Ok, so Friday was the very definition of absurd on the political front as the Trump administration fumbled around in the dark (where it’s doomed to stay thanks to the fact that it’s run by humanoid, racist cheeseburger with orange jaundice) trying to explain away “shithole”gate while simultaneously celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.
JUST IN: Pres. Trump does not respond when asked during an event honoring MLK if he described African nations with the term "shithole," if he will apologize and if he is a racist. https://t.co/tHk5hLN24j pic.twitter.com/kf0JJpwdL8
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 12, 2018
The presidential Twitter feed was cranked up to “max batshit” on Friday as Trump desperately tried to deflect criticism. He also canceled an expected trip to London citing Obama even though the reference was in fact to a Bush-era decision.
It’s like John Winthrop said:
We shall be as a shitty upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us.
Trump was kind enough to give Iran one “last chance” to comply with an agreement they’re already complying with. ““Today, I am waiving the application of certain nuclear sanctions, but only in order to secure our European allies agreement to fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal,” a statement read. “This is a last chance.” Again, that makes zero sense because according to literally everyone except Trump, Iran is in compliance with the deal.
Meanwhile, as Trump waived nuclear sanctions, Mnuchin issued new sanctions on Iranians the Treasury says are guilty of “serious human rights abuses and censorship in Iran.” You know, “censorship” – like when you try and change the libel laws to sue journalists for telling the truth about you. That kind of “censorship.”
Speaking of Mnuchin, he talked about taxes and Bitcoin Friday morning over breakfast in Washington. You can read all about that here.
We got CPI this morning and that was a beat which initially stoked concern among equity investors regarding the extent to which upward pressure on inflation might prompt the Fed to get more hawkish. It’s the whole “good news is bad news” thing. Fortunately for everyone riding the wave, stocks shook it off as the post-CPI Treasury selloff subsided:
Stocks (or, as they’re now known, “egregious sky castles”) were sharply higher on the week and have had their best start to a year since 2003.
2Y yields topped 2% for first time since September 2008 following the CPI beat:
5s30s had its first close below 51bp since 2007:
Remember this headline from Friday morning?
Yeah, well this ended up being the worst day for the BBDXY since November and the worst day for DXY in longer than that. Let’s just take a second to pan out on this:
JPMorgan and Wells reported on Friday. Compare and contrast the market reaction:
Facebook is suddenly on the shit list. Long story short, the newsfeed overhaul wasn’t well received.
For their part, JPM thinks it “creates risk.” “FB’s move to shift news feeds to personal posts and away from businesses and media outlets creates a risk to the company’s financial performance and is likely to bring near-term weakness to the shares,” the bank’s Doug Anmuth writes in a new note, adding that “Zuckerberg’s Thursday post detailing the changes quite deliberately didn’t mention advertising, but the changes may result in fewer ads in news feeds.”
“[We have] less conviction in our call vs any other time in our coverage history as FB either addresses the platform issues despite the effect on monetization or ignores the challenges and risks the franchise,” Stifel’s Scott Devitt says.
“The move could exacerbate slowing trends,” Morgan Stanley laments.
So you know, position accordingly because clearly, some folks already are:
Fifth straight week of gains for carefully polished, shiny doorstops:
Four weeks in a row for oil:
The peso rallied on hopes that Trump is in fact “very flexible” (as he told WSJ):
Bitcoin can’t catch a break. Kraken went offline which only added to jitters stemming from a crackdown on miners in China and rampant speculation that South Korea is about to move in for the crypto kill. It’s been a rough week:
Finally, Goldman is actually doing some real “God’s work” on Friday:
View from our building today reminds me that despite all the sh*t, American values will shine through. pic.twitter.com/b3f6W80XX9
— Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) January 12, 2018
