15Jun2018 Midday Update: Wall Street Drops On Rising Trade Tensions, WTI Crude Drops Precipitously To The Mid 64 Handle, US Dollar Remains Steady Near The 95 Level

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

North and South American markets are broadly lower today with shares in Brazil off the most. The Bovespa is down 1.91% while Mexico’s IPC is off 1.06% and U.S.’s S&P 500 is lower by 0.43%.

Trump sets $50 billion in China tariffs with Beijing ready to strike back

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump announced hefty tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports on Friday as Beijing threatened to respond in kind, in a move that looks set to ignite a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

Wall St. drops on rising trade tensions

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks fell on Friday after the United States announced tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to warn of retaliation and reigniting fears of a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

Qualcomm-NXP deal still waiting for China nod: sources

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China is yet to approve U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc’s proposed $44 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors , three people close to the talks said, dismissing an earlier media report that said Beijing had already greenlit the deal.

AT&T closes $85 billion deal for Time Warner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – AT&T Inc, the No. 2 wireless carrier, on Thursday closed its $85 billion deal to acquire media company Time Warner Inc after U.S. antitrust regulators indicated they would not seek a delay.

Comcast gains unconditional EU antitrust approval to buy Sky

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU antitrust regulators have given the green light to U.S. cable company Comcast’s plan to acquire European pay-TV group Sky without demanding concessions.

Volcker ‘fix’ may cause new headaches for Wall Street

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A proposal to simplify a rule banning banks from proprietary trading, rather than making life easier for Wall Street, could ensnare billions of dollars’ worth of assets not currently caught by the regulation.

Saudi Arabia plans leaders’ summit this year for OPEC, allies: sources

DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia plans to host a leaders’ oil summit later this year for OPEC and non-OPEC countries participating in a supply cut pact, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

U.S. industrial output dips in May as manufacturing declines

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. industrial production fell slightly in May amid a sharp drop in manufacturing output, the Federal Reserve said on Friday.

HSBC battles entrenched locals, past mistakes in U.S. credit card push

LONDON (Reuters) – HSBC’s push into credit cards and personal loans in the United States will be no easy task as the bank faces entrenched domestic rivals and the legacy of a previous disastrous foray into U.S. lending.

Cohen Willing To Turn “Angry At Treatment From Trump”: CNN

In a headline that seems to get trotted out every two or three days, CNN is reporting that Michael Cohen is seriously considering cooperating with prosecutors from the Southern District of New York to lighten the pressure on himself and his family. The story was sourced to “a source familiar with the matter,” which is interesting, because the story reads like a message drafted by Cohen – a message urging President Trump to do more to help his personal attorney, who has been said to know “where the bodies are buried” at the Trump Organization.

The tone of the story makes us wonder if the “source” cited by CNN is, in fact, Cohen himself. Line by line, the story has a suspicious consistency. Cohen has “expressed anger” at “the treatment he’s received from the president” accusing Trump of “minimizing his relationship” with his former personal attorney – an obvious reference to an interview with Fox & Friends where Trump said Cohen handled “a tiny fraction” of his overall legal work, a comment that was said to have bothered Cohen.

Gold & Silver Monkeyhammered Below Critical Support On Massive Volume

Gold prices are down almost 2% this morning – the biggest drop since Nov 2016, breaking below the key $1300 level, down to 6-month lows.

Silver is even worse – crashing 4%, back below $17 after a huge week of outperformance.

In fact Gold has fallen to the same level it was at right before its spiked on Trump’s election…

Having traded around $1300 for a month, heavy volume broke it below 2018’s lows and $1300 support…

For context – the last 4 hours have seen around 260,000 contracts dumped through Gold futures or around $34 billion notional!

What is most interesting is the …

Paul Manafort Headed To Jail After Judge Cancels House Arrest

It seems Special Counsel Robert Mueller finally has Paul Manafort right where he wants him – behind bars.

The judge overseeing the case against the former Trump campaign executive has ruled that the witness tampering charges levied against Manafort a week ago are serious enough to justify canceling his house arrest terms. Manafort will now be sent to jail to wait out the remainder of the time until his trial, Bloomberg reports.

This is a coup for Mueller – who has been trying to exert as much pressure as possible on Manafort to try to convince him to cooperate against his former boss.

Paul Manafort hurries into courthouse to sparse chants of “Lock him up!” pic.twitter.com/rG4PBSaXjS

— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry)

See? Now You Did It!

Authored by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,

This is something I’ve commented on many times. Like two months ago, when I wrote:

“As for Donald Trump, as much as we would like to engage in constructive criticism of the man and his government, we find we no longer can. The anti-Trump echo-chamber has turned so deafening that any intelligent debate about his policies is being drowned out amid the never ending flow of fake news and half truths and innuendo and empty smears that US media continue to spout. With a brief lull when the bombs fell on Syria.

Thank you, New York Times, WaPo, CNN, MSNBC. Thank you for killing the entire discussion, thank you for killing off journalism. There is a lot to say about Trump, much of it critical, but we can no longer open our mouths. Because we don’t want to be in the same camp as you. Life in the echo chamber has given us vertigo. We had to get out.”

Jim Kunstler thanked me for saying that. He very much feels the same way. Nothing has changed. They’re still at it, and we still can’t get a word in edgewise. I was thinking earlier today that the best the MSM can do to promote its own case is to praise Trump from time to time. Because that is the only way they could attract some ears and eyes from outside their echo chamber.

Goodbye ECB Bond-Buying, Hello Forward Guidance

The ECB hasn’t finished surprising investors yet. Thursday it brought the end of its massive bond-buying program closer, but pushed any interest-rate increases further out. The more dovish message won, sending the euro sinking against the dollar.

Big Tech Already Has the Best Show in Town

Tech companies have shown they don’t need to own large media agencies to establish a strong presence in the business.

Apple’s Display Plan Won’t Give Screen Makers Much Relief

The iPhone maker is delaying its full transition to a new screen technology, but that won’t help most Asian manufacturers for long.

Market Extra: Stock-market investors see China tariffs as a ‘buzzkill’ and are acting as if a genuine trade war just erupted

Has a tit-for-tat tariff spat between China and the U.S. shifted from a skirmish to a full-blown trade-war?

IQiyi, Dropbox rallies not the result of short squeezes, says S3

The recent rallies in shares of both Dropbox Inc. and iQiyi Inc. remain somewhat of a mystery, but investors can rule out a short squeeze.

NewsWatch: Look out, Facebook and Google: Amazon is becoming an advertising giant

While much has been said about Amazon.com Inc.’s aggressive bets on brick-and-mortar retail, health care and many other industries, the company has quietly built a sizable and growing business in an area dominated by two other tech titans: digital advertising.