Business

Shortly after 1042am local, Chinese stock futures (CSI-300) flash-crashed over 12.5% on extreme heavy volume (while the cash CSI-300 remained unch). This move erased 3 months of gains but within 1 minute was back in the green with stocks up over 2.5%. The shocking collapse, exaggerated by a major lack of liquidity, was made more surprising by the fact that the last week has seen a record short position in the major Chinese stock ETF.

It has not been a good "second coming" for Shinzo Abe, whose first stint as prime minister of Japan ended in disgrace in 2007 after an allegedly crippling bout of explosive diarrhea forced the then-prime minister to resign. To say that Abenomics has been a dismal failure would be an understatement:  unable to boost inflation, unable to boost wages, plummeting trade with both exports and imports crashing to post crisis lows...

The US Gold Market is best known as the home of gold futures
trading on the COMEX in New York. The COMEX has a literal monopoly on gold
futures trading volumes worldwide, but very little physical gold is actually
exchanged between COMEX trading participants, and gold inventories maintained
in COMEX vaults in New York are extremely low. This COMEX Gold Futures Market
infographic guides you through the largest gold futures market in the world,
COMEX.

Just last week we reported that Wells Fargo was reintroducing 3% down mortgages on its own, without going through the FHA. The reason we said, was that due to Wells' mortgage origination pipeline drying up, the bank was desperate to find new and innovative ways to boost lending.

Now we have direct confirmation that indeed Wells Fargo is desperate, and the plan to boost mortgage lending is to... drum roll... lure millennials out of the comfort of their parents home and into a house of their own.

When Valeant slashed its guidance back in March, we took a look at what the analysts were thinking just prior to that announcement and what we found was troubling, yet predictable.

And now, the "morning after", we finally have the unwind of the sellside narrative.

 

Recall that as recently as yesterday,there were 11 buys, 10 holds, and just 2 sell recommendations, with an average 12 months price target of $131.