Explaining Today's "Massive Stop Loss" Quad-Witching Market Waterfall: Why 2000 Must Be Defended At All Costs

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/18/2015 - 08:43
Levels to watch are the large imbalances in favor of puts in Dec SPX put contracts at 2050, 2000, 1950, 1900 strikes. It further writes that "as SPX moves below these levels market makers who are short these puts would be forced to sell spot futures to hedge, which could exacerbate a market selloff."

House Passes $1.15 Trillion Spending Bill: Here Is What's In It

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/18/2015 - 09:53 Moments ago, the House of Representatives just passed the $1.15 trillion spending bill that includes a $680 billion package of tax-break extensions, in a 316 to 113 vote, and will now move to the Senate, where its passage is likewise assured and will be signed by the president over the next few days. For those wondering what are the main components of the spending bill, here is a quick summary.

Futures Slide As Quad-Witching Has A Violently Volatile Start After Massive BOJ FX Headfake; Oil Tumbles

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/18/2015 - 06:49 Following the latest BOJ statement, the market found itself wrongfooted assuming the BOJ was actually launching another episode of easing, sending the USDJPY soaring, until suddenly the realization swept the market that not only was the incremental action not really material, but even Kuroda spoke shortly after the announcement, confirming that "today's decision wasn't additional easing." The result was one of the biggest FX headfakes in recent days, perhaps on par with that from December 4 when EUR shorts were crushed, as the biggest carry pair first soared then tumbled and since the Yen correlation drives so many risk assets, also pulled down not only Japanese stocks but US equity futures.

Moody's Downgrades Glencore To Lowest Investment Grade Rating As CDS Trade A Multi-Year Highs

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/18/2015 - 09:15 Weak earnings performance in marketing operations below the current EBIT guidance of $2.4-$2.7 billion could place negative pressure on the Baa3 ratings in the absence of any mitigating measures. A weakening of the company's liquidity position, delays with the planned divestments in 2016 or a material reduction in its working capital funding capacities by the banks, as well as sustained high leverage with adjusted debt/EBITDA exceeding 4x, will also put negative pressure on the Baa3 ratings."

"Alarming" Chinese Beige Book Reveals Dire Economic Situation, Fewest Profitable Companies On Record

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/18/2015 - 09:01 "The interest of firms in both borrowing and spending continues to decline, suggesting it’s past time the ‘stimulus mafia’ rethinks its Pavlovian responses. Reform or bust."

Financial Warfare & The Big Reset: Koos Jansen Interviews Willem Middelkoop

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/17/2015 - 22:12 Economic warfare aims to capture or otherwise control the supply of critical economic resources or destroying a country’s currency.  The US understands better than anybody else that a country can sometimes be hurt more by doing this than by bombing its infrastructure. The tool of exclusion from the dollar-denominated global financial system is described as a 'neutron bomb' constituting a more potent bomb than any military weapon. But recent developments signal the first stages of the US dollar’s decay.

Markets Brace For More Fund Liquidations As Record Outflows Slam Debt Funds

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/17/2015 - 21:33 As new investor liquidity evaporates and as billions are redeemed first from the junk bond universe, then investment grade and then loans, the debt crisis which was unleashed in anticipation of the Fed's rate hike, is about to get much worse, and lead to even more prominent hedge fund "gates" and liquidations.

Martin Shkreli, "America's Most Hated", "Price Gouging" Biotech Mogul Arrested For Securities Fraud, Released On $5 MM Bond

"I’ll show up with $2 million bail money no fucking problem.”

Syria Stunner: German Intelligence "Cooperating" With Assad, Berlin May Reopen Embassy In Damascus

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/18/2015 - 09:28 On Friday we get still more evidence that the West is begrudgingly coming to terms with the fact that Assad will be sticking around for the foreseeable future in Syria, as Bild (citing anonymous sources) says German spies have been "cooperating" with Assad for "some time" and are set to establish an intelligence cell in Damascus.

