United States

To sum up: China car sales crash by most on record (boom goes the overseas growth meme), US existing home sales plunge most in 6 years (boom goes the domestic housing strength supporting consumption meme), Williams and Lockhart go full hawk-tard (positing April as "live" and suggesting everything is hawkishly awesome), and one of our most succeesful 'innovative' tech firms unveils the worst product launch ever... and investors buy stocks with both hands and feet...

Shiite militia forces in Iraq have strongly opposed the new deployment of US troops to the country. The Iranian backed militias have warned that if Washington does not withdraw its forces “immediately,” they will deal with them “as forces of occupation.” The Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia, known as the League of the Righteous, issued the warning after it emerged the US had sent an undisclosed number marines to aid Iraqi forces as they try to retake Mosul.

Submitted by Bill Bonner of Bonner & Partners (annotated by Acting-Man.com's Pater Tenebrarum),

Grotesque Mutants

Let’s see… U.S. corporate earnings have been going down for three quarters in a row. The median household income is lower than it was 10 years ago. And now JPMorgan Chase has increased its estimated risk of a recession to about one in three.

From the grotesque mutants collection

It is a quiet start to the week: in the US we have the Chicago Fed’s National Activity index (CFNAI) numbers for February (0.25 expected; 0.28 prior) which missed badly as noted earlier, printing negative after a sharp upward revision to the January number, as well as the latest existing home sales data (5.31mn expected) momentarily.

After last week's ridiculous FOMC announcement which forced even such "party line" commentators as Steve Liesman to ask Yellen if the Fed has lost all credibility after its dots tumbled despite surging core inflation and a mandate low unemployment rate, one can be forgiven if all they laugh at the latest Fed "forecast."