“All The Good News Are Priced In”: BofA Lists 5 Reasons Why The S&P Will Drop To 3,800 Bank of America chief quant, Savita Subramanian, starts off her latest strategy note titled appropriately enough “Five Reasons To Curb Your Enthusiasm” with a question: why despite the recent upgrade of US GDP from BofA economists and why despite positive guidance from companies – which led BofA to also raise its 2021 EPS estimate – did the bank not change its year-end S&P price target of 3800, nearly 400 points below where the index is trading today? Here is Subramanian: Amid increasingly euphoric sentiment, lofty valuations, and peak stimulus, we continue to believe the market has overly priced in the good news. We remain bullish the economy but not the S&P 500. Our … [Read More...]

Shipping Container Rates Expected To Remain Elevated Through Year Bad news for US importers searching for cheap shipping container rates, that is, rates are as up much as 50% than one year ago. Increasing shipping costs are crimping margins of importers that will ultimately have to be passed onto consumers.  Take, for example, the Asia to North American trade line last week was approximately $2,500 to $3,000 for a 40-foot container, about a 25% to 50% increase than the previous year, George Griffiths, an editor on the global container freight-pricing team at S&P Global Platts, told Bloomberg. Shipping costs create massive headaches for US importers, he said, adding that, the logistical issues they are facing today are extreme.  Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen said … [Read More...]

Pelosi, Schumer Tout “No Hate Act” To Combat Hate Crimes Against Asians House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a Tuesday press conference with Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) to announce a new hate crime bill aimed at somehow stopping a spate of attacks on Asians throughout the country. “It breaks your heart to see how communities are affected by these hate crimes,” said Pelosi, adding: “we have to do our part in terms of legislation.: Speaker Pelosi on AAPI hate: “Its breaks your heart to see how communities are affected by these hate crimes… we have to do our part in terms of legislation.” https://t.co/IxFb27o2EG pic.twitter.com/qugBejdQyq — ABC … [Read More...]

Merkel’s CDU Backs Centrist Party Chairman Armin Laschet In Bid For German Chancellor As German conservatives fight it out seeking Angela Merkel’s successor to lead her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) into the September election, on Monday party bosses threw their weight behind Armin Laschet to represent the center-right’s candidate for next Chancellor of Germany. “We have expressed our clear support for our party leader and made it clear that we consider him to be exceptionally suitable,” CDU premiere Volker Bouffier said of broad party support. This comes after months of behind-the-scenes jockeying between the 60-year old Laschet – head of Merkel’s CDU –  and rival candidate Markus Soeder, who leads the CDU’s Bavaria-only sister party named the Christian Social Union. Armin Laschet with Angela … [Read More...]

March Deficit Blowout: US Spends 3.5x More Than It Brings In; YTD Deficit Is Biggest Ever The covid crisis may be over (with nearly 60% of the population vaccinated, one would certainly hope it’s over), but covid crisis spending is here to stay. At 2pm, the Treasury released its latest Monthly Treasury Statement which showed that in March, the US budget deficit exploded once again, surging to $660BN, up five-fold from a tiny $119BN last March, driven by a 160% increase in government Outlays which soared to $927 billion – the third highest on record – from $355.7BN a year ago, and from $559.2BN in February. The large spike is primarily due to the stimulus checks released to households after the passage of the … [Read More...]

German Government Pitches Plan To Reimpose Harsh Lockdown Measures After canceling Germany’s draconian Easter lockdown last month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel “took full responsibility” for her misjudgment. But,now it looks like her government is reverting to the decision that new COVID-19 restrictions need to be put in place, before spiking COVID cases lead to a surfeit of deaths. A new proposed plan has been developed to implement nighttime curfews, sweeping business closures and severe limits on public gatherings. These measures, and more, are all part of the German government’s new bill aimed at “standardizing” COVID-19 measures to stop the third wave. RT reports that Berlin is currently working on amendments to the national Infection Protection Act, which would reimpose lockdown restrictions and greatly reduce the federal … [Read More...]

“Horror On St Vincent” – Only Vaccinated Evacuees Able To Flee Amid Fears Of Next Big Volcanic Eruption Only people who are vaccinated can evacuate on cruise ships as the La Soufriere volcano on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent erupted on Friday. This creates a “two-tier” society where vaccinated people have already fled the island on cruise ships while non-vaccinated folks are choking on volcanic ash.  And just like that the ‘COVID passport’ slippery slope has been amply and frighteningly demonstrated with great clarity in an ongoing life-and-death situation. As the below CBS clip from this weekend confirms, we’re now already far past some imagined theoretical ‘Brave New World’ slippery slope – indeed we’ve blown past it in the worst nightmare scenario.. Nearly 20,000 … [Read More...]

A Self-Loathing Ruling Class Cannot Endure Authored by Conrad Black via AmGreatness.com, The U.S. now has an official regime of lies, supported by an almost worthlessly dishonest media, and scores of millions of Americans brainwashed into the false view that they live in an evil country… Not every aspect of the onslaught of self-hate that has broken over America, warped its media, and turned most of the academy – and even apparently, most of its elementary and secondary schools – into centers of reorientation designed to convince Americans their national past is loathsome hypocrisy, is bad. Every country has a national mythos, and the larger, more complicated countries have relatively elaborate, conventionally agreed-upon versions of the raison d’être of their nationalities. In the case … [Read More...]