Business

The number of oil rigs in America has now risen for 23 straight weeks (and 50 of the last 52 weeks), up 11 to 758 in the last week - the highest since April 2015.

"It’s becoming bearish mania," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group Inc. in Chicago. "If we keep going down, we’re not going to be adding rigs in a few months, we’re not going to be adding production"

And we suspect, given the lagged reaction to prices, that inflection point in rig counts is close...

Via Global Macro Monitor blog,

Lots of hand wringing these days about the flattening yield curve.  We still maintain our position that the signal from the bond market is significantly distorted due to the global central bank intervention (QE) into the bond markets.   See here and here.

There's a reason this week's EIA survey showing gasoline and oil supplies declining has failed to stop RBOB prices from collapsing to 7-month lows: The start of the summer has done nothing to revive sluggish demand. That's because despite what the EIA survey said, little has been done to reduce record fuel inventories.

The stock market is luvin' McDonalds stock, which has continued its recent relentless rise to all time highs, up 26% YTD, oblivious to the carnage among the broader restaurant and fast-food sector. There is a reason for Wall Street's euphoria: the same one we discussed in January in "Dear Bernie, Meet the "Big Mac ATM" That Will Replace All Of Your $15 Per Hour Fast Food Workers."

Following the modest bounce in existing home sales (and disappointment in starts and permits), new home sales bounced in May to 610k (after plunging 11.4% in April, now revised to a 7.9% drop).

For now affordability doesn't matter...

Of particular note is that median new home prices surged to $345,800 - an all-time record high.

In fact, a closer look shows that home prices are exploding higher...this is the fastest 3-month spike in prices since Jan 2011... (and up 16.8% YoY)