It's Official: Canada Has Sold All Of Its Gold Reserves

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/03/2016 - 09:04
As of this moment it's official - Canada has fully "broken away with tradition" and has exactly zero gold left: The Government of Canada sold it last 21,851 ounces of gold coins for settlement in February. On February 29, gold holdings stood at 77 ounces. The valuation is based on the February 29, 2016, London p.m. fix of US$1,234.90 per ounce.

"Worse May Be To Come" As US Services Slump Into Contraction, Business Confidence At Record Lows

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/03/2016 - 10:02 From the narrative-destroying 49.8 preliminary print for US Services PMI (the lowest since the government shutdown in 2013), today's final February Services PMI printed an even worse 49.7 (below 50.0 expectations) even as stocks have soared in the last 2 weeks. Business confidence tumbles to its lowest since Aug 2010 (record lows). This drops the composite PMI to a dismal 50.0, implying negative GDP growth in Q1. Then ISM Services printed 53.4 (down from January but a small beat) to 2 year lows, confirming the decoupling from manufacturing's demise was a fallacy (merely a lagged response) as the last leg of the economic recovery's stool gets kicked away.
 

JPMorgan Goes Underweight Stocks "For The First Time This Cycle", Says To Buy Gold

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/03/2016 - 09:50 "We go Underweight Equities for the first time in this cycle.... We use the rally in stocks to sell it and go underweight stocks, versus HG corporate bonds and cash. The strong rebound of the past few weeks does create near-term momentum, and thus keeps our first UW small. Low growth and easy money and the reduced potential for capital gains should raise the demand for income. We focus this on US HG given its still over 4% yield, a rarity in the HG world. We are not ready to pursue FX or commodity carry at this point, but like high-dividend stocks. Within fixed income, we are now long duration."

Over 80,000 People Want Bill Clinton Arrested For Violating Election Laws On Super Tuesday

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/03/2016 - 09:25 More than 80,000 people are calling for the arrest and prosecution of former president Bill Clinton, alleging he violated election laws by entering multiple polling stations in Boston and other Massachusetts areas on Tuesday.

"Donald Trump Is A Phony, A Fraud": Mitt Romney Lashes Out In Desperation Establishment Attack

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/03/2016 - 09:01 While the GOP establishment already hit peak panic following Trump's Super Tuesday rout, it is about to "rise above" said peak based on an advance transcript of the speech that Mitt Romney will deliver later on Thursday to the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah according, in which he will declare that "Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's playing the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat."

The Ongoing Plunge In American Worker Productivity Explained

While revised modestly higher from preliminary levels, US non-farm productivity plunged 2.2% in Q4 2015 - the biggest drop since Q1 2014. Economists are gnashing their teeth to explain this "plunging productivity paradox" - we think it is rather simple...

Initial Jobless Claims Rise Again But What's Wrong With This Picture?

For the second week in a row, initial jobless claims rose (up 6k to 278k) but remain flat at 42 year lows for the last year. Challenger job cuts rose 21.8% YoY (and yet initial jobless claims are lower still YoY. The problem with this 'data' is that employment signals from both manufacturing and services PMIs are entirely divergent...

Bill Gross Previews The Financial Apocalypse: "The Classical Economic Model Has Reached A Dead End"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/03/2016 - 08:29 "central bankers seem ever intent on going lower, ignorant in my view of the harm being done to a classical economic model that has driven prosperity – until it reached a negative interest rate dead end and could drive no more."

Large Cap Growth Stocks At "Pivotal" Level

If this former market leader – large-cap growth – is to return to leadership status, it would do well to hold above this “pivotal” level.

Frontrunning: March 3

• Global stocks, oil dip, but markets calm down as growth fears ease (Reuters)
• Greece cannot carry migrant burden on its own: PM Tsipras (Reuters)
• New Migrant Crisis Flares in Greece (WSJ)
• Qatar's BeIn Media buys U.S. film studio Miramax (Reuters)
• Nanny who beheaded Russian girl cites revenge for Putin's Syria strikes (Reuters)

Herbalife Stocks Plummets After Company Admits Its New Member Data Was Cooked And Overinflated

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/03/2016 - 07:14 Today, however, may be a time for some modest celebrations for perennial Herbalife bear Ackman, because moments ago, Herbalife released an 8-K with some of the most unprecedented data revisions we have seen in a long time, one explaining that the company's "Active New Members" data has been not only completely wrong but massively inflated in the past year. The culprit: "database scripting errors." One wonders if there was perhaps a person who created this database...

Asian Surge Continues As Rally Stalls In Europe; S&P Futures Unchanged

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/03/2016 - 06:53 While Asian stocks continued their longest rally since August overnight, led higher for the third consecutive day on the back of Japan (+1.3%), Australia (+1.2%) and China (+0.4%) strength, European stocks have as of this moment halted their longest rally since October (Stoxx -0.1%) and U.S. index futures are little changed. Oil slipped from an eight-week high despite yesterday's massive rise in US oil inventories on hopes Saudi Arabia may be forced to cut production as its budget strains grow actue and the kingdom is forced to seek a $10 billion loan, its first material borrowing in a decade.

