presidential election

The Fed's latest Beige Book released Wednesday found seven regional Fed districts reporting economic activity as growing at a modest or moderate pace, a decline from 11 in the last report, with strong dollar headwinds among one of the more frequently cited reasons for the weakness.

While the Beige Book information was collected up until Nov. 18, 10  days after the U.S. elections, uncertainty about the influence on politics on economic activity was cited eight times in the report. 

Submitted by Michael Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker issued a warning to Austrian presidential candidate Norbert Hofer, regarding referendums.

Hofer, an anti-immigration, candidate is in a tight race for the election coming up on December 4.

If he wins, Hofer said he would hold in-out referendums if Brussels seeks to expand it power.

Following October's disappointment (+147k), November's ADP employment printed a much better than expected 216k (over 170k exp), thanks to a notable downward revision to October to 119k. Goods-producing jobs dropped once again (-11k) with a renewed surge in services employment (+228k). While this November post-Trump spike is noteworthy (highest in 5 months), there continues to be a medium-term trend of weakening job growth in America.

A good post-trump spike, but the 24-month trend continues to deteriorate:

Spot the odd one out...

European, Asian stocks rise as do S&P futures as OPEC ministers gathering in Vienna appeared to be set to announce a deal to cut oil production and prop up global prices. Oil has surged over 7% as a result, also pushing US TSY yields and the dollar higher.

With all eyes on Vienna, where optimism OPEC ministers will salvage a deal to cut production, oil has soared by over 6% reverberating through the financial markets, spurring oil’s biggest gain in two weeks and sending stocks of energy producers and currencies of commodity-exporting nations higher.

Authored by Bonner & Partners' Bill Bonner, annotated by Acting-Man's Pater Tenebrarum,

Free Money!

Last week, the Dow punched up above 19,000 – a new all-time record. And on Monday, the Dow, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq, and the small-cap Russell 2000 each hit new all-time highs. The last time that happened was on the last day of December 1999.