You are here

Business

The Mood In Silicon Valley Is Like The "Moment After The Titanic Hit An Iceberg" - Here's Why

The Mood In Silicon Valley Is Like The "Moment After The Titanic Hit An Iceberg" - Here's Why

For the longest time it was Wall Street's best kept secret: keep Unicorns - companies with valuations over $1 billion - hidden in their gilded stables (aka private) for as long as possible, and allow Silicon Valley billionaires and venture capitalists to overbid each other by investing modest amounts at ever more ridiculous valuations, permitting book-marking based on a handful private investment rounds to hit stratospheric levels and allowing the investors to take out loans backed by sky-high valuations as collateral.

PMI Plunges - The Last Time US Manufacturing Was This Weak, Bernanke Hinted At QE3

PMI Plunges - The Last Time US Manufacturing Was This Weak, Bernanke Hinted At QE3

On the heels of weakness in the rest of the world's PMIs, US Manufacturing just printed 51.0 (missing expectations of 52.4) and tumbling to its lowest since October 2012... followed rapidly by Bernanke hinting at QE3. While Markit does 'blame the extreme weather', it notes however that "every indicator from the flash PMI survey, from output, order books and exports to employment, inventories and prices, is flashing a warning light about the health of the manufacturing economy."

Not good...

Even worse...

 

Safes Sell Out In Japan, 1,000 Franc Note Demand Soars As NIRP Triggers Cash Hoarding

Safes Sell Out In Japan, 1,000 Franc Note Demand Soars As NIRP Triggers Cash Hoarding

Negative rates may not have found their way to bank deposits in most locales (yet), but that doesn’t mean the public isn’t starting to see the writing on the wall.

At first, NIRP was an anomaly. An obscure policy tool that most analysts and market watchers assumed would be implemented on a temporary basis in a kind of “let’s see if this is even possible” experiment with an idea that, from a common sense perspective, makes no sense.

WTI Surges Above $33 Despite IEA 'Glutter'-For-Longer Warnings

WTI Surges Above $33 Despite IEA 'Glutter'-For-Longer Warnings

WTI crude prices are up almost 6% this morning with April (the new front-month) trading above $33.50 - testing post-DOE plunge stops. The irony of the ramp is that it comes amid terrible global PMIs (demand), a report from IEA of oil staying in glut for longer than expected (supply), and warnings from Abu Dhabi's biggest bank that $20 oil is possible. Oh well, we are sure the algos know what they are doing... despite veterans of the 1980s oil glut warning it could take 7 to 10 years to emerge from the current slump.

Silicon Valley's Business Model In Jeopardy As Wireless Carriers Start Blocking Online Ads

Until recently, ad blocking - the biggest threat to every Silicon Valley ad-driven business model - was largely a peripheral concern stemming from such companies as AdBlock, which was recently snapped up by a "mystery buyer" while ad-driven quasi-monopolies such as Google pay comparable adblockers to allow their ads through.

Pages