As conclusion to our article yesterday reporting on the largest U.S. health insurer's accelerating exodus from various Obamacare markets (it had already announced it was out of Georgie, Arkansas, Michigan and Oklahoma) we said that UnitedHealth "will likely announce more defections in the coming days."
Submitted by Pater Tenebrarum via Acting-Man.com,
Business under Pressure
A recent post by Mish points to the fact that many of the business-related data that have been released in recent months continue to point to growing weakness in many parts of the business sector. We show a few charts illustrating the situation below:
A long term chart of total business sales. The recent decline seems congruent with a recession, but many other indicators are not yet confirming a recession – click to enlarge.
For over an hour XOM stock has traded in a 2c range... glued to the level of a sizable selling program's cliff-edge from this morning. Did the XOM stock algo just give up?
Efficient markets indeed.
Submitted by Vanda Research Group
Hippocrates Sleve
In his most recent Sunday note entitled "The Stock Market Doctor", Morgan Stanley equity strategist Adam Parker writes that:
'The main questions investors ask us today seem to be about the exterior appearance of the market and not fundamentals. “What is this price action telling you?” “What are other investors asking you about?” “How are other people positioned?” Or, “what’s the current sentiment?” '
NIRP has proven to be a dud as far as monetary policy goes.
Europe has implemented FOUR NIRP cuts since June 2014. Throughout this period, EU inflation has barely flat-lined.
The story is similar for Japan, which implemented NIRP at the end of February 2016. Since then the Yen has surged.
While Japanese inflation is trending down: