Business

As we reported yesterday, less than two weeks after calling for a short-term market bounce on February 11, Geneva Swiss Bank said it was taking profits and going neutral.

This is how it justified its decision:

After this nice rebound in equities, we are moving tactically cautious. Actions taken today: we moved to market neutral (long equities / short index futures) on our new Swiss Tactical Equity Certificate and have bought downside protection on the S&P500 in our portfolios.

 

We believe that :

Earlier today, Standard Chartered delivered a set of truly terrible results.

Impairments skyrocketed by 87% and the total pre-tax red ink for the year added up to $1.5 billion. 2015 marked the first annual net loss for the bank in more than 25 years.

The S&P 500 is three trading days from reaching "trend exhaustion," according to infamous technical analyst Tom DeMark. "The foundation of the ongoing rally is suspect," warns DeMark, noting that if the market closes below these key levels in the next three days, DeMark warns "the decline is going to be sharp."

As Bloomberg reports, a top in the S&P 500 would also be confirmed should the S&P 500 finish below 1,926.82 on Tuesday, or close less than 1,917 on Wednesday or Thursday, DeMark said.

Following the surprising swoon in the Treasury complex which overnight slid lower following the German Bunds lower, only to rebound after Naimi sent oil sliding, it was not clear how big demand would be for today's $26 billion auction in 2 Year paper. Moments ago we got the answer, and it was "solid", with the high yield printing at 0.752%, pricing through the 0.763% When Issued by 1.1 bps, and the lowest yield since September 2015.

Submitted by Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk via Bawerk.net,

Italy is big enough to matter (it is the eight largest economy on the planet), but so uneventful that most does not pay any attention to what is going on there. We contend that Italy will, during the next year or two, be on everyone’s radar screen as it has the potential to derail the European project for real.