Business

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Many things that are scarce and thus valuable cannot be bought on the global marketplace.

Amazon has done it again, and following a lukewarm second quarter and with Goldman warning not to get too excited going into earnings, Amazon is back to its short-crushing ways, reporting both revenues and EPS which blew away expectations.  In Q3, Amazon reported EPS of 52 cents, unchanged from a year ago (due to fudging the company's tax rate) and beating consensus estimates of 4 cents, on net sales of $43.7 billion, also well above the $42.19 billion consensus estimate, entirely due to the contribution of AWS.  It was also above the high end of the company's own range, which topped out at

In a stunning scoop published minutes before the close, WSJ reports CVS Health is in talks to buy Aetna, a defensive acquisition that may help the company fend off Amazon should the e-commerce giant follow through on flirtations with the pharmacy business.

Shortly before WSJ published its report, CVS and other pharmacy stocks tumbled to their lows of the day on reports Amazon has been quietly obtaining wholesale pharmacy licenses.

Hmmmm...Wall of worry indeed...

Chaotic flip-flopping headlines hit Spanish stocks today (and continued after the close)...

While Trannies had a big day, S&P and Nasdaq was very quiet...

Authord by Kevin Muir via The Macro Tourist blog,

Sometimes you have to love the naivety of the markets. At this week’s Communist Party Congress meeting in Beijing, the governor of the PBoC (People’s Bank of China) said the following;