Although this was an attempt at levity, I’m not sure it’s going to do much to dispel the “rumors”:
Chief of staff John Kelly: "I am not quitting today … I don't think I am being fired today." pic.twitter.com/jgSn0nRWIb
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 12, 2017
Draw your own conclusions.
Meanwhile, that man’s boss is angry at Puerto Rico for inconveniencing the White House with this whole hurricane thing. Trump has now started a new feud with San Juan Mayor Carmen YulÃn Cruz who is livid after the President, before dawn, made fun of the island (again) on Twitter. Here’s one chart that should give you an idea of how the relief effort is progressing (or not):
U.S. stocks closed lower, which obviously isn’t supposed to happen. Because too much of that imperils the “virtually unprecedented” post-election rally which actually, isn’t “unprecedented”:
This didn’t help:
All of the major indices were red or, summed up visually:
But there’s always tomorrow and if you don’t buy the dip tomorrow well then “you know what? It’s fine.”
"so you know what? it's fine".
drunk Donny didn't want to play with you people anyway… pic.twitter.com/LmCWKyyDjD
— Heisenberg Report (@heisenbergrpt) August 18, 2017
Things got a little dicey after lunch when reports of a small-ish earthquake in North Korea spooked the dollar and sent yields lower on a very modest safe-haven bid:
As Goldman notes, folks seem to be positioning for upside around earnings:
Speaking of earnings, financials lagged after Citi and JPM reported results that while decent, were relatively easy to poke holes in if you were looking (FICC fumble, reserve builds, credit trends, etc. etc.):
In Europe the DAX closed at a record and at one point crossed 13,000 for the first time in history:
Emerging market assets are holding up nicely, buoyed by what’s being called a “dovish” message out of the September Fed minutes (obviously, the extent to which the minutes was “dovish” is debatable, but you know… any excuse to justify the carry trade). EM equities are now sitting at their highest since August of 2011:
South Korean shares hit records for the second day in a row. Thursday marked five consecutive winning sessions (there was a holiday in there):
Eight straight days of gains for the Nikkei, extending the longest stretch since December:
Oh, and make-believe space money very nearly hit $5,400 on Thursday, proving that people are indeed idiots:
