Business

Authored by Nick Schmitz via Verdad Capital

We’ve done a National Geographic–style deep dive into the world of the Japan bears, reading the scare stories about demographic decline, old people dying alone, underrepresentation of minorities on corporate boards, and other anecdotal “evidence” of stagnant economic prospects. We tried to find the best examples of Japan bearishness: the scariest pieces of evidence we could find, stuff that portrays the world’s third largest economy as a zombie death trap for equity investors.

Following producer prices' surge in November, consumer prices rose 2.2% YoY (as expected).

October producer price pushed to its highest since Dec 2011 but consumer prices are not being pushed higher for now...

The energy index rose 3.9 percent and accounted for about three-fourths of the all items increase; indexes for motor vehicle insurance, used cars and trucks, and new vehicles also increased. The indexes for apparel, airline fares, and household furnishings and operations all declined in November  

UK Stagflation Risk As Inflation Hits 3.1% and House Prices Fall 

True to its perpetually optimistic form, OPEC, which last month for the first time conceded the threat posed by rising US shale production...

... sharply raised its demand forecast for cartel oil in 2018, ahead of the OPEC meeting at the end of November.

After an early slide last night following the stunning news that Doug Jones had defeated Republican Roy Moore in the Alabama special election, becoming the first Democratic senator from Alabama in a quarter century and reducing the GOP's Senate majority to the absolute minimum 51-49, US equity futures have quickly rebounded and are once again in the green with the S&P index set for another record high, as European stocks ease slightly, and Asian stocks gain ahead of today's Fed rate hike and US CPI print.