Business

"Get back to work, Mr.Draghi..."

Not only are stock markets (and bank bonds) collapsing, so is European consumer confidence...

Eurozone consumer confidence fell more than expected in February, the first estimate by the European Commission showed Friday. Consumer confidence in the euro area fell to -8.8 in February from -6.3 in January, the Commission said. The decline was much sharper than the fall to -6.8 forecast by economists surveyed by MNI.

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As we showed one week ago, it has been a deplorable year not only for the broader market, but for some of the marquee "hedge" fund names, who once again have shown they "hedge" only in name. We followed up with a report on the world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater, whose Pure Alpha strategy we further showed has gotten slammed in the first two weeks of February, losing a whopping 10% in half a month.

The latest Lipper fund flow data is an and it is not pretty: in the latest week, there was $12.2 billion in equity outflows, the largest weekly redemption in 5 months...

... and more importantly, this represents 7 straight weeks of outflows: the longest streak since 2008.

Concurrent with the flight from US equities, we have seen the biggest European equity redemptions since October 14:

This must be trasitory, right? Core Consumer Prices surged 0.3% MoM - the biggest jump since August 2011 - and is up 2.2% YoY (the most since June 2012).

We assume this will be ignored for a data-dependent Fed that needs to keep the easing dream alive (as long as stocks are off the highs)...

As detailed in the breakdown... this is a 2.2% YoY rise

As the details show, inflation is picking up...quickly...

They may end up being right, but they were all way too early.

Activists investors are that special breed of hedge fund managers known for their aggressive forays into situations few others would touch (especially if much, much debt can be issued) usually demanding management, business or board changes. And while sometimes they make a killing thanks to their aggressiveness, other times they themselves are crushed.

Like this time.