As Amazon flirts with a $500 billion market cap, letting Jeff Bezos try on the title of world's richest man on for size if only for a few hours, for Amazon's competitors it's "everything must go" day everyday, as the bad news in the retail sector continue to pile up with the latest Fitch report that the default rate for distressed retailers spiked again in July.
Authored by James Rickards via The Daily Reckoning,
With the U.S. preparing to confront China and go to war with North Korea, Russia is an indispensable ally for the U.S.
There are huge implications on capital markets as these hegemonic powers continue to edge toward war.
Here’s an overview of some of the financial implications of improved relations with Russia…
1: The End of OPEC and the Rise of the Tripartite Alliance
After both Brent and WTI rose above their respective 50DMAs on Friday, capping 2017's best weekly rally for oil, the rising tide is accelerating as the latest CFTC COT data confirmed, when net specs boosted bullish Nymex WTI crude oil bets by 27K net-long positions to 423K, the highest in two months, as producers continued to cover short hedges, sending their net position to the most bullish since the summer of 2015.
It's probably not a coincidence that in the same week in which one of the most level-headed investors of all, Oaktree's Howard Marks issued an alarm on the current state of the market, that JPM has come out with not one (as discussed previously, Marko Kolanovic's latest "tipping point" note last Thursday was blamed for the small and sharp selloff at the end of last week), but two reports in which JPMorgan makes it clear that not only is the market on the edge, but increasingly more traders, both institutional and equity, are getting ready for what comes next.
Authored by John Mauldin via MauldinEconomics.com,
Exactly 10 years ago, we were months way from a world-shaking financial crisis.
By late 2006, we had an inverted yield curve steep to be a high-probability indicator of recession. I estimated at that time that the losses would be $400 billion at a minimum. Yet, most of my readers and fellow analysts told me I was way too bearish.