Trump
blasts Bezos on Twitter, calls Washington Post a 'scam' - (www.cnbc.com) Donald Trump turned his Twitter ire toward Jeff
Bezos on Monday, accusing the Amazon CEO of using his newspaper as a tax dodge to
prop up the retailer. The Republican presidential candidate tweeted that
Bezos's Washington Post was a "scam" used to save "[Bezos']
no-profit company" Amazon. Trump's tweets were likely prompted by an article posted by The
Washington Post early
on Monday fact-checking several of the presidential candidate's claims about
his ability to predict terrorism. Late Monday, Bezos returned fire with a bit
of humor. The Internet mogul tweeted that he'd like to 'send Donald to space'
on the Blue Origin, his private space firm:
Barron's-banned
Bear Hickey Cites Litany of Slowdown Evidence – (www.zerohedge.com) Despite
plunging gasoline prices (below $2 a gallon in some places), sales reports from
most of the major U.S. retailers have been soft for several months. The latest
round of reports released last month continued the trend. Target, Macy's.
Dick's Sporting Goods, Best Buy, Nordstrom, Kohl's, Tiffany (in other word, the
gamut) and many more reported disappointing sales result ... Yesterday, the
Atlanta Fed reported that its GDPNow model is forecasting just 1.4% seasonally
adjusted annual GDP growth in Q4, down from the prior 1.8% forecast. Part of the
reason for the Q4 slowdown is the anticipated hit to growth coming from the
necessary inventory reductions.... therefore, stopping quantitative easing
(more than $1 trillion annually at its peak) as the Fed did late last year is
tightening even though Wall Streeters are loath to admit it. As the result of
this tightening, we've watched the broad stock markets slowly break down all
year and the economy steadily weaken.
Anglo
American to shed 85,000 jobs as it dumps coal and copper mines - (money.cnn.com) Global
mining giant Anglo American is getting ready to shed about 85,000 jobs as it
sells off 60% of its assets over the next few years. The company said it expects
employee numbers to shrink to 50,000 from 135,000 as it overhauls its business
in response to the collapse in commodity prices. "The severity of commodity price
deterioration requires bolder action," said Anglo American (AAUKF) CEO
Mark Cutifani. "In this sort of environment, nothing can be considered
business as usual." Many commodities are trading at the lowest levels
they've seen since the Great Recession in 2008/2009 as seemingly insatiable demand from China has slowed. The S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity index has
plunged by 24% since the start of 2015. Platinum and copper prices, for
example, are back at recession-era levels. Both metals are important to Anglo
American.
Oil
dives below $37 to lowest level in 7 years - (money.cnn.com) Oil fell another 2% on Tuesday and collapsed
below $37 a barrel for the first time since the depths of the Great Recession
in February 2009. A massive supply glut has wiped out two-thirds of oil's value
after it peaked at nearly $108 a barrel in June 2014. The latest oil plunge is
rocking the stock market, with shares of Big Oil companies like ExxonMobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) retreating
further in recent days. The Dow fell more than 125 points in morning trading,
with the slumping energy sector leading the way lower. Oil fell as low as
$36.64 on Tuesday after settling at $37.65 on Monday. "My head is spinning
from the past few days of declines. Sentiment is horrible. It's very
bearish," said Mike Wittner, global head of oil research at Societe
Generale.
What
Happens When the Auto-Loan Boom Blows Up - (www.wolfstreet.com) One theory of the bulls – who don’t see a
recession in the future – is that the slow recovery since 2008 means that there
are few imbalances in the big sectors of the US economy whose busts could cause
recessions. The idea is that they haven’t been inflated to risky levels. That
is not correct. Here we look at one: automobile sales. They’ve been booming,
and loans associated with them have been soaring: To achieve this, lenders have
taken car loans and leases beyond any sensible level of prudence, as documented
by data from Experian’s Q3 State Of The Automotive Finance
Market and
the Fed’s quarterly Consumer Credit report.
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