Canadian Dollar Crashes To 12-Year Low After Collapse In Consumer Prices

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/18/2015 - 08:44 Not since December 2013 have Canadian Consumer Prices dropped by such a large amount. November CPI dropped 0.3% MoM, dramatically worse than expected to the largest drop since Dec 2013. The largest YoY drop in Canadian CPI, amid a surge in inventories relative to a collapsee in wholesale sales sent the loonie crashing above 1.4000 for the first time since August 2003.

Japanese Jawboning Fail - Nikkei Crashes 1000 Points From Overnight Highs

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/18/2015 - 08:25 For a brief few minutes, overnight saw exactly the reaction that central planners had hoped for when The Bank Of Japan announced it would buy 'moar' stock ETFs and extend bond duration buying ad nauseum. However, within just 15 minutes something happened that we haven't seen since the world embarked on this experimental nightmare. Despite the front-ran promises to buy Japanese stocks "whatever it takes" traders sold... and sold large.

All Of The World’s Money And Markets In One Visualization

How much money exists in the world? Strangely enough, there are multiple answers to this question, and the amount of money that exists changes depending on how we define it. The more abstract definition of money we use, the higher the number is.

US-NATO’s “Counter-Christmas Crusade” against the Cradle of Civilization and the Holy Land

by Felicity Arbuthnot, Global Research:
“It’s really 19th century behavior in the 21st century. You just don’t invade another country on phony pretexts in order to assert your interests.” -John Kerry, “Meet the Press”, 2nd March 2014.
There has been a searing irony to Christmas since August 1990 and the decimating embargo on Iraq. It marked the beginning of the destruction of the region where the three Abrahamic religions were born at Ur in southern Iraq, where the Garden of Eden is believed to have flourished at Al-Qurnah, translation “connection” or “joint”, since it is where the Biblical Tigris and Euphrates rivers join.
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These 9 Facts Demonstrate Why Americans Support Trump, Despite the Establishment’s Desperate Smear Attempts

by J. D. Heyes, Natural News:
Billionaire Donald Trump has led the crowded field of Republican presidential contenders from the moment he entered the race on a promise to “build a big, beautiful wall” along the U.S. Southwest border “and make Mexico pay for it.” And yet, oddly, the GOP establishment still thinks his campaign is going to implode, and that when all is said and done, Republican voters will choose a “saner” candidate to be the party’s standard-bearer next year (read “a GOP candidate the Washington establishment endorses”).
Those “preferred” candidates include Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich and, to a lesser extent Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida – even though all of them, save Rubio, are polling in the low single digits.
So what gives? Why won’t the Donald simply “go away?” What keeps him not only at the top of the GOP list, but rising in popularity as we near the primaries?
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The U.S. Government is the “2nd Largest PR Firm in the World”

from Liberty Blitzkrieg:
Open the Books is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization focused on providing transparency in government. I’ve highlighted their work in the past, most recently related to how the EPA wasted $92.5 million of taxpayer money on high-end, luxury furniture over the past decade. Their latest report is even more disturbing.
It relates to the amount of money the U.S. government spends on PR, which in total amounts to nearly $4.5 billion over the past eight years. Open the Books split this spending up into two main categories. The first is $2.347 billion in salary and bonus payments to federal employees, and the other is $2.02 billion spent on outside contractors.
The organization released a 40 page report with their findings, which can be read in full here.
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10 Ways To Opt Out Of The System

by Joe Wright, Activist Post:

I’ve noticed an increase in the defeatist tone among activists lately. Many are realizing that the current system cannot be salvaged, and they get angry at the lack of answers and give up hope. I’ve been there. We all have.
Yes, the system is tightening its control as more people begin to see it for what it is. Yes, mathematically and rationally, the system is nearing collapse. But the fix will not be found with anger and predictions of doom, and the fix will not come from petitioning a lawmaker, a regulator, or a sheriff. The fix can only come from you.
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