Business

Venezuela’s inflation has officially become the 57th official, verified episode of hyperinflation and been added to the Hanke-Krus World Hyperinflation Table, which is printed in the authoritative Routledge Handbook of Major Events in Economic History (2013). An episode of hyperinflation occurs when the monthly inflation rate exceeds 50 percent for 30 consecutive days. Venezuela's monthly inflation rate first exceeded 50 percent on November 3rd and continues to do so, sitting at 131 percent as of December 11, 2016.

With oil prices surging to 17-month highs following this weekend's OPEC-NOPEC deal and Saudi promises to cut still more, many Wall Street analysts are skpetical with Goldman Sachs warning that the Saudis are wrong to think U.S. shale production won’t respond to higher prices. However, Nomura and Bernstein see little threat to OPEC from rising U.S. shale production in 2017.

Prices spiked...

The key economic releases this week are retail sales on Wednesday and CPI on Thursday. The key market-moving event will be the December FOMC statement released on Wednesday at 2PM. In addition, there is one scheduled speaking engagement by Richmond Fed President Lacker on Friday.

With the Dow Jones just a handful of gamma imbalance rips away from 20,000, the CIO of One River Asset Management, Eric Peters, shares some critical perspective on the market's recent euphoric surge, going so far as to brand what is going on as America's "Massive Policy Error", the biggest in the past 50 years. 

His thoughs are presented below, framed in his typical "anecdotal" way.

Anecdote

 

• Crude Soars as Output Deal Weighs on Bonds; China Shares Tumble (BBG)
• 10-Year Treasury Yield Above 2.5% for First Time in Two Years (WSJ)
• The New Reality of TV: All Trump, All the Time (NYT)
• Fed May Struggle to Signal What Comes After December (WSJ)
• China warns Trump against ignoring its Taiwan interests (Reuters)
• China’s Stocks, Bonds, Yuan Slump in Unison on Liquidity Concern (BBG)
• Sovereign funds pulled cash from world markets for third year running (Reuters)
• Trump Adds To Criticism Of Companies (WSJ)