about me. I hate that. I’m doing an unbelievable job, some people say greatest President ever, and they keep writing bad things. Hashtag So Unfair!

Ivanka: Well, they write about your Tweets, Dad. And those itsy bitsy lies you always tell.

Trump: They’re not lies if my supporters believe them! Anyway, that New York Times is a failing loser.

Ivanka: Actually, their circulation and ad revenue are way up since the November election.

Trump: See? I’m bringing back jobs! Just like I promised!

Ivanka: Whatever.

Trump: Say, what happened to Bill O’Reilly anyway? I turned on Prav….Fox…and I see this Tucker Maddow guy in Bill’s chair. What’s that all about?

Ivanka: It’s Tucker Carlson, Dad. Tucker Carlson.

Trump: Yea. Honest mistake. That little bow-tied weeny is such a wuss. Makes your Jared look like a champion mud wrestler. Have Betsy DeVos’ brother rough him up.

Ivanka: Jared? I do that, Dad.

Trump: No, that Tucker Maddow guy.

Ivanka: Can’t do that, Dad. He has rights.

Trump: I say what rights are! I’m the President. By the way, who was I confusing him with? Maddow something….

Ivanka: That’s Rachel Maddow. She’s on MSNBC.

Trump: She’s a fine looking babe, that Maddow. I could grab me some of that. Put a little of Trump’s Cruise missile at her.

Ivanka: Daddy Dearest, don’t talk about Cruise missiles. You know how that excites me!

Trump: Yea, like when I was sitting with that Chinaman, President Eleven, eating the best chocolate cake, and said to my guys, “Cruises? You’re fired!”

Ivanka: Daddy, don’t talk like that!

Trump: So have that Maddow babe come down to Mar-a-Lago some weekend when my illegal isn’t there.

Ivanka: She’s gay, Dad.

Trump: Melania? I thought she just didn’t like me, staying in New York and all. That explains it!

Ivanka: No, Dad. Rachel Maddow is gay.

Trump: Didn’t I make that illegal? I signed a lot of stuff, you know. Lotta stuff. I’m sure one of them made it illegal.

Ivanka: No, Dad. It’s not illegal.

Trump: Well, get me one of those big binders tomorrow and I’ll sign the thing. Make it illegal. Then get that Maddow babe down to Mar-a-Lago. I’ll show her my John Thomas! Keep reading.

Ivanka: Live from New York; it’s Saturday Night!

via http://ift.tt/2pIa3hu chindit13

One Of The World’s Biggest Oil Hedge Funds Just Liquidated All Its Longs

Earlier in the week we shared Pierre Andurand's hedge fund note blame-casting his fund's dismal drawdowns on "CTA flows eclipsing the gradual improvement in fundamentals."

The market sell-off is missing the larger picture, he proclaims.

“Market participants remain extremely focused on micro developments like US crude inventories while the big picture has been telling us a different supply story for quite some time,” he wrote. “In fact, the gradual tightening of crude oil spreads has led to the release of expensive onshore and offshore inventories globally.”

So what could be driving prices lower? Andurand looks at the algorithmic traders and places blame on their non-economic outlook for the price movements. “Without consistent and significant draws invisible onshore inventories, we remain stuck in a trendless and choppy market with CTA flows eclipsing the gradual improvement in fundamentals,” he wrote, pointing to an oddity.

Of course, the permabullish trader had a great year in 2016 (up 22.1%) as oil soared…

Pierre Andurand

But, in what now seems like a moment of supreme irony, we noted earlier that 'it was a very ugly night for the Andy Halls, Pierre Andurands and other crude longs' as WTI flash-crashed.

And, courtesy of Reuters' David Gaffen, we may have found one major culprit (among many we suspect) for the recent rapid collapse in crude oil prices)…

HEDGE FUND MANAGER PIERRE ANDURAND LIQUIDATED LAST REMAINING LONG POSITIONS IN OIL LAST WEEK – MARKET SOURCE

As Reuters reports,

Pierre Andurand, who runs one of the biggest hedge funds specialising in oil, liquidated the fund's last long positions in oil last week and is running a very reduced risk at the moment, a market source familiar with the development said.

