According To JPM's Quant Guru, This Is The "Main Risk For The Market" Right Now

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2016 - 14:08
"Given the low levels of volatility and high levels of leverage, the main risk for the market remains a potential volatility shock. Over the past month, low volatility resulted in significantly higher market liquidity. If volatility were to increase, liquidity would dry out quickly. Should the VIX increase above ~20, market liquidity (depth) would like get cut roughly in half. It is this relationship between market volatility and liquidity that leads to increases in ‘volatility of volatility’"

Friends In High Places: Hillary Clinton Has Received Nearly $75,000 In DOJ Political Contributions

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2016 - 13:02 "I can guarantee that. I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the Justice Department. Full stop, period."

Islamic State Buries Alive Dozens Of Its Own Soldiers To Stem Soaring Defections

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2016 - 12:43 One month ago, in an attempt to stem soaring soldier defections, the Islamic State sent a very clear message to anyone considering quietly abanonding the ISIS army when it killed 45 battlefield defectors by freezing them to death. In retrospect this attempt to "build morale" appears to have failed, and defections have - predictably - accelerated. So to send an even stronger message, the Islamic State has reportedly buried alive dozens of its own militants, after the jihadists refused to fight and fled the battlefield.

Justice Department's Reputation At Stake As Hillary-Email Decision Looms

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2016 - 15:00 "I'm greatly concerned about the reputation of the Justice Department, which is why I have stated that I think the proper and best course would have been to have this go to an independent prosecutor a good year ago. It was pretty obvious that to put these decisions in the hands of high-ranking political appointees creates a perception - valid or not - of, at the very least, unconscious political influence." - former DoJ official.

Donald Trump - Republican Party Savior?

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2016 - 14:39 "Those who got Donald Trump totally wrong in the nomination process, still have not figured out why. Thus, it’s no surprise they are still wrong now. I propose,  that instead of being the demise of the Republican party, Donald Trump will be its savior."

This Is What $80 Million Gets You - Hyperloop 'Unleashed'

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2016 - 14:19 Putting the "hype" in hyperloop - 3 seconds of awesome...ish.

Is China's Trillion Dollar Q1 Credit Surge Already Wearing Off?

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2016 - 13:54 The last month, and especially the last two weeks, has seen a reversal in all the trades that tend to work in a world of increasing Chinese credit and infrastructure building, calling into question whether the impact of the trillion USD of new credit that was created in the first quarter is already starting to wane.

Establishment Scaremongery Escalates Amid "The Fog Of Brexit"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2016 - 13:34 Following PM David Cameron's 'world war 3' warnings last week, Chancellor George Osborne joined the 'Project Fear' bandwagon today saying that Treasury is doing "quite a serious amount of contingency planning" into how Britain would deal with leaving the EU, warning of "very significant financial volatility" around the vote. Relief in global markets that a Fed rate hike is less imminent has taken focus away from one of this year’s biggest risk events, at least temporarily, but as Bloomberg's Mark Cudmore explains "The Fog of Brexit" remains...Familiarity breeds contempt. Investors may be growing uninterested in the seemingly inconclusive Brexit debates - but it’d be misguided to be complacent around the threat it poses

Why One Trader Thinks "There’s A Growing Belief That This Can’t End Peacefully"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2016 - 13:25 "There’s a growing belief that this can’t end peacefully. And why more and more central banks are screaming about the negative externalities exported by those practicing the extremes of extraordinary monetary policy. We’ve learned that we exist in a global economy. What hasn’t been accepted, because the consequences may prove dire, is that we also are moving toward global monetary policy."

Yuuuge 10Y Auction: Whopping Demand For US Paper, Record Foreign Central Bank Demand

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2016 - 13:11 If yesterday's 3Y auction was impressive, and stopped well through the When Issued, today's 10Y was an absolute blockbuster, stopping a whopping 2 bps through the 1.73% When Issued - the biggest stop through since September 2013 - on a yield of 1.71%, the lowest yield since December 2012. The internals were just as astounding, with a whopping 73.5% Indirect take down, the highest on record, and with Directs inline with recent historical averages of 11.8%, this meant that the Dealers were left holding the second lowest on record as foreign central banks scrambled to bid up as much of the paper as they could.

Brazilian Soccer Star Warns Olympic Visitors "Stay Home, Your Life Is At Risk Here"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2016 - 13:04 "Things are getting uglier here every day, I advise everyone with plans to visit Brazil for the Olympics in Rio — to stay home. You'll be putting your life at risk here. This is without even speaking about the state of public hospitals and all the Brazilian political mess. Only God can change the situation in our Brazil."

Bonds, Tame Bonds!

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2016 - 12:34 Bonds continue to buy the bounce in stocks less and less...

What Is Paul Ryan Up To?

