20Sep2016 Market Close: US Markets Closed Flat After A Last Minute Sell-Off, WTI Back In The 46 Handle, US Dollar Tickles 96 And Gold Remains Steady Ahead Of The Fed Meeting

Senators push Wells Fargo CEO on pay clawbacks after bogus accounts

(Reuters) – U.S. Senate lawmakers excoriated Wells Fargo & Co’s chief on Tuesday for his oversight of the bank as it opened 2 million bogus customer accounts, potentially laying the groundwork for new rules and reviving questions of whether banks are “too big to fail.”

Wall Street edges up on healthcare boost; Fed on tap

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street inched higher on Tuesday, helped by deal-making in the healthcare sector, a day before highly anticipated outcomes of monetary policy meetings in the United States and Japan.

West Virginia investigating Mylan over EpiPen pricing

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The state of West Virginia is investigating whether Mylan NV violated antitrust law or defrauded the state’s Medicaid program in connection with its EpiPen device.

Fed again poised to cut longer-run interest rate forecast

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers are set this week to again cut their forecasts for how high interest rates will need to go in an economy where output, productivity and inflation are growing at a slower pace than in past decades.

U.S. consumer protection agency fields nearly one million complaints

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A leading consumer protection agency has fielded nearly 1 million complaints in a database that helped investigate client abuse at Wells Fargo, the head of the agency told lawmakers on Tuesday.

Shell moving out of downtown complex but to remain in Houston

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Shell Oil Co, the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, plans to move most of the operations at its company’s downtown headquarters to new offices on the city’s west side, Shell announced to employees on Tuesday.

Atlanta Fed downgrades U.S. third-quarter GDP view to 2.9 percent

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is on track to grow at a 2.9 percent annualized rate in the third quarter, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDP Now forecast model showed on Tuesday following the latest data on consumer prices and housing starts.

McAfee’s MGT sinks 21 percent after NYSE refuses share listing

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Shares of MGT Capital Investments , led by anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee, dropped 21 percent on Tuesday after it said the New York Stock Exchange denied approval of the listing of shares for a planned merger with anti-spyware company D-Vasive Inc.

U.S. housing starts tumble, flooding in the South blamed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. housing starts fell more than expected in August likely as bad weather disrupted building activity in the South, but a solid increase in permits for single-family dwellings suggested demand for housing remained intact.

How Big An Impact Will A Rate Hike Have On Oil Prices?

Submitted by Peter Taberner via OilPrice.com,

Oil prices could be facing a significant jolt after Federal Chair Janet Yellen, in her annual speech at the Jackson Hole economic symposium in Wyoming, said that the case to increase interest rates had strengthened. The extent of the jolt that may be felt is far from certain however.

Due to the quotations of crude oil in U.S. dollars, there is often a bind between the fate of the greenback and the costs of oil per barrel, as the balance of oil trade and the effect on market psychology can be hugely influential.

There are, however, other significant factors in the oil price equation, including high production rates and inventories.

Spencer Welch, director of downstream energy consulting at IHS Markit explained that:

“a rate hike would strengthen the U.S. dollar, which would make oil more expensive globally, so this would tend to reduce oil demand slightly, but it takes a while for this effect to play out, and would therefore likely reduce oil market price.”

“By how much? That depends on the size of the interest rate increase. It is likely to be less than $1/bbl in oil price impact, but that is not based on historical statistics.”

Different nations Welch believes, are effected …

Retirement Crisis Looms As Average U.S. Household Has Saved $2,500 For Retirement

The global demographic crisis expected to play out over the coming years has been a frequent topic of ours (you can read our most recent post on the topic here: “DB Warns 35-Year Economic Super Cycle Is Officially Ending”). The problem, of course, is that baby boomers all over the globe are on the verge of transitioning out of their highest wage earning years and into retirement. That transition brings with it all sort of negative consequences ranging from the detrimental impact on average incomes and GDP to exposing the epic ponzi schemes that workers have heretofore referred to by their more common names of pension plans, social security, medicare and medicaid.

