Submitted by John Mauldin via MauldinEconomics.com,
As I look out over the coming years, I am convinced that we’ll see the blowing up of the biggest bubbles in history - including those of government debt and government promises. And it’s not just in the US, but all over the world.
That will lead to an eventual global crisis of biblical proportions. Although, it isn’t clear what the immediate cause of the crisis will be.
Submitted by Eric Bush via Gavekal Capital blog,
Most of the time not a whole lot actually changes in the markets over the course of a month. For example, small cap stocks tend to outperform large cap stocks by a rather mundane 31 bps over the course of a month on average going back to 1996. There are, however, periods of time when extreme moves do occur over the course of a month. We have just experienced one of those times.
The markets have begun to turn.
Sure… the broad indexes like the Dow and the S&P 500 are holding up…but beneath this surface, BAD stuff is brewing.
Copper, which lead stocks to the upside during this latest rally, has already TOPPED and is now correcting.
This is a key “tell” and it’s telling us… point blank, that the “growth” trade that hit post November 8th is out of steam.
We get additional indicators from the inflation trade (TIPS/ Long-Term Treasury ratio) which peaked December 12 and is now on the cusp of taking out its trendline.
European stocks halted two days of declines, with the Stoxx 600 fractionally in the green and Italy’s bonds climbing after Monte Paschi requested a bailout and Italy pledged to provide support for its other ailing lenders. S&P futures were little changed among extremely thin volumes while Chinese stocks dropped amid concerns on higher borrowing costs. Oil slid, while gold advanced; bitcoin soared to multi-year highs, rising above $900.
Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,