Second only to March's highs, The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence printed at its highest level since the year 2000 (ironic given where Nasdaq is trading). Despite a tumble in 'hard' data, and a plunge in Bloomberg's economic expectations, it appears record high stocks are working to pump Americans up.
The single biggest trend for the next year or so will be the collapse of the $USD.
The fact is that the Fed will be forced to walk back its hawkishness. Indeed, this process has already begun with Janet Yellen testifying before Congress that the Fed was just about done with rate hikes.
Bear in mind, the $USD had already dropped 8% year to date during a period in which the Fed had hiked rates TWICE.
So what will happen to the $USD when the Fed walks back its hawkishness and slows down the pace of rate hikes… or even STOPS hiking altogether?
Several weeks after Goldman's chief technician started covering bitcoin, overnight Bank of America has released what some may call an "initiating coverage" report on bitcoin which notes that while the cryptocurrency remains very volatile and risky, bitcoin has experienced a spectacular surge in liquidity in the last six months. However, BofA remains stumped when it comes to making any official forecasts BofA's commodity strategist Francisco Blanch writes that bitcoin is uncorrelated to any financial asset, "so there is no way to explain let alone predict returns."
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,
Cook County Illinois has the largest population loss of any county in the nation. Chicago represents just over half of the population of Cook County.
Here is a graph I put together of the “Great Escape” from Illinois.
Highlights
Thanks to 'beats' by MCD, CAT, and UTX, The Dow is soaring in the pre-market - up over 110 points, back near record highs.
Despite GOOGL hovering near post-earnings lows (-2.8%), Nasdaq Futs are levitating along with S&P Futs...
as VIX is clubbed like a baby seal to 9.12...