13Sep2016 Market Close: US Markets Close Down Over One Percentage Points, Crude Prices And Gold Slip, Investors Very Concerned Over Fed’s Rate Increase, Or Not

Exclusive: Monsanto board close to giving nod to Bayer deal on Tuesday – sources

FRANKFURT/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Monsanto Co’s board is set to meet on Tuesday to decide whether to approve a sale to Germany’s Bayer AG for more than $65 billion after concluding more than four months of negotiations, people familiar with the matter said.

Tumbling oil sends Wall Street into a slide

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks fell more than 1 percent on Tuesday, with energy stocks slammed by lower oil prices and financials dropping on diminished prospects of a near-term rate hike.

U.S. sees stronger median household income, less poverty

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The median U.S. household income rose last year, its first significant annual increase since 2007, and helped push down the number of people living in poverty to 43.1 million, federal government data released on Tuesday showed.

Atlanta Fed’s Lockhart to leave office in February 2017

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank president Dennis Lockhart will step down on Feb. 28 next year, the Atlanta Fed said on Tuesday, with a nationwide search planned for his replacement.

Fed looks unlikely to hike next week after Brainard warning

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve should avoid removing support for the U.S. economy too quickly, Fed Governor Lael Brainard said on Monday in comments that solidified the view the central bank would leave interest rates unchanged next week.

Investors sue Porsche SE over Volkswagen scandal

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Porsche SE , the main shareholder of Volkswagen (VW) , is facing lawsuits from investors claiming the firm did not disclose the financial risks of VW’s emissions scandal uncovered a year ago.

U.S. judge denies Vivint request to advance SunEdison litigation

(Reuters) – A U.S. bankruptcy court judge on Tuesday denied Vivint Solar Inc’s request to advance its lawsuit against bankrupt renewable energy developer SunEdison Inc stemming from a failed merger.

Sprint, T-Mobile iPhone pre-orders boost Apple shares

(Reuters) – U.S. wireless carriers Sprint Corp and T-Mobile US Inc said on Tuesday they received strong pre-orders for Apple Inc’s iPhone 7, sending shares of the world’s most valuable listed company up 3 percent.

Exclusive: Goldman team uses retail deposits for Wall Street-style profits

NEW YORK (Reuters) – As Goldman Sachs Group Inc has built its U.S. consumer bank, it has established a team to put its deposits to work on Wall Street, a telling development about Goldman’s ambitions for the retail bank.

European Civil War Looms: French Professor Fears Growing “Jihad Generation” Among Unemployed Muslims

“The long-term goal of the Jihad Generation is to destroy Europe through civil war and then build an Islamic society from the ashes…” warns Professor Gilles Kepel, who is a specialist on Islamic and contemporary Arab world.

As The Sun reports, Kepel, from the Sciences Po in Paris, claims a growing number of Muslims with poor job prospects are forming a “Jihad Generation” to continue to commit acts of terror across Europe.

According to German newspaper Die Welt, Kepel said the terror group’s aim is to incite hatred towards Muslims from the rest of the society which would eventually radicalise others to the point that Europe could enter into full-blown civil war.

Kepel, who is a specialist on Islamic and contemporary Arab world, added these ISIS fanatics not only want to destroy Europe, but to eliminate more moderate Islamic opposition.

“The terrorism is above all an expression of a war within Islam,” he explained.

Most Salafists are not violent, Kepel says, “But they preach a cultural break …

Hillary Became Unelectable Long Ago

Submitted by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,

Whenever I bring up something Hillary Clinton has done or failed to do, there are always people who react with a “Yes, but Trump did so and so…!” reflex. I’d like to get that out of the way first of all, because it distorts the conversation to no end. Criticism of Hillary does not equal support for Trump. Suggesting that it does is insulting.

I do not think it’s a good idea for Trump to become president. But that does not mean it’s a better idea for Hillary to be inaugurated. In fact, there’s something to be said for the argument that if you have to choose between two really bad options, pick the worst in order get it over with faster. The problem with that, in turn, is that in this case it’s hard to determine which of the two is worse.

I’ve had an article in progress on my desktop for weeks, with the (work-)title “Hillary Is Not Electable”. Never finished it until now because there was always 1) lots of work on other things, and 2) a daily stream of new Hillary files that looked like they should be included (I have dozens of them open in a browser).

But then over the weekend, just after I had asked readers of the Automatic Earth Facebook page what they thought the odds were that Hillary would drop out of the presidential race citing health factors, I saw Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, tweet: “Hillary Clinton just became unelectable”, in reaction to the statement by her campaign that she had become ‘overheated’ during the 9/11 service in NY, where multiple sources report it was about 75ºF (24ºC) with a 40-45% humid …

Higher Risk, Rising Rates, Weaker Peso… Blame Trump?

If correlation is causation then there is only one ‘thing’ to blame for the sudden rise in interest rates, the tumble in the mexican peso, and the spike in volatility… Donald Trump’s rising popularity.

As Hillary’s odds tumble, the rising chance of a Trump presidency ‘appears’ to be making Mexican Peso holders nervous…

*MXN TO DAILY LOW 19.2101/USD, WEAKEST SINCE JUNE 24 BREXIT

It seems that Trump’s odds crossing 42% also triggered a spike in risk (though we note the plunge in Trump odds and spike in VIX around the Brexit vote)…

And interest rates are rising as ‘Fed-Truther’ Trump exposes reality in the Yellen’s manipulation…

And of course, as Trump surges, so Ch …

“You Will Be Poor”

Authored by Robert Gore via Straight Line Logic (h/t The Burning Platform),

How much of your wealth does the government want? How much do you have?

There has been a progression through each iteration of monetary theft. A trial balloon launches, usually from academia, which proposes an “innovation” contrary to reigning practice and orthodoxy. A curmudgeonly minority reject it; the majority, securing their places on the intellectual fashion forefront, excoriate the old and after a suitable time for faux consideration and discussion, embrace the new.

The public, insufficiently appreciative of the arcane language, abstruse reasoning, and self-evident erudition and brilliance of the experts, sometimes presents an obstacle. It was hostile towards the US’s first foray into monetary theft: central banking. The anti-central bank contingent won battles for 137 years, but lost the war in 1913. J.P. Morgan and cronies laid the intellectual groundwork: conferences, scholarly papers, legislative proposals, and a Greek chorus of the day’s one-percenters singing at the top of their lungs that America needed to join the civilized world and establish its own central bank.

If you understand the main purpose of central banks, then notwithstanding obfuscatory “Fedspeak,” endless media drivel, and academics’ Greek-letter-laden equations, you know all you need to know about these larcenous institutions. …

Wells Fargo Hasn’t Escaped Cross-Selling Tangle

Wells Fargo is changing its sales incentives, but hasn’t given up on its excessive focus on cross-selling to existing customers.

In One Chart: 22,000 years of climate change, captured by a cartoonist

Randall Munroe, a one-time NASA employee who now runs the popular XKCD blog, posted a captivating graphic this week tracing climate change all the way back from 20,000 BC to the present.

Capitol Report: U.S. debt ceiling of $20 trillion-plus to be reached soon in next presidency

Whoever is elected president won’t get much breathing room after taking office: The government’s borrowing limit is set to run out in mid-March, potentially sparking another brouhaha with Congress.