America

While the biggest threat facing Mexico, and its unpopular president Enrique Pena Nieto, in the past month has been President Trump's insistence on building a "Massive Wall", which Mexico would pay for, as well as Trump's threats of renegotiating NAFTA, today we got a fresh reminder that America's neighbor to the south has another looming problem: a rapidly deteriorating economy coupled with surging inflation on the back of the recent 20% price hike for gasoline, which culminated in a record crash in Mexican consumer confidence.

Following today's jobs report, the market's reaction to the unexpectedly strong January payrolls visualized in the charts below, is straightforward: the disappointing wage growth is an indication that the Fed may not hike rates for quite a bit longer than expected, and will likely will be forced to reduce its rate hike expectations from 3 to 2 (in line with the market) or fewer if wage growth continue to stagnate.

With Macy's making the headlines in the past few days on speculation it was shopping itself for a potential buyer, a thesis first laid out by David Einhorn one year ago, moments ago the WSJ reported that Hudson's Bay, the Canadian owner of Saks and Lord and Taylor, has made a takeover approach for the landmark retailer, sending the shares of both companies surging, and tripping a circuit breaker for M, which was lst up just shy of 5%.

The likely catalyst for the sale is that Macy's veteran CEO, Terry Lundgren, announced last June he would be stepping down later this year.

Submitted by Shoshana Bryen via The Gatestone Institute,

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