DOW(N): 521

Remember when the Chairsatan announced that the US entered a recession yesterday and nobody noticed, even when Zero Hedge said it would take the market a day for the "sophisticated market players" to figure what just happened. No? We have one word... well, and one number: DOW(N): 521.

Special Notice: Obama To Vacation On Martha's Vineyard Following A Job Well Done

We bring you this special announcement courtesy of the White House which has informed that American plebs that following a fantastic job well done, in which the market is now back to pre-QE2 levels, unemployment is near record highs, delays for presidential press meetings compare with Newark airplane take offs, pessimism is at record highs, America's credit rating has just been downgraded, the country was nearly bankrupted, and sales of end of the world provisions are through the roof (not to mention ammunition), president Obama is taking a well-deserved vacation at Martha's Vineyard at the end of the month. From Bloomberg: "President Barack Obama will vacation with his family in Martha's Vineyard at the end of this month as he's done in years past, the White House said Wednesday, despite the weak economy and negotiations on the nation's debt problem. Press secretary Jay Carney defended Obama's plans to take a break even as he's pledged urgent action on those issues. "I don't think Americans out there would begrudge that notion that the president would spend some time with his family," Carney said." Spot on, Jay, spot on.

Guest Post: The Junkie in the Pool and False Idols: Faith in Wall Street and The Fed Has Eroded

Oversold rallies notwithstanding, the Debt-Junkie Market just stumbled into the pool and was barely saved from drowning. The stock market party isn't over for strictly technical reasons, though the technical damage is severe. The party's over for a much deeper reason: faith that the Fed can fix the economy has faded, and participants no longer believe Wall Street's self-serving hype about the recovery and rising markets. Oh sure, people go through the motions of expressing faith in the market, in corporate profits rising forever, in official pronouncements of the Fed's omnipotence, and in whatever snapback rally is in play at the moment, but it's all for show; nobody really believes any of it, they just don't want to be the odd man out by confessing their loss of faith in the false idols. The financial Status Quo has an unsolvable problem: reality isn't swayed by propaganda. Does anyone really believe another couple years of low interest rates and a snapback rally or two will fix what's broken in the U.S. and global economies?

Moynihan Says His Entire Net Worth Is In BAC Stock

... then it's not a very big net worth, we are sorry to say (and it will get even smaller).

Bank Of America Scrambles To Shore Up Capital: In Negotiations To Sell $17 Billion China Construction Bank Stake

Bank of America is doing all it can to delay the inevitable equity issuance. Reuters has just broken the news that the bank is in active negotiations with Kuwait and Qatar sovereign wealth funds to sell its $17 billion China Construction Bank stake. There are several problems with this approach: first, the petrodollar sovereign wealth funds just lost over 20% of their AUM courtesy of the global equity rout and of the plunge in oil by more than 20% in less than 2 weeks; Second: everyone recalls what happened to Alwaleed when he bought his "Blue Light" citi stake; third: if BAC does indeed sell its CCB stake, it will leave it with zero disposable assets and will have no choice but to approach the equity market. Fourth, the fact that it needs this cash is validation of all the rumors that the bank's capitalization may be urgently strapped very soon, and that today's Berkowitz call was nothing but lies (in typical BAC style); last, since the final cash need when all is said and done, when all the litigation is over and when the NY AG is done with the bank, BAC will need far, far more cash than $17 billion. Which is why any BAC bounce in the AH session should be viewed very skeptically.

If you find useful information here, please consider making a small donation, to help cover cost of running this blog. Without your support I will be forced to shut down this blog soon.

Thank You

I'm PayPal Verified

Pessimism Hits Record: 73% Of Americans, All Time High, Think US Is Headed In Wrong Direction

Perhaps someone should staple the following latest poll from Reuters/Ipsos to the office door of the Fed chairman in the Marriner Eccles building, according to which a record number of people or 73% of all Americans, believe the economy is headed in the wrong direction. This is the highest number measured since the poll started its survey in February of 2009. Only 21% believe the US is on the right track: we assume these are the few people who actually made money in the stock market in the past few months, in other words those long various precious metals [/sarcasm]. Additionally, 47% of respondents believe the worst is yet to come for the economy, the highest since the March 2009 low when the number was 57%. Furthermore, Obama's approval rating dropped from 49% to 45% over the past month. Perhaps it is time to kill Osama for the 3rd (or is that 4th?) time. Bottom line: pessimism is now at or near fresh all time highs. And this is the environment in which the true viceroy of the Americas, Goldman Sachs, has now decreed will proceed with QE3? If the American revolution was deferred back in November when QE2 was enacted, we fail to see how it will be avoided this time around when people realize that gasoline is headed for $9/gallon. Or roughly what Europeans pay today.

Morgan Stanley's ClientServ Is "Transitorily" Unavailable... Again

Update: aaaaand it's up. DJIA must be down only 300 now...
Without looking at the ticker we will assume that market selling has accelerated since the BAC call ended and the DJIA is down 400... Were we right?

Quote Stuffing Surges As If On Demand As Market Touches Intraday Lows

As the market dips to intraday lows, quote stuffing spikes as if on demand. Now the only question is did the market drop because of the spike in empty packets, or vice versa... We have an idea or two. So does Nanex. But not the SEC. Definitely not the SEC.

Great News: Just 10% More Quote Churn And The Broken Market "Resets"

For all those wondering what may force the "GREAT RESET", we now know. According to the below email from the Nasdaq sent out 24 minutes before close, we were just 10% away from the Nasdaq essentially DKing all trades on one of its UTP channels, and "restarting the outbound message count. If the count is restarted, the UTP SIP will be unable to process any UQDF retransmission requests for the affected data channel..." All we need now are the HFT quote churners to put the empty churn knob on max tomorrow, and the market, well, breaks.