Tag: news

OPEC Ministers Now Resorting To Outright Lies In Desperate Attempts To Push Oil Higher

The key (recurring) catalyst for today’s early spike in oil, was the latest desperate attempt by an imploding OPEC member, this time Nigeria to push oil higher when overnight its petroleum minister Emmanuel Kachikwu said that key members of OPEC intend to meet with other producers in Russia on March 20 to renew talks on an agreement to cap oil output, Nigeria’s petroleum minister said.

The headlines in question:

  • NIGERIA OILMIN SAYS OPEC/NON OPEC TO MEET ON MARCH 20 IN RUSSIA
  • NIGERIA OIL MIN SEES DRAMATIC PRICE MOVE AFTER OPEC/NON-OPEC
  • NIGERIA OILMIN SAYS OPEC/NON OPEC TO MEET ON MARCH 20 IN RUSSIA

As Kachikwu hopefully added, “there will be a dramatic price movement” when the meeting takes place.

As a reminder, oil-exporter Nigeria recently saw its dollar reserves dry up, forcing it to beg for a massive loan from the World Bank as the current price of oil dooms this particular nation to a very painful economic collapse.

Sure enough, the algos bought this hook, lie and sinker and proceed to force another attempt at squeezing near record shorts.

The only problem is that moments ago, we got confirmation that not only are such desperate attempts to prompt “dramatic price movements”, higher of course, laughable, they just suffered a spectacular loss of credibility when moments ago Reuters reported that no decision on the date or venue of a possible meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC producers has been made yet, a Gulf OPEC delegate said on Thursday.

“There has been no decision made regarding the meeting yet. No date or location decided yet. The Gulf countries prefer that it would be held in the first half of April, and preferably in Doha, or some other Gulf city,” the delegate told Reuters.

“We are looking forward to having a good meeting and positive results.”

Perhaps, but in the meantime you just outed one of the nations most impacted by the ongoing oil rout as nothing but a cheap liar, although in retrospect few would be surprised that the nation which unleashed on the world the infamous email scam is capable of stooping so low.

OPEC leader Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC member Russia, the world’s two largest oil exporters, agreed last month to freeze output at January levels to prop up prices if other nations agreed to join the first global oil pact in 15 years. As we further noted, however, not only did Russian oil output rise to a record post-Soviet era high in February, Russian output is now at its absolute limit, which also explains why Russia was eager to “freeze” its production.

Finally, recall that according to Saudi Arabia the oil market remains oversupplied by some 3 million barrels of production daily; the same Saudi Arabia who energy minister Al-Naimi said two weeks ago in Houston that not only will the Saudis never reduce production, but are eagerly looking forward to the marginal oil producers to go out of business.

As such, our advice to the algos is to not follow ongoing lies by desperate OPEC ministers who will do and certainly say anything to get an even 1 cent pop in oil, but to keep an eye on the number of bankruptcies in the shale space. Considering that many shale companies just sold a record amount YTD of new equity, the default wave was just postponed by at least several month, something which – if anything – may prompt Saudi Arabia to pump even more.


via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1WXkZz4 Tyler Durden

“Bernie or Bust” – Over 50,000 Sanders Supporters Pledge to Never Vote for Hillary

Screen Shot 2016-03-03 at 11.06.03 AM

Hillary is the candidate of the corrupt establishment. The status quo wants Hillary in the White House so the parasitic gravy train can roll on. DNC head and Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is one of these people. She isn’t interested in reform, because reform wouldn’t advance her personal interests. She wants things to stay the way they are, because it’s working great for her.

Genuine liberals are finally starting to see these people for the frauds they are, which is why the Democratic Party is currently splitting in two. On one side there are those who understand United States policy doesn’t need a tweak here or there — it needs to be hauled off to the emergency room immediately. The so-called  “elites” in the Democratic Party are just as disconnected and clueless as their Republican counterparts. Instead of accepting that paradigm level reform is required, they merely double down on their support of cronyism and rent-seeking.

