Ukraine Claims It Can Intercept Conversations Of Kremlin Officials The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency has boasted of being capable of intercepting conversations of senior Russian officials. He made the big claim in a fresh local media interview, but didn’t back it up by proof or any specifics. “Yes, we can. We get paid for this,” stated the agency’s chief, Kyrylo Budanov, to RBC-Ukraine on Sunday. He had […]

Solid, Stopping-Through 3Y Auction Boosted By Surge In Foreign Demand Due to the FOMC meeting falling on a Wednesday, the Treasury is scrambling to issue this week’s coupon auctions, starting with a $58BN 3Y auction which saw solid demand when it was offered at 1pm ET. The sale of $58BN in 3 year paper priced at a high yield of 3.614%, up from 3.579% in November, and the highest since August. The auction also stopped through the […]

The DPI Link To Margin Debt Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, A recent article by Simon White, via Bloomberg, discussed the rising cost of margin debt for investors. While his analysis below compares the cost of debt to GDP, we will also consider a more critical comparison to disposable personal income (DPI). Here is Simon’s point. “Yet, where history does raise a red flag is if we look at the cost of […]

Offer Royale: Paramount-Netflix Bidding War For Warner Bros Heats Up In A Blockbuster Showdown Update (1324ET):  Here’s the side-by-side comparison of the Netflix versus Paramount-Skydance offers as the bidding war for Warner Bros.’ assets goes into overdrive. In markets, Netflix shares were down about 4% in early afternoon trading in New York, while Paramount shares were up nearly 10%. Fox Business reporter Charles […]

NY Fed Consumer Survey Shows Steady Inflation, Despite Soaring Expectations For Medical Care Costs US consumer inflation expectations were stable in November while perceptions about households current financial situations deteriorated “notably” and perceptions about job prospects improved, according to the latest Survey of Consumer Expectations from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Median inflation expectations a year ahead […]

Dr. Oz Threatens To Pull Funding From Minnesota After $1 Billion In Medicaid Funding Was Stolen by Fraudsters Authored by Jacki Thrapp via The Epoch Times, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) threatened to withhold federal funding from Minnesota after fraudsters allegedly stole more than $1 billion set aside for Medicaid programs. CMS administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz ordered Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to follow a […]

Jamie Dimon Says “People Have To Grow Up” After Being Asked About Crypto Debanking Claims JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has pushed back against claims that the bank is cutting off accounts because of political views or ties to crypto, following recent accusations from Strike CEO Jack Mallers that both his personal and business accounts were abruptly closed. The allegations — later amplified by former President Donald Trump — revived […]

Judge Temporarily Blocks DOJ From Using Evidence Proving James Comey’s Guilt Via Headline USA, A federal judge has dealt a setback to Justice Department efforts to seek a new indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, temporarily barring prosecutors from using evidence they had relied on when they initially secured criminal charges. The ruling Saturday night from U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly does not […]

Trump’s Corollary To The Monroe Doctrine Changes Everything By Benjamin Pictor, senior market strategst at Rabobank US equity indices closed in on new highs on Friday as traders look ahead to this week’s FOMC meeting and place bets that monetary conditions are poised to get a little easier. Nevertheless, the US sovereign curve shifted higher by almost 4 basis points, with around half of that move coming after the release of […]

Buffett Protégé Todd Combs Leaving Berkshire For JPMorgan Warren Buffett, 95, has still not departed the investment conglomerate he founded decades ago, and already Berkshire Hathaway is rocked by departures: this morning we learned that his investment protégé Todd Combs is leaving Berkshire for a new role at JPMorgan Chase, as a new guard prepares to take over at the sprawling $1.1tn conglomerate. Todd Combs was seen as Warren […]

House Approves Bill Blocking IRS Fines Without Specific Supervisory Approval Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The House of Representatives voted to pass two bills on Monday that increase protections for taxpayers in matters related to penalties imposed by the IRS and tax dispute proceedings in the U.S. Tax Court. The IRS building in Washington on Jan. 9, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu /The Epoch Times […]

‘Disappointed’ Trump Raps Zelensky Who ‘Hasn’t Yet Read’ Peace Proposal President Trump has continued to speak frankly about Zelensky and the Ukrainian government, at a moment of a sense of stalled frustration on the peace plan with Russia unveiled last month. His frustration with Keiv continues to show, especially after high hopes for his 28-point peace plan were dashed by yet more roadblocks which saw his Thanksgiving deadline […]

Magnitude 7.2 Quake Strikes Off Japan, Triggers Tsunami Alert A powerful earthquake struck offshore along Japan’s northern coast near Aomori and Hokkaido just moments ago. Japan’s Meteorological Agency has issued a tsunami alert, warning that water surges could reach up to 3 meters (about 10 feet) along parts of the northeastern coast. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters that citizens in the affected areas must […]

