Business

With WTI trading with a $32 handle, collapsing below December 2008's $32.40 lows briefly overnight, OPEC's broad basket price for crude has also reached a worrisome milestone. Amid Saudi price cuts to Europe, the basket price was set at $29.71 today - the first print below $30 since April 2004.

WTI broke 2008 lows overnight... and then ran stops to overnight highs...

and following the inclusion of Indonesia's crude oil price, OPEC's basket price is back below $30...

For the first time since April 2004...

Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

Chinese stocks have retraced 50% of their overnight losses following the lifting of the circuit-breaker rule. China FTSE-A50 Futures trading on SIMEX are up over 250 points, trading at the highs of the day but for some context, the index is still down 14% from post-Christmas highs.

What happens when China opens? What would you do with a stock market trading at 64x P/E and as fragile as it has been proved to be?

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

This week I am addressing themes I see playing out in 2016.

A number of systemic, structural forces are intersecting in 2016. One is the end-game of debt-fueled "growth."

We can summarize the official "solution" to the Global Financial Meltdown of 2008 in one line: borrow and blow trillions--of yen, yuan, dollars, euros, reals, you name it.

When Mario Draghi “disappointed” markets in December by “only” cutting the depo rate by 10 bps and “merely” extending PSPP by six months while electing not to expand monthly asset purchases, the Riksbank, the Nationalbank, the Norges Bank, and the SNB all breathed heavy sighs of relief.

Essentially, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and Norway are beholden to Mario Draghi. When the ECB eases, those countries’ central banks must ease as well or risk falling behind in the global currency wars.