Business

In recent weeks Bank of America's new chief technician Stephen Suttmeier has been surprisingly bearish, predicting that the rally is over, as Tom DeMark cautioned yesterday, key support levels are not defended in which case the S&P 500 is looking at a substantially greater drop. Today, his skepticism reached new heights, when he warned that should the failure to break out higher persist then the market is facing a drop to as low ast 1575-1600, something which even Goldman now agrees with.

Below is an excerpt from his latest attempt at a diplomatic guide down:

Following this week's ongoing demise of the US manufacturing sector, tumbling to its weakest since October 2012, Markit US Services PMI collapsed into contraction at 49.8, massively below expectations of 53.5. This is the weakest level for the last pillar standing in the US recovery since the government shutdown in 2013, and as Markit even admits, "slumping business confidence and an increased downturn in order book backlogs suggest there’s worse to come."

In November 2007, PE firm Terra Firma Chairman Guy Hands warned of a looming crash, after forecasting "bankers will go back to their baskets like dogs," he was sent dog biscuits by friendly bankers.

Staff members at Kensington Palace, the residence of Prince William and Kate Middleton, have threatened to go on strike over proposals that would cut their annual salaries The palace staff fear that changes to the working hours of employees who work in publicly-accessible parts of the building, could result in an annual loss of up to £3,000 ($4,207), potentially placing their earnings below the living wage.

Over the weekend, we presented what according to Bank of America was perhaps the last remaining bullish catalyst for a big market move higher when Bank of America's Michael Hartnett said that "we remain sellers into strength in coming weeks/months of risk assets at least until a coordinated and aggressive global policy response (e.g. Shanghai Accord) begins to reverse the deterioration in global profit expectations and credit conditions."