28Aug2015 Market Update: Markets Looking Weak Going Into The Afternoon Session As Oil Appears To Have Topped Out And Is Falling

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

North and South American markets are mixed. The Bovespa is higher by 2.23%, while the S&P 500 is leading the IPC lower. They are down 0.34% and 0.21% respectively.

Autos lift U.S. consumer spending; sentiment slips

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer spending rose in July as households stepped up automobile purchases, offering further evidence of strength in the economy that keeps the door open to a Federal Reserve interest rate hike this year.

Carmakers scramble to adapt to slowing Chinese demand

NEW YORK (Reuters) – China’s demand for luxury cars used to move in one direction – up. Now, the prospect of a sustained slump in Chinese demand, prompted by sharp declines in Chinese equity markets and a devaluation of the yuan, has global auto manufacturers scrambling to find new markets to sell goods.

Atlanta Fed Cuts Q3 GDP Forecast To A Paltry 1.2%

Earlier today, following the disappointing July personal spending data and yesterday’s record surge in inventories as part of the spike in Q2 GDP, we predicted that the Atlanta Fed would cut its already painfully low Q3 GDP forecast of 1.4%.

Atlanta Fed Q3 GDP update due today: should be a drop from 1.4%

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 28, 2015

Moments ago, it did just that, when the Atlanta Fed GDPNow “nowcast” was revised lower to just a 1.2% annualized growth rate, more than two-thirds below the BEA’s first revision of Q2 GDP.

If officially confirmed in two months, this would be the lowest GDP since Q1 2014, and just fractionally higher than the “harsh winter” double-seasonally adjusted GDP print from the first quarter which economists tell swear was due only to harsh weather. So what was the culprit this time: the record hot July?

Here are the reasons:

The GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the third quarter of 2015 is 1.2 percent on August 28, down from 1.4 percent on August 26. The forecast for real GDP growth in the third quarter decreased by 0.2 percentage points following this morning’s personal income and outlays report from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The …

Fed hawks acknowledge market turmoil may delay rate hike

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. (Reuters) – Federal Reserve officials who are most anxious to hike interest rates said on Friday that continued turmoil in financial markets may cause the central bank to delay tightening monetary policy beyond next month, even though the U.S. economy remains strong.

The Central Bankers’ Malodorous War On Savers

Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

Well, that didn’t take long!

After just three days of market turmoil the monetary politburo swung into action. This time they sent out B-Dud to promise still another monetary sweetener. Said the head of the New York Fed,

“From my perspective, at this moment, the decision to begin the normalization process at the September FOMC meeting seems less compelling to me than it was a few weeks ago.”.

Needless to say, “B-Dud” is a moniker implying extreme disrespect, and Bill Dudley deserves every bit of it. He is a crony capitalist fool and one of the Fed ring-leaders prosecuting a relentless, savage war on savers. Its only purpose is to keep carry trade speculators gorged with free funding in the money markets and to bloat the profits of Wall Street strip-mining operations, like that of his former employer, Goldman Sachs.

The fact is, any one who doesn’t imbibe in the Keynesian Kool-Aid dispensed by the central banking cartel can see in an instant that 80 months of ZIRP has done exactly nothing for the main street economy. Notwithtanding the Fed’s gussied-up theories about monetary “accommodation” and closing the “output gap” the litmus test is real simple.

To wit, artificial suppression of free market interest rates by the central bank is designed to cause households to borrow more money than they otherwise would in order to spend more than they earn, pure and simple. Its nothing more than a modernized version of the original,&n …

Wall Street slips after Fischer’s remarks

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks slipped on Friday after comments from an influential member of the U.S. Federal Reserve appeared to suggest an interest rate hike next month remained a possibility.

Moody’s cuts 2016 global growth forecasts

LONDON (Reuters) – Credit rating firm Moody’s cut its 2016 global economic growth forecasts on Friday, with China and United States both trimmed and Russia and Brazil seen staying in recession.

“Oil Cheap Or Gold Rich” Answered (For Now)

A week ago we noticed something extreme in the price relationship between gold and oil. At the time we asked “is gold rich or oil cheap?” It appears we have our answer… perfectly tagging the January highs in the gold/oil ratio, the screaming rally in oil has pushed the ratio back into a less extreme region…

From a week ago…Is Oil Cheap? Is Gold Expensive?

And now…

The same level we saw in early 2009 before oil surged…

And in the last few days post FOMC Minutes, the oil-USD correlation regime has shifted dramatically…

Fed’s Fischer says still undecided on whether to hike in September

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve is waiting to see how data and markets unfold over the coming weeks before deciding whether to raise interest rates at its September meeting, Vice Chair Stanley Fischer said on Friday.

Fair Game: S.E.C. Settlement With Citigroup Holds No One Responsible

The Citi employees whose strategy led to $2 billion in investor losses have not been pursued or even identified.

Dollar Spikes, Risk Slides After Fed’s Fischer Seen As “Not Dovish Enough”

It appears the economy is doing just well enough and the reflexive bounce in stocks showing that everything is awesome is all that Fed’s vice chair Stan Fischer appeared to need to note that “we are heading [a September rate hike]direction.” This has been judged as “not dovish enough” and sparked some turmoil…

Key Fischer points:

1) too early to decide on September but “we are heading in that direction”
2) previously was a strong case for Sept hike but market volatility making things problematic
3) We don’t fully understand market volatility
4) “we’ve got time to wait; we’ve got to take data into account”
5) Fed looking at 25 basis point increase, hike will be relatively slow

And the reaction is ‘hawkish’ – USD spike, Stocks/bonds lower, gold down…

and rate-hike odds soar…

And yet the only question that matters, was not asked: how does the Fed hike rates now that China’s reserve accumulation is going into reverse, and will lead to dumping of hundreds of billions in Treasurys at a time when the US budget deficit will still …

Brazil’s Big Bet on China Turns Sour

Brazil’s big bet on China is turning sour as the Asian country’s once voracious appetite for Brazilian exports dims.

Fed Fails – American Spending Growth Is Weakest Since March 2011

Core personal consumption growth in July was just 1.2% – the weakest since March 2011. Whatever The Fed is doing to grow the middle class (yes, yes, we know: that’s not in the mandate – only the “wealth effect” is) is not workingm and as the following chart suggests hasn’t worked for the past 35 years.

Chart: Blooomberg

Lower rates is not helping, and higher rates didn’t work in the 90s: maybe The Fed is all talk and CONfidence after all.

Oil Prices Resume Rally

Oil prices rose Friday, erasing earlier losses, as a surprise one-day rally extended to a second day.

BNY Mellon glitch roiled pricing on U.S. funds with $404 billion in assets

(Reuters) – BNY Mellon Corp’s computer glitch this week has disrupted pricing on nearly 5 percent of U.S. mutual funds and exchange-traded funds with about $404 billion in assets, according to data from Morningstar Inc and Lipper Inc.