Business

Two weeks ago, well before the most recent Apple "sell-thru" scare hit AAPL stock and pushed it into bear market territory, or down 20%, from its recent highs, we warned that the company faces a risk of inventory correction as a result of at least three channel checks (and soon thereafter, more) confirming deteriorating iPhone sales, indicative of either company specific or, worse, a broader drop in market demand for smartphones.

It would appear that The Chicago Fed's own National Activity Index (CFNAI) is not part of the The Fed's "data" that it is so "dependent" on. CFNAI has been in contraction (sub-zero) for 9 of the 11 months of 2015 and today's November print, missing expectations once again, tumbled to its lowest since May.

It would seem like Fed rate hike timing is questionable at best?

• Splintered Spanish vote points to fraught coalition talks (Reuters)
• Brent Oil Falls to 11-Year Low in London as Global Glut Persists (BBG)
• Oil prices hit lowest since 2004 as supply balloons (Reuters)
• U.S. Probes Theranos Complaints (WSJ)
• Driver plows onto Las Vegas Strip sidewalk 'like bowling ball', one dead (Reuters)
• Yellen, Bull Markets and Extinction in a Seven-Year Stock Rally (BBG)
• Twitter account of pharmaceutical executive Shkreli hacked (Reuters)

In a weekend of little macro newsflow facilitated by the release of the latest Star Wars sequel, the biggest political and economic event was the Spanish general election which confirmed the end of the PP-PSOE political duopoly at national level, with Rajoy's leading block losing the absolute majority it had enjoyed since the last elections while rewarding the anti-austerity Podemos and the liberal Ciudadanos party, who between them took 109 seats in the 350-member parliament. As a result no clear governing majority emerged.

Submitted by Adam Taggart via PeakProsperity.com,

Financial repression authority Daniel Amerman returns this week to discuss the ramifications of the Federal Reserve's first interest rate hike in nearly a decade: