Comment by phil

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phil
April 14th, 2014 at 10:29 am

Oooooh, TSLA said "CHINA!!!" today – must be getting desperate to hold $200 – anything to distract the sucker bondholders from realizing there's no Giga-Factory at this point…

Oil $103.81, Dollar 79.82, gold $1,325, silver $19.98, copper $3.0495, nat gas $4.56, gasoline $3.025.  VIX still shows worry at 16.83 and that should really scare people on an up day, TLT also worried at $110.50.  

Some of the major news:

Slowdown puts 1bn middle class at risk. Almost a billion people in the developing world are at risk of slipping out of the ranks of a nascent middle class, according to FT analysis, raising questions about the durability of the past 30 years’ remarkable march out of poverty.

Fed policy maker warns on low rates stance. The US Federal Reserve’s plan to keep interest rates low even once the economy is back to normal could risk a policy mistake, a Fed policy maker has warned in an interview with the Financial Times. James Bullard, president of the St Louis Fed, said he did not see a persuasive reason to think interest rates should be below their long-run level in 2016, if unemployment and inflation are back to normal.

CITI(C): Here's The Real 'Wile E. Coyote' Moment That Could Send Markets Much Lower. Investors may be coming perilously close to realizing that market levels owe everything to central bank stimulus and nothing to an improvement in underlying fundamentals. What if the much heralded “improvement in earnings to match the rerating in the market” fails to be delivered in coming weeks? How long till investors realize that extra stimulus in Japan might stem the Nikkei’s decline, but is unlikely to generate the economic recovery everyone is hoping for, no matter how large its size? And that the problem afflicting China – that the growth rates to which investors have become accustomed are utterly reliant on an unsustainable expansion of credit – is in fact a problem worldwide? ?

ANALYST: These Two Charts Show The Market's Been On Borrowed Time For Years

“It’s not a bubble,” Retail Investors Are Told As The Smart Money Bails Out.

The Collapse Of Momentum Stocks Is An Ominous Change

Hedge Funds' Favorite Stocks Are Getting Shredded

THE BIG UNWIND: Here's How Hedge Funds Drove The Brutal NASDAQ Selloff

"Analysts" Lower Revenue Growth Expectations By Most In 18 Months

Chief Economist Of Central Banks' Central Bank: "It's Extremely Dangerous… I See Speculative Bubbles Like In 2007". ?

Euro Slides Versus Most Peers as Draghi Warns of ECB Stimulus. The euro weakened versus most of its 16 major peers after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said its strength “requires further monetary stimulus.”

All Hail The Draghi Put: The Global Bond Market Is Now Well And Truly Broken.

 

Markets wrong to think euro crisis over: UBS chair. Debt markets think the euro zone debt crisis is over and are "underpricing" the risks, Axel Weber, former head of the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, has warned. "Markets, when they re-price, always overshoot. But at the moment, as they're re-pricing to a normal situation, they're also overshooting," Weber, currently chairman of Swiss bank UBS, told CNBC in an interview at an International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington. "The market is probably too benign on some of the developments in Europe. It's pricing as if the problems were behind us, but what is behind us is the bad headlines, and the problems are still there," he warned.

Germany Warns European Markets Not to Celebrate Prematurely. Germany’s top finance officials warned investors against prematurely celebrating an overhaul of Europe’s economies four years after they plunged into crisis. “It’s good that markets have become more confident again,” Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters in Washington yesterday during the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund. “But I’ve said that in parts they’re already exaggerating again.” Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said yesterday at the same IMF meetings “there’s a discussion about a stability risk that’s created by financial markets in a certain way running ahead of adjustment processes.” ?

Japan Inflation Acceleration Risks Souring Public on Abenomics. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s bid to vault Japan out of 15 years of deflation risks losing public support by spurring too much inflation too quickly as companies add extra price increases to this month’s sales-tax bump. Businesses from Suntory Beverage and Food Ltd. to beef bowl chain Yoshinoya Holdings Co. have raised costs more than the 3 percentage point levy increase. This month’s inflation rate could be 3.5 percent, the fastest since 1982, according to Yoshiki Shinke, the most accurate forecaster of Japan’s economy for two years running in data compiled by Bloomberg.

Singapore Dollar Most Vulnerable to U.S. Rates: Chart of the Day. Singapore’s dollar has emerged as Asia’s most-vulnerable currency to prospects of higher U.S. interest rates, driving a gauge measuring the relationship to a record high.

Deadly Virus's Spread Raises Alarms in Mideast. Saudis Defend Approach to MERS Outbreak, Even as Cases Increase.

Eastern Ukraine Violence Brings ‘Crunch Time’ for U.S., EU. The U.S. and European Union have reached “crunch time” to halt further destabilization in Ukraine and curb any further Russian expansion in the region. Prospects for a negotiated end to the crisis were set back after camouflaged gunmen fired on government forces near Slovyansk, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) from the Russian frontier in eastern Ukraine. There were casualties on both sides. Russia requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council at 8 p.m. in New York. The U.S. backed Ukraine’s accusation that Russia was behind the violence.

The West Leaves Ukraine to Putin. As Russian special forces invade the country's east, Kiev's leaders feel betrayed by the EU and America.

Opposition Accuses Syrian Regime of Attacks With Lethal Chlorine Gas. Clashes Intensify in Northern City of Aleppo.

Technology Bears Miss 20% Payouts After Giving Up on Short Sales. Bears who abandoned bets against technology companies from Facebook (FB) Inc. to Netflix Inc. (NFLX) in 2013 can only sit and watch now as the stocks tumble.

CME Sued For Giving "High-Frequency Traders Peek At Market" Since 2007

As The Bitcoin Bubble Bursts, Digital Currencies Have A Dilution Problem. (graph)

Told you so:  Shipbuilding Orders Evaporate As Baltic Dry Collapses. (graph)

Wal-Mart(WMT) Cries Foul on China Fines. Company Says Safety Burden Unfairly Falls on Retailers, Rather Than Manufacturers. ?

Amazon(AMZN) Preparing to Release Smartphone. Retailer Has Plans to Announce Phone in June, Begin Shipping By End of September. ?