Financial Markets and Economy
Mexico Lifts Rates Amid Peso’s Fall, Trump’s Rise (The Wall Street Journal)
Mexico’s central bank raised interest rates on Thursday as the country grapples with a weaker peso and uncertainty over the future of Mexico’s relationship with its largest trading partner.
Fed tightening could lead to a dollar shortage and a new financial crisis (The Daily Reckoning)
Trump’s election has filled the dollar’s sails with fresh winds. As Neil MacKinnon, economist with VTB Capital, says, “From the perspective of the financial markets, the immediate reaction to the outcome of last week’s election has been a stronger dollar due to expectations of a loose fiscal and tighter policy mix.”
Yellen Says She Isn't Going Anywhere When Trump Takes Office (Associated Press)
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen appears unruffled by incoming President Donald Trump's victory last week.
Thanksgiving Meal Costs Ease From 2015’s Record High: Chart (Bloomberg)
Thank cheaper turkeys and pumpkin-pie mix for this year’s lower Thanksgiving grocery bill. Costs for the holiday meal are seen falling to $49.87 per 10 people, according to an annual survey from the American Farm Bureau Federation.
CMHC’s mortgage insurance business vulnerable to sharply rising interest rates (The Globe And Mail)
A sudden sharp rise in interest rates that could cause Canadian home prices to plunge 30 per cent would trigger more than $1-billion in losses to the country’s government-backed mortgage insurer, according to the results of stress tests released today by the federal housing agency.
The Glory Days of Elizabeth Warren’s CFPB Are Numbered (Bloomberg)
On Nov.9, Senator Elizabeth Warren paid a visit to the headquarters of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Washington, the agency she helped create before she got to Congress.
Bet on Europe’s Elite Buying Off the Peasants’ Revolt (The Wall Street Journal)
The French have a traditional approach to revolting peasants: Let them eat cake. It didn’t work for Marie Antoinette, but the European elite has since found that fiscal expansion works better at buying off the populace than handouts of sweetened baked goods.
The Glaring Contradiction at the Heart of Donald Trump’s Economic Policy (UpShot, NY Times)
It is a truism that Donald J. Trump and his team will soon learn. And a fascinating example has emerged since the election, courtesy of global currency markets. It is a study in the kind of complex trade-offs that Mr. Trump rarely grappled with during his campaign but will face many times a day in the Oval Office.
USDJPY Hits 110, 30Y TSY At 3.00% Again – Trader Warns "Don't Fight The Trump Tidal Wave" (Zero Hedge)
Two brief days of hiatus from the bond bloodbath are over as following Yellen's testimony, 30Y yields have raced higher once again, breaking above 3.00%. Interestingly, EM bonds are having a big week even as DM bonds suffer.
Romney Meets Trump This Weekend, Will Discuss SecState Role In New Administration (Zero Hedge)
Mitt Romney will meet with President-elect Donald Trump this weekend to discuss the position of Secretary of State, a source tells NBC News. It's unclear if Romney, who was one of Trump's more vocal critics within the GOP, will meet with Trump at Trump Tower or at another location on Sunday.
Are The Saudis About To Reveal The Best Kept Secret In Oil? (OilPrice.com, Zero Hedge)
One of the oil world’s longest and best kept secrets may finally be revealed. Saudi Arabia is preparing to unveil how much oil it holds, a closely guarded state secret that has been kept quiet for decades.
At the Cato Institute’s 34th Annual Monetary Conference (The Aleph Blog)
Mark Calabria introduces him, maybe a little over the top — some clever comments and insightful, though. Gramm didn’t come to Congress to be loved. What does Mother think of your ideas, Gramm would often ask.
Bespoke’s Sector Snapshot — 11/17/16 (Bespoke)
Below is one of the many charts included in this week’s Sector Snapshot, which is our trading range screen for the S&P 500 and its ten sectors. We discuss in more detail how to read the chart in the full version of the report, but basically the dot is where the sector is currently trading, while the tail end is where it was trading one week ago.