How The U.S. Government And HSBC Teamed Up To Hide The Truth From A Pennsylvania Couple

The reason both the Democratic and Republican establishments are in full on panic mode about the rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders is a deep seated fear that the plebs have finally woken up. Although the Department of Justice and HSBC thought the money laundering case was settled ancient history, a determined chemist from Pennsylvania is throwing a wrench into their plans and it could have major implications.

Capitalism Requires World War

Capitalism requires World War because Capitalism requires profit and cannot afford the unemployed. The point is capitalism could afford social democracy after the rate of profit was restored thanks to the depression of the 1930’s and the physical destruction of capital during WW2. The underlying nature of Capitalism is cyclical.

Striking Admission By Former Bank Of England Head: The European Depression Was A "Deliberate" Act

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/02/2016 - 22:00 While warnings by former central bankers who are more responsible about the current global mess sound as nothing but revisionist bullshit. And yet, it was what King said today at the launch of his new book that left us surprised.As the Telegraph reports today, according to the former head of the Bank of England Europe's economic depression "is the result of "deliberate" policy choices made by EU elites.

Chesapeake Founder Aubrey McClendon Dies In Car Crash One Day After Federal Indictment

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/02/2016 - 21:57 Just one day after the DOJ unveiled its had indicted Chesapeake Founder and former CEO Aubrey McClendon on federal charges of conspiring to rig bids for oil and natural gas leases, moments ago the Oklahoma Police announced that he was found dead in a car accident, when while traveling in a 2013 Chevy Tahoe at a high rate of speed he crashed while driving on a two-lane highway and was engulfed in flames.

Global Central Banks Continue Longest Gold-Buying-Spree Since Vietnam War

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/02/2016 - 21:30 While "greed was good" in the '80s, it appears "gold is good" in the new normal. As much as the barbarous relic is despised by all the mainstream money-peddlers in public (aside from those who have left the familia like Alan Greenspan), it seems to be loved in private. Central banks have been net buyers of gold for eight straight years, according to IMF estimates, the longest streak since the first troops were deployed in The Vietnam War.

If You Don’t Warn The People, Their Blood Could Be On Your Hands

by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:

Why are so few voices warning the people about what is coming? We stand at the door of a period of distress that will be unlike anything that any of us have ever known before. And even though the signs are all around us, very few individuals appear to be willing to stand up and sound the alarm. Instead, there seems to be a large number of people that are quite eager to criticize the watchmen. Earlier today, I was having a conversation with a very prominent voice in the alternative media, and we were reflecting on this. There are so many individuals out there that love to shoot arrows at those that are sounding the alarm, and yet they are doing so little to make a difference themselves.
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Senator Marco Rubio DRUG SCANDAL Exposed! New Report

by Michael Snyder, The Political Insider:

After devastating Republican presidential primary losses, this is the last thing Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) wants to answer questions about.
According to a bombshell report, Rubio has a long history of corruption tied to his work as a lobbyist and Speaker of the Florida state legislature.
One of Rubio’s best friends and closest political supporters is Congressman David Rivera (R-FL), who is under investigation by the FBI.
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We Are All In The Same Boat?

by Bill Holter, JS Mineset:
No doubt the financial and economic stresses are building. Without even looking at the various and very weak economic reports, talk of and implementation of “negative interest rates” should tell you all you need to know. We looked at this last G-20 meeting as a possible venue for some type of concerted action or even the announcement of some sort of re set or major change. Instead, they “publicly” agreed on nothing.
Earlier today, Zerohedge put out an article regarding China’s shadow banking system
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The Craziest Video You’ll Ever Watch on JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon

by Pam Martens and Russ Martens, Wall Street on Parade:
Two interesting things happened this week in Jamie Dimon’s world: two gutsy attorneys, Helen Davis Chaitman and Lance Gotthoffer, published a book comparing JPMorgan Chase to the Gambino crime family, explaining how the bank could and should be prosecuted under RICO statutes for serial frauds against the investing public. Taking a diametrically different tack, Bloomberg Markets magazine editor, Joel Weber, fawned over Dimon in a Bloomberg TV interview, repeatedly asserting that Jamie Dimon is all about the customer.
This Bloomberg video is so hilarious we had to watch it several times to make sure it wasn’t satire.  As Weber makes his case that Dimon is all about the customer, his Bloomberg colleague, Stephanie Ruhle, is having none of it, reminding the obviously star-struck Weber that the big banks are hated in this country for good reason. Instead of acknowledging the serial frauds at JPMorgan, Weber suggests (and this is the belly laugh/roll on the floor part) that banks are hated because when you go to a car dealer to buy a car you walk out with one. But if you go into a bank for a loan or credit card, it might turn you down. This brand of logic is on a par with Hillary Clinton suggesting that Wall Street was lavishing millions of dollars on her in speaking fees because she was kind to Wall Street during 9/11.
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