Business

After Friday's farcical face-ripping ramp back to recent highs (from a 10% plunge pre-market) after dismal earnings and outlook, it appears 'investors' took the weekend to actually read the report and transcripts...

Someone turn the bloody machines back on!!

Bloomberg reports that General Electric’s weak third-quarter results and outlook prompted multiple rating downgrades on Monday, with most analysts warning of an impending dividend cut. However, bullish analysts note that there doesn’t seem to be much more that bears can "fixate on from here."

Every quarter, the Fed's Flow of Funds report discloses - among many other things - the total U.S. household net worth, and every quarter for the past two years this number has steadily gone up, hitting fresh all time highs with every new release, most recently $96.2 trillion, to widespread cheers from both the financial press and the public, as well as the administration. 

Last week, we discussed the marginal productivity of debt. This is how much each newly-borrowed dollar adds to GDP. And ever since the interest rate began its falling trend in 1981, marginal productivity of debt has tightly correlated with interest. The lower the interest rate, the less productive additional borrowing has in fact become.

Authored by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com,

The next few weeks for Venezuela will be crucial, as it could struggle to meet a huge stack of debt payments. Reports that the nation’s oil production is experiencing deteriorating quality raises a new cause for concern for the crumbling South American nation.

In an otherwise quiet session, Sunday's convincing election victory for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition, which gave it another constitution-changing supermajority, pushed the Nikkei to the highest level since 1996, after a record 15 consecutive days of gains - the longest winning streak on record - and sent world stocks to new all-time highs on Monday.