Monday, May 13, 2013

The economy in China is beginning to stall, the American economy has been flat lined near 2% for five years and the European economies have been in decline for a year. All three economic motors have been inflating their money supplies during the last five years. World bulk trade has been down 90% from the highs for two years now. Athens was inflating theirs and hiding debt off-the-books for thirteen years. World trade has been dead for four years (flat lined). Look at the last 5 years! It still looks close to zero growth and almost no world trade going on!

http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/BDIY:IND/chart
 
Five weeks ago we reported that,” People are reporting that "Big Brother is Watching You!" signs are appearing in various forms.  Some signs have big eyes.  Others report they get computer messages saying things like "Two people are watching you."  Read Huxley's book "1984" if you don't know what that means.”  Friday, Charlie Rangel told MSNBC live that the reason the IRS is auditing and discriminating against Christian groups and conservative groups is because the Supreme Court ruled that they do not have to divulge private information.  So the IRS made private information part of the questioning before they give corporate status.  Billy Graham’s group however was audited after they said they were in favor of traditional marriages apparently because they could not be harassed with months of illegal invasion of their privacy any other way.
Beware, there appears to be little underlying value in any of the exchange traded funds (ETF’s).  They appear to be unpredictable (uncorrelated with underlying stocks) derivative securities.  While shares of stock are shares of ownership in corporations that have intrinsic value and create wealth, many ETF’s merely are derivatives that pit buyers against sellers or sometimes novices against market manipulators.  They go up when there are more buyers than sellers and the amount of change is not anchored to underlying value, or a sector of the economy or commodities like gold.  Many on Wall Street know ETF’s could be a latest ticking derivative time bomb and novice investors who are flocking to them could eventually be hurt when that system collapses.  Even Jim Cramer still said buy the underlying gold.
 
It looks quite possible that this latest stock market run-up is a consequence of hedge funds cutting short positions at a loss and other funds eliminating their 10% cash position and pushing ETF’s up on low volume and triggering the fever (greed) to stop normal fund short selling that keeps the market in balance and let prices climb with no change underlying values.  Add to that all the small investors going into debt.  When the current bubble bursts they will find many of the new ETF derivatives are worthless just like the mortgage base derivatives that brought down the banks in 2008.  Consumer debt is in record territory.
 
Monday Treasury 10-year yields were surging toward 2 percent and 20-year were over 3% for the first time since March.  Could this be the end of the usefulness of QE3 in keeping US interest rates low?   The deficit interest rate will unfortunately eventually balloon like Spain’s rates when confidence in the Obama administration Anti-American freedom and enterprise policy is lost.  And the dollar will then come under attack.  10-year Treasury interest cost for the US Treasury reached the highest level in almost seven weeks on anticipation central banks will use more Quantitative Easing (leverage)  to spur economic growth will compromise the safety of government debt.
 
The European and Asian currency declines against the dollar hurts American sales abroad and the declining currencies mean foreign profits will decline faster when converted to dollars.  It is the reverse of the double whammy of the recent foreign profit gains that were realized this past year.
 
US industrial production declined in April by the most in eight months, indicating American manufacturers will provide little support for an economy beset deficits, gun running, IRS harassment, invasion of privacy, and attacks on the freedom of the press. There are weaker global markets and federal slow downs with a President that uses executive privilege for everything but things that make common sense such merging duplication of effort and other wastes.
 
World oil markets are under pressure as continuous Islamic infighting, bomb, riots and terrorism is taking its toll on Sharia law states and Arabs cannot afford to reduce production to raise prices due to the increasing cost of continuing Islamic Terrorism.
 
Yum’s China sales collapsed 29%.
 
China’s retail sales grew 9.3 percent in April while a year earlier it climbed 12.8 percent, China announced Monday.   Fixed-asset investment unexpectedly decelerated last month increasing concerns that the economy will fail to show much of a recovery this quarter.
 
The Commerce Department reported construction spending in the U.S. fell in March, reflecting the biggest slump in government projects in 11 years. http://www.martincapital.com/index.php?page=graph&view=construction
 
Manufacturing slowed and companies took on the fewest workers in seven months in spite of the Fed flooding brokers and hedge funds with cash to bet on the market going higher.  All that money could evaporate in a few days or a week since there has been no growth to speak of and that would increase the US deficit by that amount.  $85 Billion per month QE is a potential $1Tillion per year addition to the USA deficit.
http://www.martincapital.com/index.php?page=graph&view=ISM
 
Consumer sentiment is still in the doldrums.
http://www.martincapital.com/index.php?page=graph&view=consumer_sentiment
 
Factory orders year to year have become stuck near zero change.
http://www.martincapital.com/index.php?page=graph&view=factory_orders
 
Producer and Consumer price indices are declining again as if we were slipping into another recession or depression on top of Obama’s 5 year recession.
http://www.martincapital.com/index.php?page=graph&view=CPI_PPI
 
World Economies
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/
http://www.foxbusiness.com/index.html
 
European Union statistics office said Wednesday that the euro zone is now in its longest recession in its history.  Nine of the 17 EU countries that use the euro are in recession and overall, the euro zone’s economy contracted for the sixth straight quarter, shrinking by 0.2 percent in the January-March period.
 
The Group of Seven finance chiefs gathered Monday to talk while central banks keep easing but their cuts fail to spur growth while inflating stock markets and increasing the wealth of only the top 1%.   Polls show that this QE policy has made Obama most popular with the richest Americans and least popular with the shrinking middle class.
Hong Kong’s economy grew a less-than-estimated 0.2 percent in the first three months of this year, the slowest pace in three quarters, as China’s expansion cooled.
U.K. construction output fell to its lowest level in more than 14 years in the first quarter as new work declined across the industry.
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) cut its forecast to 2.5 percent from 3.7 percent after China’s first-quarter data.
 
