Business

Submitted by Julianne Geiger via OilPrice.com,

With oil prices dipping below $30 and dire forecasts for the already-low Canadian dollar, the National Hockey League (NHL) is taking a hit that would normally lead to a mass exodus of players to Russia - if the ruble wasn’t tanking as well.

The NHL’s revenue depends on the Canadian dollar, which in turn is on the downward slide thanks to the plummeting oil prices. As NHL revenues decline, player salaries go down, and roster cuts go up.

Following November's collapse in existing home sales (-10.5% - worst since July 2010), December saw home sales soar 14.7% (the biggest MoM jump ever). Don't get too excited as this is simply the new (know before you owe) mortgage rules delayed sales coming back. All in all it was a wash over the 2 months and NAR is careful to warn not to expect 2016 to be as good as 2015 for sales.

Biggest jump ever after biggest drop since the crisis...

Here is a regional breakdown of existing home sales:

Submitted by Daniel Drea via Dark-Bid.com,

On Sunday, we warned readers that the iPath OIL ETN was trading at a 36% premium to its fair value. Today, we witnessed the brutal consequences of a two-class market where institutional traders steamroll the clueless retail investor. The OIL ETN plummeted by 17%, representing a loss of $126 million. Today's trading volume was 36.6 million vs average volume of 3.8 million, as institutional selling absolutely crushed retail investors.

US manufacturing PMI printed a preliminary 52.7 for January, boucing from the 38-month lows of December and above expectations as output and new business improved (somewhat aberrantly given every other indication). This is still the 2nd lowest print for US manufacturing since October 2013. It's not all great news though as job creation dropped to 4-month lows "softer overall employment growth reflected a wait-and-see approach to staff recruitment at the start of the year and, in some cases, the need to focus on efforts to reduce costs."

Stocks are rallying this morning.

They are not rallying because of a change in fundamentals.

They are not rallying because of a significant debt restructuring.

They are not rallying because of great quarterly results from key economic bell-weathers.

They are rallying because of hope for more Central Bank stimulus.

This is the game traders have played for weeks now. Every time it has ended in failure.