Business

While you were sleeping, the stock and bonds of a relatively unknown company in the US, but is a household name in much of the rest of the world, Steinhoff International Holdings NV, plunged after its chief executive officer resigned amid accounting irregularities, with the company announcing that it was indefinitely delaying the release of its results, citing a criminal and tax investigation in Germany that dates back to 2015, rocking a company that’s rapidly expanded from its roots in South Africa into a retail empire spanning Australia, Europe and the U.S.

Tech is warning about inflation.

Tech performs terribly during periods of higher inflation. If you think I’m making this up, take a look at the NASDAQ’s performance versus Gold during the last inflationary spike in 2011.

Tech tanked, Gold soared.

Which is why the recent very bearish breakdown in Tech is worth noting.

Between this and the rise in inflationary signals in the financial system (the NY Fed's UIG, the Cleveland Fed's stick inflation, and Producer Price Indexes), it’s looking more and more like 2018 will be a repeat of 2011.

Muddy Waters' founder Carson Block unveiled his latest short play Wednesday morning. And instead of being another obviously fraudulent Chinese company, Block's target is OSI Systems, an American firm that manufactures security equipment x-ray machines and metal detectors. The company is best known as the owner of Rapiscan Systems - a division that manufacturers scanning machines used at airports.

Earlier today we showed a remarkable chart - and assertion - from Bank of America: "In every major market shock since the 2013 Taper Tantrum, central banks have stepped in (even if verbally) to protect markets. Following the Brexit vote, markets no longer needed to hear from CBs as they rebounded so quickly that CBs didn’t need to respond." As a result, buy-the-dip has a become a self-fulfilling put.

Submitted by Nicholas Colas of DataTrek Research

Today we want to expand on our recent thoughts on “What are retail investors buying right now?” We showed last week, courtesy of Fidelity Investments data, that mom-and-pops are still adding to positions even on breakouts in US equities. Further, the names at the top of the retail investor league table tend to be single stock Tech names rather than ETFs. Yesterday, for example, Fido’s retail customers were net buyers of NVDA, AMZN, and BABA and those names were the most heavily traded.