Authored by Sven Henrich via NorthmanTrader.com,
Retail investors are worshipping at the altar of FOMO (fear of missing out). It may prove to be a painful experience.
Never before has retail gotten this aggressively exposed to stocks.
It is undisputed that the last 2 quarters have demonstrated an impressive jump in corporate earnings growth, if mostly due to a beneficial base effect from plunging 2016 earnings which pushed them below levels reached in 2014. And naturally, this rebound has been more than priced into a market which has seen substantial multiple expansion since the Trump election to boot. But what is much more important for the market is what corporate earnings look like in the future, and it is here that Bank of America has just raised a very troubling red flag.
Via The Knowledge Leaders Capital blog,
As we countdown to the launch of bitcoin futures trading on the CBOE (10 December) and CME (18 December), the big banks – via the Futures Industry Association - have suddenly got cold feet about the risks. We don't blame them, somebody's going to get hurt, the only question is who. The banks are worried it could be them. The FIA’s “primary” members include all of the usual suspects like JPM, Goldman, Citi, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, etc. The risk they are most concerned about relates to clearing houses which, ultimately, they stand behind.
The chaotic trading in cable continues, this time spiking to the upside after Bloomberg reports that the EU and U.K. have reached an agreement on the sensitive issue of the role of the European Court of Justice after Brexit, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The agreement on the court leaves the Irish border as the only obstacle to talks moving on to the future relationship.
As a reminder, EU leaders are due to decide whether talks can move on at a summit on Dec. 14-15.