A report from the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) recently pointed out just how ill prepared American’s are for retirement. The study by the NIRS found that the average American household has $2,500 saved for their retirement. Even worse, the study found that even people near retirement (aged 55-64) have only set aside $14,500 which should allow them to live very comfortably for about 2-3 months.

Among working households in the U.S., 40% were found to have no savings set aside for retirement at all and nearly 80% had less than enough to cover 1 year of expenses.

With Trump Regaining North Carolina Lead, Hillary Unexpectedly Postpones Local Fundraiser “Without Reason”

If there was a time Hillary needed to make a public appearance in the key battleground state of North Carolina to drum up voter support, it was today, if for no other reason than a just released Elon University poll finding Trump now has a modest 44% advantage among likely voters in the Tar Heel State, with 43% going to Clinton.

According to the poll, most voters felt Trump would be better for rich people, white people and men, while most believe Clinton would be better for poor people, women and minorities. “This election is so tight right now, that small swings of a few points should be expected between now and November,” said Jason Husser, assistant professor of political science at Elon and director of the Elon University Poll. “North Carolina has been extremely important over the last several election cycles with very tight election outcomes. These numbers suggest that will continue to be the case, and both campaigns would do well to continue to focus on the Old North State.”

It’s not just the closeness of the poll that makes NC so critical; it’s also Trump’s recent rebound, which as shown in the following chart from Real Clear Politics has him taking the lead for the first time since late June.

The ZIRP/NIRP Gods & Their PhD Priesthood Have Failed

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

The priesthood’s insane obsession with forcing people to spend their savings by punishing savers with ZIRP/NIRP has failed spectacularly for a simple reason: it completely misunderstands human psychology.

Let’s start with a simple chart of the Fed Funds Rate, which the Federal Reserve has pinned near zero for years. This Zero Rate Interest Policy (ZIRP) is the god the PhD economists in the Fed and other central banks worship as the supreme force in the Universe, along with its even more severe sibling god, NIRP (negative interest rate policy), which demands that banks and depositors must pay for the privilege of holding cash.

Precisely what have ZIRP and NIRP fixed in the global economy? The short answer is “nothing.” Instead of fixing what’s broken, ZIRP and NIRP have pushed a broken system further along the path of self-destruction.

Let’s stipulate that not all economics PhDs are members of the failed Keynesian Cargo Cult Priesthood. A few “professional” economists get it, but they are heretics who are kept far from the priesthood’s temples of power: central banks, central state Treasury departments, major university faculties, etc.

The basic problem with the professional priesthood is they believe that their cult is a “real science,” and their “proof” is a bunch of equations that they claim map and predict human behavior. Like the other social sciences, economics suffers from a pathologically obsessive envy of physics, i.e. “real science” that actually predicts the actions of materials and o …

As Comcast Hits the Airwaves, T-Mobile Looks Interesting

Comcast’s new wireless service may prompt it to consider buying its own network one day and T-Mobile US looks like an obvious choice.

China Capital Outflows Bubble Below the Surface

Higher U.S. rates and a stronger dollar are powerful attractive forces for Chinese capital. China’s outflow problems haven’t gone away.

Chilled Vertex Could Heat Up Quickly

A rough year for Vertex Pharmaceuticals gives biotech investors an opening.

Moneyism: 5 apps for spying on your spouse

How to keep tabs on your loved ones — for better or for worse.

The one way Donald Trump is bad for media’s bottom line

Donald Trump, throughout his campaign to be the 45th president of the United States of America, as spent far less to advertise for himself—and against his opponents—on TV than any other major candidate in the 2016 cycle.

Allergan is paying a stunning 500% premium to buy a clinical-stage biotech

The usual premium on a company with no approved drugs is closer to 50% to 100%, says RBC.