Monday Market Mania – Putin Wins by a Landslide!

“Well, I’ve been afraid of changin’

‘Cause I’ve built my life around you

But time makes you bolder

Even children get older

And I’m getting older too

And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills

Well, the landslide bring it down” – Fleetwood Mac 

Congratulations to Vladimir Putin, who has been re-elected to 6 more years as President of the ever-expanding Russia by a LANDSLIDE. Putin is a very young (by American standards) man of 71 and our sincere regrets go out to the families of his opponents – who are not very likely to see 71… or next week…

Putin has been President, or something, since New Year’s Eve of 1999, when Boris Yeltsin celebrated the Millennium by resigning and you can see here what a warm and loving moment that was between him and his “appointed” successor.  

Since then, Putin has made between $70 and $200Bn – no one know for sure but it’s A LOT, which is why our own President Trump loves the idea of being President – it’s so profitable! Oh, and the “upholding and defending the Constitution” too, I’m sure…

It will be Moscow on the Hudson if Trump is reelected as his legal team has already argued in court that the assassination of rivals is covered by presidential immunity. Former President Trump’s legal team told the court that even a president directing SEAL Team Six to kill a political opponent would be an action barred from prosecution given a former executive’s broad immunity to criminal prosecution. Of course, Joe Biden could take this to heart and – problem solved!

Speaking of problems – the BOJ is raising rates above zero today for the first time since 2007 but only because borrowing costs are already rising and they don’t want to look like idiots who have no control of their policy – Fed take note! Meanwhile, China’s slow-motion train wreck of an economy continues as Zhongzhi Enterprise Group, who managed $140Bn, declared Bankruptcy in January and now the executives are on trial – as if that will fix it. 

Meanwhile, if you wonder what it takes to move a $1.7Tn company 5% higher – it’s partnering with a $3Tn company! That’s right, this morning there are rumors that Google (GOOG/L) will be partnering with Apple (APPL) to make our iPhones much creepier by adding as 24/7/365 AI companion you can share all your secrets (and accounts) with – what could possibly go wrong?  

That should give the Nasdaq a huge boost as it’s positive news for both companies and they other indexes should follow so we will have a good start to the week – how fortunate that all worked out after last week’s disappointing finish! 

We still have a bunch of earnings reports to sort through this week including ERJ, SIG, GIS, FIVE, GES, KBH, MU, WPM, ACN, DRI, WGO, FDX, LULU and NKE.

More importantly, of course, Wednesday is the Fed’s Rate Indecision – as no one expects any change at all. Other than that, there’s some Housing Data and Thursday we get Global PMI and Leading Indicators but that’s it for the week so we couldn’t possibly be more about the Fed than we are this week.