 

The fund, Andurand Capital is a renowned oil price bull and has been reducing its positions gradually over the course of 2017, the source said, while adding that it remained fundamentally bullish on oil.

It has been a tough few weeks for Andurand…As Mark Constantine tweeted, a few weeks ago Andurand was predicting oil prices to hit $70 later this year

But, of course, Andurand is not alone, in fact it is safe to say that virtually every other commodity trader is on the same side of the boat:

Hedge funds and other big money managers amassed a record number of bullish bets on Brent crude last month, according to the Intercontinental Exchange Inc…. having traded in a narrow range for most of this year, oil posted its biggest two-day selloff since June last week. Oil inventories in the U.S. have recently hit a record high in a sign that the massive glut that has depressed prices for more than two years is still plaguing the market. The U.S. Energy Department expects American oil production to rebound past 9.7 million barrels a day in 2018, breaking the record output level set in 1970.

Should the oil drop continue, given the massive surge in open interest, we suspect Andurand will not be the last to capitulate…

 

Of course the hope that the capitulation is over has sparked a BTFD off the overnigth flash crash lows… WTI back above $46…

 

via http://ift.tt/2pIfsF5 Tyler Durden

Where The April Jobs Were: It Was All About Minimum Wage Again

April was a month of economic recovery: after a disappointing March, jobs rebounded strongly last month, rising from a downward revised 79K to 211K, providing some validation to Yellen’s claim that the recent economic weakness was transitory. And yet, wages once again disappointed, with annual hourly earning growth declining to 2.5% from 2.7%.

How is it that with the labor market supposedly near full employment, and the unemployment rate sliding to another post-recession low of 4.4%, wages simply can not rise?

The answer was once again to be found in the quality of jobs added, because despite the poor headline payrolls print in March, the quality of jobs added that month was actually quite better than recent trends. This is where April disappointed: according to the BLS, the bulk of jobs added were once again in low or minimum-wage sectors such as leisure and hospitality, which added +55,000 jobs of which food services and drinking places workers, aka waiters and bartenders, added another +26,000. Another low-paying sector – education and health – added 41,000 jobs in April.

Surprisingly, of the 39K professional and business services – traditionally a well-paying job category – for the second month in a row employees providing “services to buildings and dwellings”, aka “doormen” dominated the category, with 9.9K jobs added.

Looking at retail workers, recall that one of the main reasons for the big March jobs drop was a plunge in retail (also minimum wage) employment, which saw over 27K jobs losses last month, and another 29K in February. That has now reversed, and in April 6,300 retail workers were added.

Another notable observation: last month’s gain of 13K manufacturing jobs was cut in half to just 6K well-paying mfg jobs.

It wasn’t just low-paying jobs of course:

  • Financial activities added 19,000 jobs, with insurance carriers and related activities accounting for most of the gain (+14,000). Over the year, financial activities has added 173,000 jobs.
  • Mining jobs rose by 9,000 in April, with most of the increase in support activities for mining (+7,000). Since a recent low in October 2016, mining has added 44,000 jobs.
  • Government workers increased by 27,000 in April

The only job category that saw a decline in employment in April was Information where 7,000 jobs were lost, following a loss of 6,000 jobs the month prior.

The complete breakdown of changes in key job categories in March and April is shown in the chart below.

via http://ift.tt/2pO2GoQ Tyler Durden

France’s Macron Promises to ‘Stop Fake News’ and ‘Regulate the Internet’ After His Alleged Tax Evasion Story Goes Viral

A few days ago, curious documents were revealed online, apparently showing assets belonging to Macron held in the Cayman Islands.

The subsequent result of these allegations have caused French police to seek the person on 4Chan who published them and a promise by Macron to ‘stop fake news’ and to ‘regulate the internet.’

