With most global market closed for Christmas holiday, and traders taking the day and the week off, global stocks traded mixed in thin, subdued conditions as the dollar dipped against the yen, with the USDJPY sliding for a fourth straight day to 117, while the EUR was flat at 1.0450, taking stock of the US 10Y yield which closed lower on Friday.
While Caterpillar's CEO may have resigned recently, admitting that he misjudged the business strategy, and even the company issued a press release cautioning the market may have gotten ahead of itself, CAT stock does not appear to be bothered, soaring by 12% since the Trump presidential victory, and continues to trade near 2016 highs on hopes an infrastructure push would make excavators great again. For now, however, the woes at the heavy industrial manufacturer continue, with yet another month of declining global sales, the company's 48th in a row.
Authored by Scott Kristoff via Avondale Asset Management,
We started this year with the economy deteriorating and finished it with the second interest rate increase in ten years. There were a lot of ups and downs along the way, but ultimately 2016 was defined by three key story-lines: 1) Brexit 2) The Presidential Election 3) Fed Policy.
Brave independent journalist Eva Bartlett, one of the few reporters to actually set foot on Syrian soil during the bloody war, has returned to North America and declared that “Whatever you hear in the corporate media is completely opposite to reality.” Western mainstream media has been relying on government propaganda as their sole source of news for the Syrian conflict, rather than sending reporters into the war zone to find out the facts and provide unbiased reports.
The overnight exuberance in crude oil futures markets has faded notably as the day has worn on. While news of supply cuts are unquestionably bullish (should one choose to believe it or not, remember the Saudis admission "we tend to cheat"), but the last few days have also seen a plethora of bearish-biased news that for now is being ignored.
The excitement is fading...