Speculation is now showing up everywhere.  MSNBC said the US was recovering and explained the new US highs but as we showed the numbers they use are not true and now the fact that Europe and Asia are rising without any recovery shows the world stock markets are now hit with shear dangerous speculation.
The German market just set a new all time high with a sharp spike in prices.
http://in.finance.yahoo.com/q/ta?s=%5EGDAXI&t=my&l=on&z=l&q=l&p=&a=&c=
 
All the main international markets just spiked up with no cause other than speculation with cash from money borrowed from Obama and Bernanke.
The Greek market indicates stagnation since year 2000.
http://in.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=AEX.AS&t=my&l=on&z=l&q=l&c=
 
The French market indicates stagnation since year 2000.
http://in.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5EFCHI&t=my
 
The Swiss market indicates stagnation since 2007.  But once again look at the spike up in stock prices with Bernanke’s $85,000,000,000/month gift from America to the stock and bond markets of the world as more people enter poverty, go hungry and lose their jobs under Socialism’s equality of poverty.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5ESSMI+Basic+Chart&t=my
 
  The NYSE is similar to the British and Swiss and indicates stagnation since 2007 given in excess of 15% total inflation since then. http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=%5ENYA+Interactive#symbol=^nya;range=my;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined;
 
 The S&P is also at old resistance levels which were set in 2000 and 2007 and at this level it has not even matched inflation.  Simple mathematics says that after a 66.6% drop in value it has to go up 300% from the low to get back to breaking even.  The market (accounting for inflation) was lower in 2007 than in 2002 and is lower now in 2013 than in 2007.  And MSNBC/Pravda says we are recovering because we are at the same stock market level we had in early 2000 before the Clinton recession, the Bush election and 911 terrorism.
http://www.google.com/finance?q=INDEXSP%3A.INX&ei=l_-LUejREeO_0gHwwQE
 
 American Economy
May 13
Retail Sales Apr 0.1% flat -0.5% ---
Retail Sales ex-auto Apr -0.1%  -0.2% -
Business Inventories Mar 0.0% run out 0.1%
 
May 14
AM Export Prices ex-ag. Apr -0.5% decline with dollar strength -0.2%
Import Prices ex-oil Apr -0.2% decline with dollar strength -0.2%
Dollar strength hurts exports---
 
May 15
MBA Mortgage Index 05/11 -7.3% down terribly 7.0% - -
PPI Apr -0.7% deflationary -0.6% - -
Core PPI Apr 0.1% flat 0.2%
Empire Manufacturing May -1.4 down from 3.1 - -
Net Long-Term TIC Flows Mar -$13.5B still outflow -$17.8B -
Industrial Production Apr -0.5% -much worse 0.4% --
Capacity Utilization Apr 77.8% down 78.5% ---
NAHB Housing Market Index May 44 still torpid 42 -
Crude Inventories 05/11 -0.624M falling from 0.230M+
 
May 16
Initial Claims 05/11 360K up 10% from 323K ---
Continuing Claims 05/04 3009K up from 3005K --
CPI Apr -0.4% extremely depression like down from -0.2% - ---
Core CPI Apr 0.1% flat at 0.1% 
Housing Starts Apr 853K sharply lower from 1036K---
Building Permits Apr 1017K up from 902K ++
Philadelphia Fed May -5.2 sharp contraction 1.3 - --
Natural Gas Inventories 05/11 99 bcf not meaningful 88 bcf
 
May 17
Mich Sentiment May 83.7 up from 76.4
Leading Indicators Apr 0.6% up from -0.1%
 
The Markets May 17, 2013
The past short selling of funds is now almost non-existent.  When it starts the short sellers will overwhelm the market.  Beware of a bull trap when the bulls decide the advance is long in the tooth and to get out and cause a run-up and then sell into the new bulls that are too late for the party.  The market drops so fast the new bulls are trapped.  Make sure if one bank or brokerage firm goes broke that you will not lose everything.  Keep no more than the insured amount in one bank.  Be aware that you do not know just how leveraged brokerage firms and banks have become until a collapse and then their hidden debts and risks are revealed too late.
 
We expect ETF’s will be blamed for the losses in the next market collapse because they are not understood by the people using them and are complicated derivatives like the ones Goldman and others marketed to the unsuspecting in 2005-2008.
 
We think this year will resemble the last two where the market advanced early in the year then lost most of it and then reversed again.  But it may also be the end of our bull stock market.  There is an increasing possibility that the bull market we had since April 2009 is ending now at a peak and it will be down at the end of the year.  Bull markets once ran 3 years then 4 years but rarely 5 years.  Ours has already run 4 years so far.  Bear markets usually follow for 1 to 2 years.  The NYSE is a broad market while the DJI is too easily manipulated.
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=%5ENYA+Interactive#symbol=^nya;range=my;compare=;indicator=ema(200,100)+volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined;
 
Look at the recent Bulls- Bears indicator.  More bulls than bears means more exuberance or topping.   That is a bearish sign!
 http://www.martincapital.com/index.php?page=graph&view=investors_intel
 
World trade has been dead for four years (flat lined).  Look at the last 5 years!  It still looks close to zero growth.
http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/BDIY:IND/chart
 
Bernanke is pushing on a string.  The FED has run out of leverage at close to 0% short term interest rates. 
 
The VIX behaved this way in 2006 and 2007when the bubble began to unravel but the market did not collapse until 2008.   Again look at 5 years and you see the worst is yet to come.  The VIX would normally top out above 30 before the bear market ends.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5EVIX&t=5y&l=on&z=l&q=l&c=
World market updates:
http://finance.yahoo.com/intlindices?e=europe

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