Business

It appears that Horseman Global's Russell Clark may have been spot on with his bearish assessment of the US shale sector.

As a reminder, in his latest letter to investors, Clark said that "the rising decline rates of major US shale basins, and the increasing incidents of frac hits (also a cause of rising decline rates) have convinced me that US shale producers are not only losing competitiveness against other oil drillers, but they will find it hard to make money."

You know it's bad when even the traditional 'pumpers' are getting anxious. While obviously counched in its own "well maybe that's not totally terrible" spin, reading the following from Charles Schwab suggests Liz Ann Sonders, Brad Sorensen, and Jeffrey Kleintop were all struggling to defend any bullish position and perhaps more desperate to CYA in case reality doesn't match their hard-sold perception...

Via Schwab.com,

How long?

Google, aka Alphabet, reported Q2 earnings that beat on the top and bottom line, reporting EPS of $5.01, above the estimate of $4.45, and earnings per share excluding the $2.7 billion European Commission fine of $8.90, also above the $8.25 expected. Total Q2 revenue of $26.01 billion rose 21% Y/Y, and also beat consensus of $25.64BN.

We just read a very insightful post in zerohedge in which the author describes a massive potential payout for someone who recently placed a large option play on in the ViX. Here is his description as quoted in Business Insider.

From Michael Snyder and theeconomiccollapseblog.com:

Another day, another record high in tech stocks...

A very ugly 3mo T-Bill auction today (highest yield since Lehman and inverting the yield curve) sent yields soaring once again as debt-ceiling concerns are spooking cash markets (but not stocks)...