Source: Heatst

Police with France’s Ministry of the Interior are now attempting to track down the 4chan user who originally published the documents. On Thursday, a French police officer reached out to the owner of the site on which the document files were hosted, mixtape.moe, over email and asked for data logs and information that could lead to the offender. The fake documents are hosted here and here.
 
Mixtape.moe is more commonly used as a hosting site for soccer .gifs and video game-inspired pornography, but apparently this time it was used to nefariously try to undermine the results of the French election.
 
In the email to mixtape.moe’s owner Drybones, French police officer Claire Allegre said she was in charge of a case based out of a high court in Paris for “forgery, use of a forged document and diffusion of fake news which can disturb an election.”
 
Drybones responded to the email and said mixtape.moe does not save data logs from anonymous uploads. Drybones told Heat Street this is the first time police of any country have ever asked him to turn over records.

 
Here’s Macron’s statement:

“I want to stop fake news,” Macron said Thursday. “It pollutes, it degrades the political debate.” He added that politicians “must together raise the level of the political debate” and “regulate the Internet because today certain players are activists and have a very important role in the campaign.”

 
As far as I can tell, this purported ‘war against fake news’ is nothing more than a scheme to control the narrative and give government controlled main stream media an unfair advantage in the dissemination of news. Of course some of the stuff published is fake and/or unreliable. But unreliable information has been published for hundreds of years by the main stream sources — sensationalists and propagandists who work towards the goal of cajoling its readers into believing whatever talking points their masters demand.

Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

via http://ift.tt/2qA6z1q The_Real_Fly

Goldman Begs Clients To BTF-Crude-Dip Again… “Oil Nearing Capitulation”

Two short weeks ago, Goldman Sachs was sure the plunge in oil prices was "technical" and that clients should BTFD in WTI at $51. With prices tagging $43 overnight (in a mini-flash-crash), Goldman is back assuring clients it's safe to buy as "oil is nearing capitulation."

 

Goldman's Damien Courvalin writes, oil prices sold off sharply yesterday, May 4, with Brent spot prices settling near $47/bbl, their lowest level since before the OPEC cuts were announced last November.

Given the lack of any significant oil data releases on the day, we see two forces at play in this sell-off:

(1) a follow through on the sharp declines in copper and iron ore the day before on concerns over growth in China, and

 

(2) once again, the influence of technicals and positioning, this time likely driven by negative gamma effects and timespread liquidation.

 

Despite this latest move lower and an already disappointed consensus view on the pace of oil rebalancing, our assessment of oil fundamentals suggests that rebalancing progressed further in April. We further expect inventory draws to accelerate, supported by our expectation for robust demand growth, despite recent concerns and potentially further helped later this year by the building consensus among OPEC producers on extending the cuts.

However, even Goldman is a little nervous of thei bullish call… While this leads us to expect an eventual sequential recovery in prices, it is important to note that the anchor around which this rebound will occur continues to drift lower.

Specifically, the most noteworthy move in oil prices over the past week and past year in our view remains the steady decline in long term oil prices, likely reflecting (1) growing visibility on the sources of future supply, (2) continued positive earnings surprises of E&Ps and majors, and (3) growing evidence of the ability of US shale to respond near $50/bbl and the availability of capital to support such activity.

This faster decline in long-term oil prices than we expected this year is a clear downside risk to our spot price level forecast, even if it helps slow US production growth and achieve the inventory draws and the rotation of the forward curve into backwardation that we forecast.

Citi Commodities Chief Strategist Ed Morse, who is speaking in a Bloomberg television interview, also noted the technical nature of the oil selloff, driven by spillover from commodities into FX…

  • *OIL MOVE ALL TECHNICAL, NOT FUNDAMENTAL: CITIGROUP'S MORSE
  • *OIL IS A GREAT BUYING OPPORTUNITY AS MKT TIGHTENS: CITI'S MORSE
  • *OIL SUPPLY HAS BEEN CUT MORE THAN 1.5M B/D: CITI'S MORSE

So you know what to do Muppets?

via http://ift.tt/2qLOVob Tyler Durden