– From the post: The Democratic Party’s Civil War Escalates – DNC Chair Attacks Elizabeth Warren’s Reform Efforts

I think Donald Trump is one of the most underrated presidential candidates in U.S. history, while Hillary Clinton is likely the most overrated. Democrats across America will very shortly experience extreme buyers remorse as Hillary melts into a puddle of Goldman Sachs checks in the face of the political hurricane that is Donald Trump.

Over the past severals weeks, I’ve been hammering home the obvious fact that Hillary Clinton is a far weaker candidate than Sanders against Donald Trump in the general election. I’ve been taken aback by the massive traffic generated by the recent post, Why Hillary Clinton Cannot Beat Donald Trump, and I think it speaks volumes about how passionately people feel about the topic. It’s by far the most popular piece I’ve published this year, with over 23,000 reads on Liberty Blitzkrieg alone.

continue reading

from Liberty Blitzkrieg http://ift.tt/1VTc3uh
via IFTTT

Husband of New Hampshire State Representative Arrested in FBI Home Raid in Connection with 2014 Bundy Ranch Standoff

According to reports from both the New Hampshire Union Leader and the Portsmouth, NH, Patch, Jerry DeLemus, a Tea Party activist and husband of New Hampshire state Rep. Susan DeLemus, was arrested this morning in a home raid by the FBI on nine charges related to his participation in the 2014 standoff with federal officers at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch. 

The charges include, according to the Union-Leader:

conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, threatening a federal law enforcement officer, obstruction of justice, attempting to impede or injure a federal law enforcement officer and several firearms charges, according to court records.

They report the indictment is out of Nevada.

The Patch contains this from former New Hampshire GOP chair Jack Kimball, reporting what he was told by Rep. DeLemus:

“She said that the FBI just rolled up with lots of vehicles and Agents who were in tactical gear,” Kimball wrote on Facebook earlier this morning. ”They forced their way into Jerry DeLemus and Sue’s condo with weapons drawn and arrested Jerry and took him away.”

Kimball considers the arrest unjust, and as the very fact the Bundy ranch standoff occurred, as well as its quasi-sequel in Oregon this year, shows, many agree: “A good and Patriotic Marine is now being prosecuted for standing up for Liberty,” he noted,

Cliven Bundy himself was finally arrested last month for his own role in the 2014 events.

from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/219ZxYH
via IFTTT

OPEC Ministers Now Resorting To Outright Lies In Desperate Attempts To Push Oil Higher

The key (recurring) catalyst for today’s early spike in oil, was the latest desperate attempt by an imploding OPEC member, this time Nigeria to push oil higher when overnight its petroleum minister Emmanuel Kachikwu said that key members of OPEC intend to meet with other producers in Russia on March 20 to renew talks on an agreement to cap oil output, Nigeria’s petroleum minister said.

The headlines in question:

  • NIGERIA OILMIN SAYS OPEC/NON OPEC TO MEET ON MARCH 20 IN RUSSIA
  • NIGERIA OIL MIN SEES DRAMATIC PRICE MOVE AFTER OPEC/NON-OPEC
  • NIGERIA OILMIN SAYS OPEC/NON OPEC TO MEET ON MARCH 20 IN RUSSIA

As Kachikwu hopefully added, “there will be a dramatic price movement” when the meeting takes place.

As a reminder, oil-exporter Nigeria recently saw its dollar reserves dry up, forcing it to beg for a massive loan from the World Bank as the current price of oil dooms this particular nation to a very painful economic collapse.

Sure enough, the algos bought this hook, lie and sinker and proceed to force another attempt at squeezing near record shorts.

The only problem is that moments ago, we got confirmation that not only are such desperate attempts to prompt “dramatic price movements”, higher of course, laughable, they just suffered a spectacular loss of credibility when moments ago Reuters reported that no decision on the date or venue of a possible meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC producers has been made yet, a Gulf OPEC delegate said on Thursday.

