Business

Wal-Mart's in-store prices have long been the lowest in the retail industry after decades of building a massive store footprint and subsequently beating vendors into submission.  That said, with brick-and-mortar sales continually being eroded by online sales, pricing dominance against Amazon is becoming far more important than in-store dominance against the likes of Target.

To that end, as Reuters points out today, Wal-Mart is seemingly embracing a new pricing war with Amazon this holiday season and now sports online prices that are nearly on par with the online retailing giant.

With trading volume crashing last week and no one left in markets but Johnny 5 and VIX-selling Target employees, perhaps the signals from 'other' professional markets mean more than the record highs...

Remember last week was the most seasonaly bullish period of the year and how critical it is that stocks surge to hold confidence into Black Friday and Cyber Monday...

Bonds ain't buying it...

FX Carry has given up...

And why is safe haven gold bid if everything is so awesome...

Trade Accordingly.

It's a busy week as traders return from the long Thanksgiving holiday, with inflation releases in the Eurozone and Japan. We'll also get the second estimate of US GDP, housing data and ISM manufacturing, UK monetary aggregates and PMIs in China. Finally, the Russia-OPEC meeting takes place in Vienna on November 30, while the Senate hearing of Fed chair nominee Powell and Yellen's testimony before Congress will be closely watched. The Senate tax vote, tentatively expected on Thursday, will be the week's key event.

The traditionally illiquid post-Thanksgiving week has started with a series of whipsaws across stocks and bonds, as European stocks turned positive after starting the day on the back foot, initially mirroring a slide in Chinese stocks and price action in U.S. equity futures as investors look to a possible - and absolutely critical - tax-plan vote in the Senate this week.

Blain’s Morning Porridge – November 27th 2017, submitted by Bill Blain of Mint Partners

Germany - not solved and likely to prove an even larger problem..

“El castillo, le torre yo soy, le espada que guarda el caudal.