Authored by David Stockman via The Daily Reckoning,
The Wall Street Journal published a superb example of hopium recently in a sunny-side-up story entitled “U. S. Manufacturing Rides Rising Tide, Buoyed by Global Growth, Optimism.”
Indeed, this lazy cheerleading excuse for journalism captured the sum and substance of why the punters keep buying the dips despite troubles gathering all around.
Global shares hit another record high on Wednesday, propelled higher by what increasingly more call (ir)rational exuberance, and investors’ unflagging enthusiasm for tech stocks. That said, S&P futures are unchanged the morning before Thanksgiving (at least before the market open ramp), as are European stocks (Stoxx 600 is flat), despite the euphoria in the Asian session which saw the MSCI Asia Pac index hit a new all time high...
Following the new all-time high in US equities, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index broke through its November 2007 peak to make an all-time high in Wednesday’s trading session. This was something we noted could happen yesterday in “SocGen: Asian Equities Are So Awesome, A China Minsky Moment Is ‘Manageable”. The dollar weakened slightly after outgoing Fed Chairman, Janet Yellen, cautioned against interest rates rising too quickly in one of her last Q&As at NYU on Tuesday evening.
From Nicholas Colas of DataTrek Research
Why do global equity markets ignore political shocks like Brexit, President Trump’s election or the news that Angela Merkel failed to form a government in Germany? There are plenty of good reasons, actually, which we review below.
Is it just us, or are corporate executives exiting almost as fast as Hollywood sex perverts?
Moments after we learned that the head of Pixar and animation at Disney was taking a leave of absence due to "kissing, groping" missteps, HP Enterprise announced that long-time CEO Meg Whitman is stepping down effective February 1, 2018. And no, no sexual harassment here, although in light of the business' secular decline that may have been a better option for shareholders.