Key Events This Busy Week: Fed, JOLTs, Central Banks Galore; Oracle & Broadcom Earnings It’s a busy week for both economic news and central banks, with all roads pointing to Wednesday’s FOMC, where overwhelming consensus is for the Fed to deliver a final and third 25bps rate cut for 2025, making it 6 cuts and 175bps in this easing cycle since September 2024 (there was a very painful path to get here with several communication […]

Trump Expected To Roll Out $12 Billion Farm Aid Program Today The Trump administration on Monday is planning to roll out a $12 billion farm aid package to help producers hurt by the trade war, which will include up to $11 billion in one-time payments to crop farmers under the Department of Agriculture’s newly designed Farmer Bridge Assistance program. The rest of the aid will go to crops not covered by the FBA, Bloomberg reports, […]

Tesla Shares Slip After Morgan Stanley Downgrades To Equal-Weight From Overweight Tesla shares slipped about 1.5% in early trading on Monday after Morgan Stanley cut its rating on the stock to Equal-weight from Overweight, even as the firm raised its price target to $425 from $410. With Tesla changing hands around $455 into the move, the new target implies modest downside and a more balanced risk-reward profile in the eyes of the […]

“The Days Of Censoring Americans Online Are Over”: Senior US Diplomats Slam EU’s “Attack” On American Tech Platform X Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and several other senior U.S. officials have criticized the internet policies of the European Union (EU), likening them to censorship, after the governing bloc last week levied Elon Musk’s social media platform X with a $140 million […]

Trump Readies “One-Rule” Executive Order Aimed At Centralizing AI Regulation President Trump continues to argue that a single, national set of rules, otherwise known as a “One Rulebook,” governing the artificial intelligence industry is essential, rather than a patchwork of state-by-state regulations that would slow development amid a superpower race with China. This comes as Trump’s national strategy to build out data centers, […]

Confluent Shares Erupt After Report Of $11 Billion IBM Takeover Bid Confluent shares skyrocketed in premarket trading in New York after a Wall Street Journal report revealed that IBM is in talks to buy the data infrastructure company for $11 billion. The deal could be announced as soon as today. *IBM acquiring Confluent in $11 billion all-cash deal *IBM: Confluent Deal Represents Enterprise Value of $11 Billion — zerohedge […]

Futures Rise For 10th Day In Past 11 With Fed Rate Cut Looming With just 17 trading sessions left in 2025, stock futures edge higher again and are on pace for 10 gains in the past 11 days. S&P 500 futures were up 0.2% as of 5:32 a.m. in New York, with Nasdaq 100 contracts +0.3%. Pre-market, Mag 7 are mostly unchanged except for a -1.3% decline in TSLA on a downgrade from Morgan Stanley. Most Asian markets clock firm start to the […]

Oil Reclaims Key Levels, Forcing Shorts To Blink WTI moved back above its 50-day moving average Friday and is fighting to hold above $60 this morning.  A market that spent weeks obsessing over punishing oversupply is now being forced to respect a technical line that encourages short covering rather than fresh selling. As Bloomberg macro strategist, Michael Ball writes, a return to a war premium is warranted as a genuine peace […]

The Stages Of A Color Revolution… And Where America Is Right Now Authored by Kevin Finn via AmericanThinker.com, A “color revolution” (sometimes called a “soft coup” or “regime-change operation by non-kinetic means”) is a modern form of orchestrated political upheaval designed to replace an existing government without traditional military invasion or civil war. The term arose from events in the early 2000s, such […]

Trump-Brokered Ceasefire Falters As Thailand Launches F-16 Airstrikes On Cambodia Thailand launched fighter-jet bombing raids against Cambodian positions along their highly contested border, risking a complete unraveling of the ceasefire brokered by President Trump. Reuters cites Thai officials who claim Cambodian troops first opened fire across several border positions with machine-guns and heavy weapons, killing two Thai soldiers […]

Hedge Fund CIO: “Trump’s NSS Report Reads Like A Cold War Playbook. Deploy Capital Accordingly” By Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management “What are America’s core foreign policy interests? What do we want in and from the world?” wrote the authors of the newly released ‘National Security Strategy (NSS) of the United States of America.’ The NSS is the kind of report I like to read. Because sometimes, policy people […]

‘Fourth Reich’: Musk Strikes Back At EU ‘Tyrants’ After X Fine Update (1300ET): Elon Musk is not taking the outrageous fine from Brussels bureaucrats lying down, lashing out at EU officialdom for taking on Nazi characteristics and oppressing their own citizens’ best interests… The tyrannical, unelected bureaucracy oppressing the people of Europe are in the second picture https://t.co/j6CFFbajJa — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) […]