“There has been no decision made regarding the meeting yet. No date or location decided yet. The Gulf countries prefer that it would be held in the first half of April, and preferably in Doha, or some other Gulf city,” the delegate told Reuters.

“We are looking forward to having a good meeting and positive results.”

Perhaps, but in the meantime you just outed one of the nations most impacted by the ongoing oil rout as nothing but a cheap liar, although in retrospect few would be surprised that the nation which unleashed on the world the infamous email scam is capable of stooping so low.

OPEC leader Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC member Russia, the world’s two largest oil exporters, agreed last month to freeze output at January levels to prop up prices if other nations agreed to join the first global oil pact in 15 years. As we further noted, however, not only did Russian oil output rise to a record post-Soviet era high in February, Russian output is now at its absolute limit, which also explains why Russia was eager to “freeze” its production.

Finally, recall that according to Saudi Arabia the oil market remains oversupplied by some 3 million barrels of production daily; the same Saudi Arabia who energy minister Al-Naimi said two weeks ago in Houston that not only will the Saudis never reduce production, but are eagerly looking forward to the marginal oil producers to go out of business.

As such, our advice to the algos is to not follow ongoing lies by desperate OPEC ministers who will do and certainly say anything to get an even 1 cent pop in oil, but to keep an eye on the number of bankruptcies in the shale space. Considering that many shale companies just sold a record amount YTD of new equity, the default wave was just postponed by at least several month, something which – if anything – may prompt Saudi Arabia to pump even more.


via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1WXkZz4 Tyler Durden

Just Two “Reasons” Why Gold Is Breaking Out

Aside from the legitimate, but largely irrelevant for the sake of this post, reasons including this morning surprisingly weak service data, in which both the ISM and the Markit PMI reports confirmed that the “malaise in manufacturing has spread to services”, JPM’s recommendation to sell stocks and buy gold, and the fact that slowly but surely the world is being flooded by negative rates, here are the two most actionable reasons why gold just broke out and soared to $1,260, and is fast approaching levels not seek since January 2015.

First, here is Goldman’s Jeff Currie telling CNBC’s viewers just two weeks ago to short gold: “we maintain our view of rising U.S. rates and hence lower gold prices with a 3-month target of $1,100 (per troy ounce) and 12-month target of $1000 (per troy ounce)” not to mention Goldman’s October 14 summary that gold is a “slam dunk sell.”

* * *

But perhaps even more important, was the greenlight for the spike higher from none other than Dennis Gartman. Recall just yesterday, in a note in which Gartman said “We Were Stunningly, Shockingly, Stupidly Wrong”, he also had the following good news for gold longs:

… because we respect “reversals” in equities and commodities, the fact that the shares of the largest gold mining operation in North America opened higher and then closed lower upon the day, taking out and closing below the previous day’s lows… an “outside” reversal as they are known… we ran to cover our US dollar denominated gold position mid-day and we shall argue strongly that those still long of gold in US dollar terms, as noted above, should do the same.

To which we added: “Or the opposite, if they actually want to make money.”

And sure enough…


via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1QOAIMi Tyler Durden

The U.S. Added Only 70,000 Jobs In February Based On Withheld Taxes

Two weeks ago, we looked at what is perhaps the best coincident indicator of the true, not-seasonally adjusted, picture of the US labor market, namely withholdings of income and employment taxes. We reported that while for most of 2015, tax withholdings rose at a rate of 5% or more from a year ago, on the back of job growth and gains in wages, commissions and other incentive pay, in recent months there has been a substantial dropoff in this key indicator.

As shown in the chart below, revenue inflows to the Treasury Department steadily slowed through the fall, bringing the annual growth rate down to just below 4% by the start of 2016. That’s when growth seemingly collapsed — to just 1.8% over the past five-plus weeks, from Jan. 11 through Feb. 16.