3 Things: Retail Sales, Recurring Ignorance, & Return Reality (RealInvestmentAdvice.com)
There was an awful lot of cheering about the recent retail sales report which showed an uptick of 0.8% which beat the analyst’s estimates of 0.6%. Despite the fact, the improvement was driven by a surge in gasoline prices (which is important as consumers did not consume MORE of the product, but just paid more for it) important discretionary areas like restaurants and furniture declined.
Equity Breadth is Sending a Negative Signal About Growth Prospects (Gavekal Capital)
We all know that stocks are a leading indicator of economic growth and disappointingly recent breadth measures suggest that economic activity may slow over the next several months. In the charts below, we show the percentage of stocks trading above the 200-day moving average for various market aggregates, regions and sectors (with a 1-quarter lead) against the 3-month moving average of the ISM Manufacturing Index.
Companies
"Your Faith Will Be Rewarded" Says Musk As TSLA Shareholders Approve Solarcity Acquisition (Zero Hedge)
Moments ago, in a webcast announcing that Tesla shareholders overwhelmingly approved the Solarcity merger, with some 85% voting for the transaction and following the proxy ISS recommendation which recommended to accept the deal, Elon Musk encapsulated the sentiment by saying "I think your faith will be rewarded.
'BLINK BLINK, NOD NOD': Highlights from the JPMorgan bribery case (Business Insider)
JPMorgan on Thursday agreed to pay more than $264 million to US authorities to settle charges that it bribed officials in the Asia-Pacific region to win business, ending a nearly three-year investigation.
Is This Your Last Chance to Buy Disney Under $100? (Fool.com)
Shares of Disney (NYSE: DIS) are climbing again, and it may not be long before the stock breaks into the triple digits. You have to go all the way back to mid-July to find the last time that Disney stock closed north of $100, but the ingredients are starting to fall into place for another run.
Best Buy Rallies After Shoppers Snap Up Phones and Home-Theater Gear (Bloomberg)
Best Buy Co. rose after third-quarter earnings topped projections, with strong demand for mobile phones and home-theater equipment helping it overcome recalls of Samsung products and delayed shipments of appliances.
The market is ignoring a massive elephant in the room at Valeant (Business Insider)
Guys, there's something missing here.
Two former executives — from Valeant Pharmaceuticals and its defunct pharmacy, Philidor — have been arrested and charged with committing fraud to personally enrich themselves.
Technology
Facebook admits to more measurement mistakes (CNet)
In September, the social network admitted to overestimating video views in reports to advertisers. Now, the company has found a bug showing more discrepancies in Facebook's reporting to its business clients.
Verizon Gets Federal Okay For Key Piece of 5G Strategy (Fortune)
Acquisition would help it provide faster wireless service.
'Bond King' Jeffrey Gundlach Predicts Trump Will Cause Facebook and Amazon Stock to Crash (Fortune)
The so-called “Bond King” correctly predicted Donald Trump would win the election—though he never said that would be a good thing.
Facebook fake-news writer: ‘I think Donald Trump is in the White House because of me’ (The Washington Post)
What do the Amish lobby, gay wedding vans and the ban of the national anthem have in common? For starters, they’re all make-believe — and invented by the same man.
Automated Pro-Trump Bots Overwhelmed Pro-Clinton Messages, Researchers Say (NY Times)
An automated army of pro-Donald J. Trump chatbots overwhelmed similar programs supporting Hillary Clinton five to one in the days leading up to the presidential election, according to a report published Thursday by researchers at Oxford University.
Politics
Donald Trump’s Many, Many, Many, Many Conflicts of Interest (TIME)
When Donald Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States in January, it seems quite likely that he will bring hundreds of potential financial conflicts of interest with him into the Oval Office.
Trump Camp’s Talk of Registry and Japanese Internment Raises Muslim Fears (NY Times)
A prominent supporter of Donald J. Trump set off concern and condemnation from Muslims on Wednesday after citing World War II-era Japanese-American internment camps as a “precedent” for an immigrant registry suggested by a member of the president-elect’s transition team.
British politicians sign off on a bill to legally collect your browsing history (The Next Web)
Brits will likely be feeling pretty disappointed today. Members of the House of Lords have backed down on an amendment to the Investigatory Powers Bill — otherwise known as Snoopers’ Charter — which means that it’s now only a matter of time until it becomes a law.
