Business

Several days ago, Bank Of America was "confused" why retail spending refuses to pick up, although it hoped that this would be a one time aberation and that the official government data would disprove what it was seeing in its card data. Well, that did not happen after the headline retail sales printed moments ago at -0.1% in December, falling from an upward revised 0.4%.

As Bloomberg summarizes, sales at U.S. retailers declined in December to wrap the weakest year since 2009, raising concern about the momentum in consumer spending heading into 2016.

Since The Fed unleashed its liquidity-withdrawing, confidence-inspiring, inflation-creating, growth-related rate-hike, things have gone a little bit pear-shaped for the policy-makers-in-chief. Gold has soared, stocks have plunged, but perhaps most ominously, bond yields have collapsed as policy-error (or naked bathers) are exposed. 10Y yields are down a stunning 33bps from The Fed decision, breaking back near the crucial 2.00% for the first time since October. The odds of a March rate hike are now under 25%!!

Error?

In the latest Chinese domestic financing report released by the PBOC last night, there were two divergent themes: on one hand bank loans grew far less than the expected 700Bn yuan, and at 598Bn this was the second lowest monthly increase in the past year, only higher than October's 514bn; on the other hand total social financing soared to 1.82 trillion yuan, smashing forecasts of a 1.15 trillion increase, and the highest since June.

Dow futures are now over 400 points off the Bullard Bounce highs as it appears The Fed's ability to convince the world it will save it once again is fading. Thanks to deflation-inspiring credit growth in China (yes, you read that right) and Kuroda's implied "we are done for now" comments, growth scares have spread across every asset class with crude and copper clubbed, bonds bid, and stocks tumbling...

JPY is heavily bid as carry trades unwind (JPYUSD futures)

Bullard Bounce dead...

And cruide has collapsed below $30...

Late last month, Freeport McMoRan co-founder and executive chairman James R. Moffett was shown the door.

Moffett, known as the “last of the old-time wildcatters”, was a legend in the industry but made a fatal mistake in 2013: he paid $2.1 billion for McMoRan Exploration Co (an oil-and-gas company the parent company had separated from in the 1990s), and $6.9 billion for Plains Plains Exploration & Production.

As WSJ put it, “the deals in part were a bet that oil prices would remain high.”