Friday September 4 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Global Trade In Freefall: Container Freight Rates From Asia To Europe Crash 60% In Three Weeks - (www.zerohedge.com) Three weeks ago, "something just snapped." Now, it is getting worse by the day. Three weeks ago, when we last looked at the collapse in trade along what may be the most trafficked route involving China, i.e., from Asia to Northern Europe, we noted that while that particular shipping freight rate Europe had crashed some 23% on just one week, there was some good news: at least the Baltic Dry index was still inexplicably rising, and at last check it was hovering just above 1,100. That is no longer the case, and just as with everything else in recent months, the Baltic Dry dead cat bounce is now over, with the BDIY topping out just above 1200 on August 4, and now back in triple digit territory, rapidly sliding back to the reality of recent record lows which a few months ago we suggested hinted that much more is wrong with global trade, and the global economy, than artificially manipulated stock markets would admit.

Investors Race to Escape Risk in Once-Booming Emerging-Market Bonds - (www.nytimes.com) The large mutual funds that helped fuel rapid growth in developing countries have begun hastily retreating from those investments, contributing to the recent sharp decline in global markets. In the last week alone, investors pulled $2.5 billion from emerging-market bond funds, the largest withdrawal since January 2014. The world’s fastest-growing economies — led by China — have been propelled by soaring commodity prices, robust currencies and access to cheap loans, primarily through the sale of high-yield, high-risk bonds. But China’s decision to devalue its currency has set off a chain reaction of panicked selling around the world that contributed to the biggest one-week loss on Wall Street since 2011, sending the Dow Jones industrial average into correction territory (10 percent below its recent peak). The index was down 531 points on Friday and nearly 6 percent for the week.

Did Tim Cook Violate Regulation "Fair Disclosure" By Emailing Jim Cramer To Save AAPL Stock This Morning - (www.zerohedge.com)  Earlier today, as AAPL stock was plummeting and had lost a whopping $75 billion in market cap, dropping as low as $92/share, CNBC's Jim Cramer pulled a rabit out of a hat, or in this case a previously undisclosed email out of his inbox. An email from AAPL CEO Tim Cook which may have well be instrument in saving AAPL some $80 billion in market cap. An email which may also have been a rather blatant Reg FD violation.

Mideast Stocks Sink as Oil at 2009-Low Sparks Concern – (www.bloomberg.com)  Dubai led a retreat in Middle Eastern stocks that drove Saudi Arabia’s index into a bear market, extending last week’s global selloff, as crude’s decline to a six-year low reverberated through a region dependent on oil and gas exports. The DFM General Index lost as much as 7.5 percent, the most this year. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index tumbled 6.9 percent, taking its decline since 2015’s peak in April to 24 percent. Qatar’s QE Index fell 5.3 percent, while Israel’s TA-25 Index lost 4.1 percent. Egypt’s EGX 30 Index slid the most since November 2012. Gauges in Abu Dhabi and Oman declined more than 10 percent since a recent peak, the threshold for a market correction. The slide in Brent crude, the benchmark grade for more than half the world’s oil, to the lowest close since March 2009 is piling pressure on Gulf states at a time when investors are pulling out of higher-risk assets following China’s devaluation of the yuan and growing expectations that the U.S. will increase interest rates by year-end. The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council is home to about 30 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves.

Dubai, Saudi Markets Lose 7 Percent After Oil Price Dip - (www.abcnews.go.com) Stock markets in Saudi Arabia and Dubai closed around 7 percent lower on Sunday on the back of a further slide in oil prices. Dubai's main index closed 6.96 percent lower on its opening day of trading for the week. Saudi Arabia's Tadawul, the region's largest index, lost 6.86 percent. Other Mideast indexes, which trade from Sunday to Thursday, also tumbled. Egypt's main index, the EGX30, dropped 5.4 percent while Abu Dhabi's index dropped 5 percent. Sunday was the first day of trading in the Middle East after Brent crude, a benchmark for international oil, fell more than a dollar to close Friday at $45.46 while the price of U.S. crude closed at $40.45. Oil futures have been falling for eight consecutive weeks because of ample supplies of crude and a slowing global economy. Prices have fallen almost 60 percent since this time last year.

OTHER STORIES:

Fading Economy and Graft Crackdown Rattle China’s Leaders - (www.nytimes.com)
China syndrome: how the slowdown could spread to the Brics and beyond - (www.theguardian.com)
Koreas Locked in Talks as Kim’s Deadline for Attack Passes - (www.bloomberg.com)
IMF official says 'premature' to speak of Chinese crisis - (www.reuters.com)

Missing Inflation Grips Dollar Bulls With Fed D-Day a Month Away - (www.bloomberg.com)
Record capital flight from China as industrial slump drags on - (www.telegraph.co.uk)
North Korea Ready for 'All-Out War' With South - (www.voanews.com)
North Korea says its threats are not empty, as Saturday deadline looms - (www.reuters.com)
Turkish army captain killed in clashes with Kurdish militants - (www.reuters.com)