Business

Moments ago, after having called the bear market bounce for what it was just on February 11, and positioned accordingly to take advantage of the expected 6-8% rebound...

... Swiss private bank Geneva Swiss Bank just called the end of the bear market rally, and has gone back to a market neutral stance.

Here is its reasoning:

Dear All,

 

Please note that after this nice rebound in equities, we are moving tactically cautious.

 

“The industrial environment is in a recession - I don’t care what anybody says,” Fastenal CFO Daniel Florness exclaimed in frustration back in October when William Blair analyst Ryan Merkel dared to suggest that the US economy wasn’t in fact in the doldrums on the company’s Q3 call.

Just when you thought it was saffe to pile back into the hedge fund hotel that is Valeant Pharma, the stock prices collapses 18% in 2 days back to 3-month lows. Following a Wells Fargo downgrade on Friday to underperform (due to concerns over the firm's ability to pay back its debt), Deutsche Bank piled on implicitly today with a downgrade for Express Scripts in light of Anthem's over-paying arguments which Jim Chanos claims will weigh on the entire PBM space.

More pain for the hedge fund hotel...As it plunges 18% in 2 days...

Earlier today, we highlighted the noticeable weakness in European PMIs which largely missed expectations on - what else? - sluggish global demand and generally anemic economic growth.

Specifically, Germany’s PMI fell for the second month in a row in February, declining to 53.8 from 54.5 the previous month. Worryingly, the manufacturing PMI slumped 50.2, missing estimates by a wide margin and hitting its lowest level in 15 months.

With a growing number of Americans appearing willing to jump on the socialism-by-any-other-name bandwagon, JPMorgan CIO Michael Cembalest digs into the details of Bernie Sanders' tax proposals. As the following chart sums up so extremely, his plan would certainly represent a unique and unprecedented event in the history of US taxation, if it were enacted.