We also said that over the past 10 full weeks, starting Dec. 7, tax withholdings have grown just 3.1% from a year ago, adding that while December and January data can be influenced by the size and timing of year-end bonuses, the pronounced weakness has been sustained for long enough to rule that out as the principal cause.

Today, TrimTabs put an actual jobs number to this particular decline in tax withholdings, and estimates that the true pace of job growth in February was far below the consensus estimate of 188,000 (a number which already looked woefully inaccurate after today’s latest Services ISM reported which confirmed the first contraction in service jobs in the past two years) and predicts that in February the US economy added only 55,000 to 85,000 jobs, less than half of the official estimate.

As TrimTabs CEO David Santschi notes, BLS reports “tend to be highly inaccurate, and that the jobs situation generally has been far worse than the BLS has been reporting. In fact, TrimTabs estimates job growth in February was 55,000 to 85,000 – call it 70,000 – the lowest number in two years.”

If TrimTabs correct, it would mean that the payrolls chart would look as follows:


It adds the following:

… unlike the initial guess estimates from the BLS based on incomplete data adjusted for seasonality, TrimTabs bases its numbers on real-time data – the daily withholding taxes that flow daily into the US Treasury from the 141 million Americans subject to withholding taxes. TrimTabs also reported last week that withholding tax flows vs a year ago have been stalling since the fall and turned negative in February, indicating a faltering US economy. 

Which, considering the collapse in not only the energy sector and its downstream industries, but also the recent bursting of the second tech bubble which has likewise already resulted in mass layoffs…

… means that tomorrow the BLS seasonal adjustment which will goalseek the payrolls “number” to be just modestly better than expected, will be a sight to behold.


via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1QOAIMc Tyler Durden

The Rise of Potentate Trump Shows That “Real” Americans Are the Big Threat to Limited Government

Conservative restrictionists have long depicted Hispanics as an existential threat to America’s core limited Donald Trumpgovernment ideals because Hispanics are allegedly welfare queens who’ll always vote for Big Government Democrats. But if the rise of Donald Trump, an autocrat with the worst bouffant in the Western world, proves anything, it is that “real” Americans are no less lovers of Big Government. In fact, more so.

Everything in the Trump platform, such as it is, screams Big Government, I note in my column at The Week. His plan to Make America Great Again is nothing if not one long paean to Big Government. Almost every item in it involves using the government’s muscle to bend private companies and foreign governments to his will.

(Hey, and libertarians who are attracted to him because he’s at least not a neocon on foreign policy are fooling themselves. Trump will arguably be worse because he’s obsessed with pay back. He’s on a hair-trigger margin against America’s enemies, both real and imagined. He considers even Vietnam a threat to America’s economic greatness, for Pete’s sake. He isn’t opposed to starting wars, only losing them. “We will make our military so strong that no one will mess with America” isn’t the song of a dove but an ignoramus who doesn’t know that America already spends as much as the next seven countries combined. It also shows that he doesn’t understand that military might wont deter a low-tech, low-budget venture like terrorism.)

Trump has the manner and understanding of a Third World potentate that ought to revolt a country with 200-plus years of democratic governance under its belt. If “real” Americans are still willing to embrace him, then Hispanics are the least of this country’s problems.

Go here to view the whole thing.

from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1oSezWK
via IFTTT

Why Are the Newspapers That Condemn Donald Trump’s Free-Speech Rants Endorsing Hillary Clinton?

Some day, Laura, I'm gonna punch you in the face! ||| Free RepublicThe Houston Chronicle last week began its “Say no to Trump” editorial this way: “Presumably, we need to rush this editorial into print before President Trump makes good on his threat to ‘open up the libel laws.’ No doubt his pal Vladimir Putin offers a more appealing media model.”

