sandy beach

Bloomberg: China Retail sales -11.1% YoY; estimate -6.6%; Worst since May of 2002 Industrial output = -2.9% YoY; estimate +0.5%; Worst Since 1990's USD.CNH shooting up. This is COVID related and will have reverberations globally. Markets now down - rates down, oil down, etc. Bloomberg "Can we call this a shocker?"

North Korea COVID-19: there were 402,920 new cases of fever, 152,600 people recovered, and 8 people died. From the end of last April until 18:00 on May 15th, the total number of sick people nationwide was 1,213,550. The total number of deaths so far is 50. http:// https://t.co/huH8tH3qW228d 9cab30137c627964e50ea2f42487.kcmsf

Futures open - US Stocks up, oil up, US treasury interest rates up. Gyro taking a small hit.

That could leave a mark.

Friday afternoon long covering on the S&P500

Thanks doc!

Short covering - incoming!

Banks are really starting to look reasonable: VFH Vanguard Financial Sector ETF hitting January 2021 levels. P/E 9.8 and Price / Book 1.6. JPM P/E 8.6 Pr/Bk 1.3 BAC P/E 9.8 Pr/Bk 1.2 DB P/E 9.2 Pr/Bk 0.3 CMA P/E 10.2 Pr/Bk 1.5 MS P/E 9.8 Pr/Bk 1.4 CB P/E 10.8 Pr/Bk 1.5 SIVB P/E 14.4 Pr/Bk 2 Not that they can't get way Dover Sole from here but unless we looking at a 2008 level financial crisis some of the better quality names may soon be worth a look.

Metals and mining sector really taking a hit lately. Is this just large players raising cash? Or is there a more fundamental reason?

The Capitalstool bottom index hasn't been reached yet. Only two pages?

Well the S&P500 can only drop another 3,990 points. That's not so bad.

Have you checked out Interactive Brokers? They charge 0.20 basis points for under a million ($2.00 minimum for the first $100,000) and the rates go down after a million: https://investors.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=1590&p=fx Alternately your can attach an FX market order to a trade when buying securities in other countries: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=47638

Sorry about that doc.

Lael Brainard rips the market a new one - bond yields exploding up.

Excellent explanation on rent inflation! Thanks!

Incredible! Where else can one go to read such thoughtful analysis as one finds here every single day.

Per Le Salon Beige: Ukraine has lost - the north of the Luhansk region, except for Lisichansk/Severodonetsk - almost the entire south of the Donetsk region, except for boilers in Volnovakha and Mariupol - Sumy region - The northern half of the Kiev region, up to the agglomeration of Kyiv - the northern half of the Chernihiv region - half of the Kharkov region and half of Kharkov itself - the southern half of the Zaporozhye region - Kherson region They are in desperate need nationwide of UAVs / drones, fuel, ammunition, [artillery and tanks in the SE specifically]. UAVs /drones are particularly effective against long columns as we are currently seeing streaming in.

Bloomberg Simon Fling: Rouble is going to trade over 90, currently above 110 doesn't appear to be traded [looking beat]. [Currently trading on the futures market at 117 over 39% down vs. the USD]. Bloomberg hosts: tossed up arms Bloomberg guest David Ingles: We're short Roubles [looking upbeat]. Draw your own conclusions.

European countries most dependent on Russian gas: Macedonia 100%. Finland 94%. Bulgaria 77%. Slovakia 70%. Germany 49% Italy 46% Poland 40% France 24%

Bloomberg: Japan backs the EU SWIFT option and asks for nukes.

The headlines are not good. My best to the families of all of those here.

Russian central bank - which the US and EU decided will be sanctioned and as a result all transactions will be banned - has ordered market players to reject foreign clients' bids to sell Russian securities from 0400 GMT on Monday

Opened a couple of minutes later and now closed again.

Russian Rouble (USD.RUB) lost 29% at the open and is now closed. How the frack is it closed?