A few weeks ago, we reported that in a bizarre development - and the latest in a long series of red flags involving Chinese and HK stocks - various Chinese small and micro cap companies had asked employees to buy their stock while promising to cover losses" amid rising margin call pressures as the underlying stocks had been drifting lower.
The IMF has cut its US GDP forecast to 2.1% in 2017 from 2.3% projected in April and to 2.1% for 2018 from 2.5% previously, it said in a statement following its U.S. Article IV Consultation, and saying it could no longer assume the Trump administration will be able to deliver pledged tax cuts and higher infrastructure spending. Specifically, in giving up on the Trump agenda, the fund said "we have removed the assumed fiscal stimulus from our forecast."
Amid a slew of mixed housing data (weak starts, permits; rebound in existing sales at record median prices), S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller reports that home price growth slowed to just 0.28% MoM (the weakest since Aug 2016), considerably worse than the average seasonal slowdown.
Year-over-year gains also slowed to just 5.67%, missing expectations.
Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,
Two more Italian banks failed over the weekend– Banco Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca.
(In other news, the sky is blue.)
The Italian Prime Minister himself stated that depositors’ funds were at risk, so the government stepped in with a bailout and guarantee package that could cost taxpayers as much as 17 billion euros.
We finally have some good news for the distressed US retail industry.
In light of recent deteriorating spending trends within the luxury segment, with Bank of America internal card data showing a relentless decline in retail spending among the wealthiest segment...
... one would perhaps think that the conspicuous consumption excesses that marked the peak of the last bubble were long behind us.