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2016 - 12:17 He is pandering to the Trump-hating Beltway media and claiming the leadership of a Republican establishment routed and repudiated in the primaries, not only by that half of the party that voted for Trump, but also by that huge slice of the party that voted for Ted Cruz. If Ryan holds to his refusal to accept the decision of the Republican majority in the primaries, he should be removed from that role. And if Ryan does not come out of today’s meeting with the Donald, endorsing him, the presumptive nominee should turn to Paul Ryan, and, in two words, tell him, “You’re fired!”

Dis-May In Europe: STOXX 600 Trades Like 2001 & 2008

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2016 - 11:59

Surging North American PHYSICAL SILVER Investment Demand Pushes Supply Deficit To New Record

by Steve St. Angelo, SRS Rocco Report:

North American silver investment via its domestic supply suffered another large deficit in 2015.  How big was the deficit?  It was huge, surging 70% compared to 2014… and this only includes silver investment from two Official coin sales.
Let me explain.  We need to start off by showing the total Canadian Silver Maple Leaf sales for 2015.   The Royal Canadian Mint finally published their 2015 Annual Report in which they stated that sales of Silver Maples jumped 18% from 29.2 million (Moz) in 2014 to 34.3 Moz in 2015:
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Harvard Law Professor Says Treat Conservative Christians Like Nazis

by Ryan T. Anderson, CNS News:
Liberals, stop being so defensive. That’s the message of Harvard law professor Mark Tushnet in a new post at Balkinization, titled “Abandoning Defensive Crouch Liberal Constitutionalism.” The problem, according to Tushnet, is that liberals have been too defensive when it comes to advancing their agenda in the courts.
Now that President Barack Obama has reshaped the federal judiciary, liberal causes can win easily in court. And now that Justice Antonin Scalia has died, “judges no longer have to be worried about reversal by the Supreme Court if they take aggressively liberal positions.”
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Proof That the Top 0.1% Create Crashes – Jeff Nielson

by Jeff Nielson, Sprott Money:
Our markets and economies are marched up and down in “bubbles” and “crashes”, with the duration of these cycles of financial crime now seeming to be fixed at about once every eight years. As the dust settles after each of these eight-year operations, the Fat Cats at the very, very top are found to have gotten much, much wealthier, while almost everyone else ends up significantly poorer.
With this pattern of crime now being obvious, and the pattern of “winners” and “losers” being equally obvious, it doesn’t require a rocket scientist to suspect that the Winners have been orchestrating these bubbles and crashes. It is obviously considerably easier to be on the winning side of your (supposed) gambling, when you know in advance what will transpire in the Game.
Previous suspicion of guilt has focused upon “the Top-1%”, a small sub-set of the wealthy whose wealth has been soaring higher at a rate never before seen in the history of our societies. However, upon closer scrutiny, it has more recently been determined that even this small sliver of our population is too large a demographic upon which to focus our attention (and criminal prosecutions?).
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Saudi ARAMCO Getting Ready To Roll Out Global IPO

by Andrew Torchia and Angus McDowal, TRUNews:
Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Aramco is finalizing proposals for its partial privatization and will present them to its Supreme Council soon, its chief executive said about the centerpiece of the kingdom’s efforts to overhaul its economy.
The company has a huge team working on the options for the initial public offering (IPO) of less than 5 percent of its value, which include a single domestic listing and a dual listing with a foreign market, CEO Amin Nasser said on Tuesday.
They will be presented “soon” to Aramco’s Supreme Council, headed by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is leading an economic reform drive to address falling oil revenue and sharp fiscal deficits by boosting the private sector, ending government waste and diversifying the economy.
Nasser stressed that even after the listing, the Saudi government would retain sole control over Aramco’s oil and gas output levels. “Production is sovereign,” he said.
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Lawsuit: Rancher Cliven Bundy Sues President Obama, Harry Reid and Other Officials

by Shepard Ambellas, Intellihub:
Cliven Bundy’s lawyer served it to President Obama, Harry Reid and others for violating his Constitutional Rights
NEVADA (INTELLIHUB) — In an effort to get the charges against him dismissed, rancher Cliven Bundy is suing President Barack Obama and Nevada officials.
Bundy’s lawyer filed suit Tuesday in Nevada. Among those listed were President Obama, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Clarke County Commission Chair Rory Reid and U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro, according to The Hill.
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Goldman Sachs “Bail-in” Plot Designed to Steal Your Bank Account

by Dave Hodges, The Common Sense Show:
Bail-outs, Bail-ins, the average consumer has trouble keeping these terms and their meanings straight. Both terms are relatively new on the American economic scene. Here is what these terms mean:

“A bail-out is when outside investors rescue a borrower by injecting money to help service a debt. Bail-outs of failing banks in Greece, Portugal and Iceland were primarily financed by taxpayers”.
…a bail-in occurs when the borrower’s creditors are forced to bear some of the burden by having a portion of their debt written off. For example, bondholders in Cyprus banks and depositors with more than 100,000 euros in their accounts were forced to write-off a portion of their holdings. This approach eliminates some of the risk for taxpayers by forcing other creditors to share in the pain and suffering.”

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