United States

Authored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

Most of you reading this are probably aware the U.S. auto market is a train wreck waiting to happen, but a recent report by Moody’s really puts the industry’s insane lending practices into perspective.

Reuters reports:

As U.S. auto sales have peaked, competition to finance car loans is set to intensify and drive increased credit risk for auto lenders, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report released on Monday.

 

With the reflation trade seemingly dead, the logical outcome is that the "disinflation" trade will soon follow. However, as that would undo most of the recent gains, central banks will fight tooth and nail to prevent that from happening, but can they? As RBC's Charlie McElligott writes in his morning note, "some large players in the market believe that the Fed had indeed been incorporating anticipation of ‘fiscal policy", Trump policy which may now not be coming until late 2017 or early 2018 (if at all).

European, Asian stocks have rebounded as investor anxiety over Trump economic policy and US tax reform eased following yesterday's remarkable comeback in the US market. S&P futures point to a slightly higher open, with oil higher and the dollar rebounding off fout month lows. It is a relatively quiet day in the US with the economic calendar focusing on wholesale inventories, consumer confidence and the Case-Shiller index.

h/t Josh Caplan from VesselNews | Gateway Pundit contributor

Towards the end of a press briefing in Russia late last week, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova made several comments about Russia's frustrations with the Obama State Department over leaking diplomatic plans the United States had asked Russia to keep secret, and then issued what can only be construed as a warning in response to the flood of highly classified information finding it's way from the US Intelligence Community to the media.

As members of Congress in Washington debate raising the minimum required to obtain a U.S. immigrant investor visa from $500,000 to $1.35 million, Bloomberg reports concern about the hike has set off a scramble among wealthy would-be participants in China.