Business

Moments ago, the Fed released the latest, November, consumer credit data: it was not good. Rising by just $13.95 trillion, it was a big miss to the $18.5 trillion expected, and below the $15.6 billion downward revised increase in October. In fact, three months after the historic surge in September to the highest print in the revised series, total consumer credit has tumbled to the lowest since January.

But the big problem was not in the total data, but in one of the two key component data sets.

“China Finds $3 Trillion Just Doesn't Pack the Punch It Used To,” a Bloomberg headline from Friday morning reads.

“China’s $3 trillion-plus in foreign currency reserves, the biggest such stockpile in the world, would seem to be a gold-plate insurance policy against the country’s current market chaos, a depreciating currency and torrent of capital leaving the country,” Bloomberg writes, before citing a number of sources who say that in reality, $3 trillion aint what it used to be.

Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

During the 150 days since August 4th, Chipotle’s share price has plunged by 45%. Nearly $11 billion of market cap has been obliterated——including $4 billion in the last three weeks.

Accordingly, its market value has now retraced back to March 2012 levels. The hyperventilating CMG bulls who rampaged for 1250 days in the interim have now been taken out back and summarily shot.

Gold Higher In Most Currencies in 2015 - Up 4% This Week

To some it is the independent and impartial Swiss National Bank; to others it is the world's biggest hedge fund with $584 billion in assets or about the same as the Swiss GDP, whose former chief suddenly resigned in 2012 following a family FX trading scandal.

Whatever it is, the SNB had an abysmal year: first and foremost it was its terrible bet on maintaining a EURCHF floor which imploded almost exactly a year ago, when the bank was forced to scrap its attempts to keep the Swiss Franc weak, in the process suffering tens of billions in losses.