07Dec2016 Pre-Market Commentary: Wall Street Takes A Breather, Crude Prices Slipping, Investors On Full Bull Run Despite Indicators In Extreme Greed Range

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

European markets are broadly higher today with shares in Germany leading the region. The DAX is up 1.30% while London’s FTSE 100 is up 1.28% and France’s CAC 40 is up 0.72%.

Exclusive: In mammoth task, BP sends almost three million barrels of U.S. oil to Asia

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil major BP is shipping almost three million barrels of U.S. crude to customers across Asia, pioneering a lengthy and complex operation likely to become more popular after OPEC last week announced deep production cuts.

Monte dei Paschi bolsters European stocks, ECB looms

LONDON (Reuters) – European shares followed Asian stocks higher on Wednesday, buoyed by reports Italy would step in to rescue troubled bank Monte dei Paschi and expectations the European Central Bank would extend its bond-buying stimulus scheme this week.

Trump defends his comments on Boeing, sees markets going up: NBC interview

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump said companies should welcome his actions because they will prosper under his administration, the U.S. President-elect told NBC on Wednesday, one day after Boeing Co’s shares took a hit when he used Twitter to criticize one of its high-profile projects.

J&J questions fairness of hip implant trial, $1 billion verdict

(Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson will challenge the fairness of a trial that produced a verdict of $1 billion in damages against the company last week over allegations of design flaws in its Pinnacle hip implant.

SoftBank’s Son pledges $50 billion, Foxconn eyes U.S. expansion as Trump woos Asian firms

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two of Asia’s biggest technology companies said they were looking to expand investment in the United States, as President-elect Donald Trump pushes to bring manufacturing and jobs back home.

Oil slips on doubts output cut will end global glut

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices slipped on Wednesday on doubts production cuts promised by OPEC and Russia would be deep enough to end a supply overhang that has weighed on markets for more than two years.

Staples to sell controlling stake in European unit to Cerberus

(Reuters) – Office supplies retailer Staples Inc said on Wednesday it would sell its controlling stake in its European business to an affiliate of private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP to focus on its North American operations.

EU fines Agricole, JPMorgan and HSBC $520 million over Euribor

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission has fined Credit Agricole , HSBC and JPMorgan Chase a total of 485 million euros ($520 million) for their alleged participation in a cartel to manipulate the price of the Euribor financial benchmark.

SunPower widens cost-cutting plan to include job cuts, plant closure

(Reuters) – SunPower Corp , the No. 2 U.S. solar panel maker, said on Wednesday it would lay off about 25 percent of its workforce, or 2,500 employees, and close one plant as part of a cost-cutting plan it announced last month.

Donald Trump Is Time Magazine’s 2016 “Person Of The Year”

One year after narrowly losing to Angela Merkel (and tied with ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi), Donald Trump has finally won the 2016 Time “Person of the Year Award”, the person – or idea – who according to the magazine has most influenced the news and the world in the past year, for good or ill.

Trump beat out 10 other finalists, including his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. TIME declared Clinton their runner-up.

This will be Trump’s 10th time on the magazine’s cover, and all but one have been since August 2015. His first appearance on TIME was in 1989.

The magazine has made the designation every year since 1927, when aviator Charles Lindbergh was chosen as the first Man of the Year. The title was amended to Person of the Year in 1999. Over its history, TIME has bestowed the title to many presidents, political leaders and industry trailblazers who often view the designation as an honor. However, the magazine also has selected notorious recipients in the past, including Adolf Hitler in 1938, Joseph Stalin in 1939 and 1942, and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, because of the impact they had on the world at the time.

As Time explains, “this is the 90th time we have named the person who had the greatest influence, for better or worse, on the events of the year. So which is it this year: Better or worse? The challenge for Donald Trump is how profoundly the country disagrees about the answer.” Trump’s response per an interview on the NBC “Today” show aired moments ago: “It’s a great honor, it means a lot.”

Buy Silver – May Replace Gold Money In India

Buy Silver – May Replace Gold as Preferred Money of India Silver replacing gold as India’s preferred investment option again after 100 years?

by Fergal O’Connor, Senior Lecturer in Finance, University of York

The Indian government has been trying to reduce its citizens’ demand for imported gold through a number of means over the last few years. This is part of a wider crackdown on currency used in the black market, that included the withdrawal and replacement of its two largest-denomination bank notes in early November. The strategy will likely have some unintended consequences if we take our cues from the events of 1910.

