Business

When we pointed out yesterday that "world-renowned commodity guru" Dennis Gartman remained bearish of oil, we quoted him as saying that "it has been our intention all along to await the opportunity to sell crude oil short on protracted rally and we are getting that rally as we write. We can be patient a while longer." His patience lasted less than 24 hours, because one day later - as oil is on the cusp of extending its bullish run for a near record 9th consecutive day - Gartman this morning that "the time then has come to be short of crude oil once again."

The section of note:

The first half of the year may have been forgettable for a majority of the smart money and hedge funds, with nearly 80% once again underperformingttheir benchmarks due to months of P&L crushing short squeezes, but it was a buoyant time for equity markets and virtually all asset classes, for one simple reason: a record central bank liquidity injection of over $1.5 trillion YTD.

Amazon’s impending takeover of Whole Foods Market isn’t the only thing weighing on grocers' spirits this Fourth of July holiday. As Bloomberg reports, booming meat supplies have sent ground-beef prices to three-year lows, squeezing food sellers’ margins ahead of the top grilling day of the year, when 87% of US consumers are expected to barbecue.

What’s worse, the surge in production has kept in-store prices low, while wholesale costs have risen.

Here’s Bloomberg with more:

UK House Prices 'On Brink' Of Massive 40% Collapse

With the US out on holiday for the 4th of July, overnight trading volumes have been muted, as Europe started off in the red but has since trimmed most losses (Stoxx 600 -0.1%) while S&P500 futures rose shaprly from session lows spurred by the European open ignoring the risk-off sentiment from North Korea's latest missile launch, trading 0.2% higher, or up 4 points to 2,429 and closing the gap to Monday's last minute tech-driven market selloff.