Andrew Hoffman--Has The Great Unravelling Begun #2318

Has "it" begun?

 

Signs everywhere…

 -third Chinese "backdoor QE" announcement in two months Friday

 

 -heightened chatter of increased BOJ stock purchases

 -European stocks plunging despite QE having started.  Major Western sovereigns (even France, which had its outlook downgraded to negative by S&P last week) plunging to all-time lows…but PIIGS stocks and bonds collapsing, led by Greece (Athens stock index down 30% since April, and Greek 10-year yields up 200 bps last week)

 -EU manufacturing, industrial production, sentiment plummeting, led by Germany - clearly in continent-wide recession, and falling quickly

 -U.S. retail sales, industrial production plummeting.  NFLX, WMT major earnings announcments last week, and IBM earnings catastrophe today

 -Aritcle - "need or want, demand is dying"

 

Last week's market carnage, PPT not withstanding, was horrific

                -vast majority of stocks in bear markets

                -volatility surged, at times overwhelming "manipulation organizations" like the PPT, Fed, and ESF

                -dollar index not "strong" last week b/c down vs. Euro, but continued to wreak havoc by surging against peripheral currencies

 -Article - "the single most bullish PM factor imaginable"

-biggest one-day percentage drop in Treasury history Wednesday morning, when 10-year plunged from 2.2% to 1.9% in an hour (en route to Japanese and German levels sub 1%, before hyperinflation inevitably destroys them)

 -Article - "most damning proof yet of QE failure"

 -commodities continue to crash, as well as all indicators of global trade

 -Articles - "Commodity Crash! (but don't worry, gold and silver are not commodities), "Crashing Oil prices portend unspeakable horrors"

 

Fed desperate to maintain calm

-Six Fed governors hinted at "QE and/or ZIRP to Infinity" last week, including Vice Chairman S. Fischer

-"coincidentally," five are on the 2015 FOMC voting committee, while the two biggest "hawks" (Plosser and R. Fisher) will be departing

- crucial FOMC meeting 10/29, when QE supposedly ends, just six days before critical mid-term elections (with both Presidential and Congressional approval ratings at all-time lows)

                                - Article - "Manipulation, Jawboning, and Prayer"

                                - of course, this is all that matters

 

 

PM fundamentals never stronger, with record physical demand for both metals

 -for silver specifically, best risk/reward in history

 -demand in India, the U.S., and Canada on pace to match 2014's record levels