Growth in Indian gold and silver jewellery demand. Thomson Reuters GFMS Gold 2016 and Silver Survey 2016

Indians� …

Frontrunning: December 7

Futures rise for third day in a row (Reuters); Banks Lead Stock Rally as Bonds Gain With Hopes Pinned on Draghi (BBG)

Monte dei Paschi bolsters European stocks, ECB looms (Reuters)

Finding Risk in All the Wrong Places as Trump Era Begins (BBG)

Goldman Tells Stock Pickers to Rejoice as Correlations Decline (BBG)

Trump’s ‘Wall’ at Mexico Border Vanishing as GOP Lawmakers Bolt (BBG)

AT&T CEO: Time Warner Deal Would ‘Disrupt’ Cable TV Model (WSJ)

Americans Are Paying Apple Millions To Shelter Overseas Profits (BBG)

China premier says steady growth this year to lay good foundation for 2017 (Reuters)

The ‘Weird’ Commodity Hurting the Bears as Prices Double (BBG)

Aleppo rebels call for five-day ceasefire (Reuters)

China calls Iowa’s Brans …

China’s FX Reserves Drops Most in 10 Months; Yuan at 8 Year Lows

Whether it’s because China is rigging their currency or staving off capital flight from the mainland, the yuan is dropping almost every day now v the dollar, which is having a deleterious effect on FX reserves. But don’t feel too bad for the great wall’d nation of dog eaters just yet. They still have north of $3t of our dollars stashed away — as we swim in their cheap shit purchased at Walmart.

Reserves plunged by $69.1b to $3.05t in November, the most since January — when the future for China and global trade was bleak and markets got off to the worst start to a new year ever. Good times.

Rigged economics

When China lost $99b in January, people freaked the fuck out, thinking the end was near and how China would fast run out of cash — as the capital flight picked up steam. Those fears were soon quelled, as the communist command economy slapped the shit out of anyone who dared move large sums of money out and the global hegemony of QE whisked the markets’ problems away.

The fifth-straight monthly decline brings the reduction in the stockpile to almost $1 trillion from a record $4 trillion in June 2014. While authorities have begun tightening capital controls, a $50,000 limit that Chinese citizens are allowed to convert from yuan annually will reset at the start of the new year, potentially adding depreciation pressure on the currency.

“Containing capital outflows is the key to keeping China’s systematic risk in check,” Harrison Hu, chief greater China economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in Singapore, wrote in a note after th …

The Real Art Behind the Trump-SoftBank $50 Billion Deal

SoftBank’s big U.S. investment plan likely would have happened even without the input of the president-elect. Mr. Trump took credit anyway.

China’s Yuan and the Trillion-Dollar Numbers Game

There may be nothing significant per se about having more than $3 trillion in reserves. But markets have a way of getting antsy about these things.

India’s Central Bank Can’t Cut It

India’s central bank is paralyzed by cash: Too little in the streets, too much in the banks.

Do Rises In Oil Prices Mean Rises In Food Prices?

from the St Louis Fed

— this post authored by Michael T. Owyang

Prices for agricultural commodities have been rising over the past 10 years. During the same period, crude oil prices have also increased substantially. The simultaneous rise in the price for agricultural inputs and crude oil has raised new questions about whether an increase in oil prices translates to increased food prices, an occurrence called pass-through.

Need to Know: This indicator says the stock market’s celebration has gone too far

What’s driving this market forward? It might be plain old greed, according to our chart of the day. But our call says let’s not worry about this just yet.

Racism is built into sharing economy, and startups can do little about it

Studies have tracked racial discrimination in car-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, as well as on home-rental sites like Airbnb, and experts argue that the independent-contractor model of the sharing economy enables it while protecting the companies from blame.

Capitol Report: House’s top tax writer calls reform, not Trump tariff, the path to keeping business in U.S.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady talks to MarketWatch about Republicans’ tax plans; President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threat; asking Democrats about a ‘redesign’ for the Internal Revenue Service; and more.