With all of Europe and the Americas closed for holiday, what little market action there was overnight came out of Asia, where China once again was engaged in its last hour "National Team" market manipulation, which saved the SHCOMP from a red close after the now traditional last hour buying spree, pushed the Shanghai Composite from red on the session an hour before close to near the highs of the day.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has agreed to deregulate Monsanto’s GMO corn, unleashing a new wave of toxic herbicides into the environment. The genetically-modified MON87419 corn strain is resistant to dicamba- and glufosinate-based herbicides. RT.com reports: These resistances allow farmers to grow plants that aren’t destroyed by herbicides produced by the same companies that designed the genetically-modified crops themselves.
“Investors could be forgiven for heading for the hills given the tumultuous start to 2016,” so writes Andrew Oxlade in The Telegraph today who advises investors to diversify into gold as an “insurance policy”:
One month ago, in its traditionally cheerful assessment of the US housing market, the NAR's Larry Yun snuck in an unexpected warning:
"Home prices ascending near or above double-digit appreciation aren't healthy – especially considering the fact that household income and wages are barely rising."
He did it again just a few days ago:
Via ConvergEx's Nick Colas,
Our latest quarterly report on the recreational marijuana business shows a vibrant and growing industry as more states legalize the drug.
We survey numerous stores in Colorado, Washington, and Oregon to track how a newly legalized market develops its cost structure and product mix. Our Colorado contacts reported steady pricing and customer traffic compared to three months ago, and brought in $576 million in retail marijuana sales last year – 84% more than in 2014.