Earlier today Bloomberg posted the following chart comparing new vehicle sales in the United States to scrappage rates of old clunkers. Now, what should immediately catch your eye (even without the huge red circle we felt compelled to add), is the fact that new car sales have been massively outstripping scrappage rates for the past 5 years.
Authored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
Increasingly, a number of influential people in Silicon Valley seem to think that Mark Zuckerberg will likely run for president of the United States one day. And some people, including myself, believe that he could indeed win. “He wants to be emperor” is a phrase that has become common among people who have known him over the years.
On one hand, credit investors have never had it better with IG credit spread at record tights and junk bond yields sliding to 3 year lows
On the other, and this is linked to the above, they have never been more nervous, and as the latest Bank of America credit investor survey shows, more worried about the Fed in general, and "Quantitative Failure" in particular.
But why, if as so many claim, the Fed has nothing to do with the the return of risk assets? Ignore that, it's rhetorical.
Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,
In a recent post by Jeffrey Snider he made an important observation:
With just one day to go until the Trump administration launches the first salvo in what could develop into a full-scale trade war between the US and China, there is the issue of a diplomatic (hopefully) resolution of escalating situation in North Korea, one which Citi today said is "increasingly likely" to involve military action. On this issue, China is becoming increasingly displeased with Trump's relentless twitter badgering, and as AFP reports, "Trump-style outbursts are no way to get China to bend to the US's will."