It is understandable for those in the free-speechin’ business to center their objections to the anti-constitutional GOP front-runner around his serial rhetorical assaults against the First Amendment. The Chronicle is right in seeking to protect “the nation’s hallowed tradition of a free press” So why, then, did the same editorial board endorse Hillary Clinton?

Trump’s rhetorical record on free speech is bad, no doubt. But he has never been within a city mile of political office until launching his unlikely bid for the presidency last June. Hillary Clinton was First Lady of Arkansas for 12 years, of the White House for another eight years (and was unusually active on policy in both roles), then a United States senator for eight years (during which she was runner-up for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination), secretary of state for four years, and now the odds-on favorite to be the next U.S. president. And during this long public career she has sponsored, co-sponsored, barnstormed for, advocated, suggested, and bragged about a series of specific laws whose texts and/or ideas were found to be at least partly unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds.

She's awful. ||| ReasonA non-comprehensive list would include: The 1996 Communications Decency Act (parts of which were struck down by the Supreme Court one year later on free speech grounds), the 1998 Child Online Protection Act (eventually struck down by the Supreme Court in 2009 on free speech grounds), the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (struck down by the Supreme Court in 2010 on free speech grounds), and the 2005 Family Entertainment Protection Act (an almost exact replica of which was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2011 on free-speech grounds). It’s almost as if there’s a pattern there!

Clinton and Trump are on the same page when it comes to mocking free-speech objections to limiting online speech in order to protect America against terrorists. (No really: One says “You’re going to hear all of the usual complaints—you know, ‘freedom of speech,’ etc.,” and the other says “Somebody will say, ‘Oh, freedom of speech, freedom of speech.’ These are foolish people.”) And yet editorial board after editorial board condemns only Trump for these words and positions, then endorses Hillary Clinton without citing hers.

Such as The New York Times. “[W]hat future leaders might do [to free speech] is chillingly demonstrated by Donald Trump’s suggestion that the United States should close parts of the Internet to combat terrorism,” the Paper of Record editorialized darkly on Feb. 29. So what about Hillary? “Voters have the chance to choose one of the most broadly and deeply qualified presidential candidates in modern history” the Gray Lady gushed the month before. The Las Vegas Sun laments that Trump “flies in the face of the spirit, if not the letter, of the First Amendment,” but calls Clinton “a savvy stateswoman with an established understanding of world affairs and building allegiances.”

I am not claiming that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have equivalent campaign rhetoric about the First Amendment—both are disqualifyingly terrible; Trump is likely worse. But in terms of actual policy, Hillary clearly wins the booby prize. Those who would chivalrously protect free speech against the incursions of The Donald would be a helluva lot more persuasive if they acknowledged, let alone engaged with, Clinton’s long, odious track record on same.

Which you can read all about right here.

from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1TVoJlf
via IFTTT

Another Very Strange Morning For Oil

Following yesterday’s modest drop in US crude production and yuuge build in inventories, headlines about possible Venezuela meetings sent algos into panic-buying mode. This morning the headlines are from Nigeria, whose Petroleum Minister “expects a dramatic price move” after the loomingmeeting with OPEC and non-OPEC producers. Combine that idiocy with significant US Dollar weakness this morning and the surge in Oil ETF share creation and the perfect storm of higher prices in oil (as hedgies pile in).

Nigeria’s Petroleum Minister Emmanuel Kachikwu anticipates dramatic price move after meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC producers, he says at conference in Abuja, the capital.

“Both the Saudis and the Russians, everybody is coming back to the table”

 

“We’re beginning to see the price of crude inch up very slowly. But if the meeting that we’re scheduling, it should happen in Russia, between the OPEC and non-OPEC producers happen about March 20, we should see some dramatic price movement”

 

Later confirmed mtg planned to take place on March 20

 

Producers target recovery to $50 a bbl

Crude banged above $35…

 

Snapping crude back above $35 to one-month highs…

 

As hedgies pile in…


via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1RKufFe Tyler Durden