Meet Me In Singapore.

Well, “the most important week of the year” got off to a relatively quiet start, all things considered.

Of course Trump was anything but “quiet”. Or actually, he was quiet during U.S. business hours but his Twitter account lit up late Sunday evening with still more attacks on Canada and Europe. The man who on Saturday proclaimed the world “tariff-free” was, by Sunday evening, insisting that henceforth, “fair trade” will be called “Fool Trade”:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1005979207544000512

We are now literally living out the plot of many a farcical movie/cartoon: Canada has, according to Trump, Kudlow and Navarro, become one of America’s enemies on the global stage.

Then there was the usual “real estate moguls doing it for the poor farmers” bullshit:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1005982266496094209

And also the “we’re protecting you and we’re not getting anything out of it and you’re laughing at us” meme:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1005985339121504256

All of that as he was en route to Singapore to meet with Kim and, of course, Dennis Rodman:

This is so laughable at this point that there’s almost no point in documenting it. It’s just a spectacle. There is absolutely nothing serious about any of this. It’s a joke and everyone on Earth knows it.

What I think is critical to understand here is that this thing where he and his surrogates are accusing critics of not wanting him to succeed isn’t true. No one wants a goddamn nuclear war with North Korea. The problem is that everything said above is patently, objectively and unquestionably absurd, so it’s all being treated as such by everyone with any semblance of sense.

U.S. stocks were marginally higher in an uninspired session as everyone holds their collective breath for the myriad key events on deck this week.

Treasurys were rangebound and new supply (3-year and 10-year auctions) was easily absorbed. Here’s some context panning out to include last week’s two sharp rallies that coincided with the turmoil in the real and the early morning Friday Apple headline:

10Y

The loonie took a hit from Trump’s trade banter, as USDCAD hit a day high of 1.3025 just after 8:00 am before paring gains:

USDCAD

Meanwhile, Italian assets extended gains logged early on in response to Giovanni Tria’s assurances about the country’s future in the euro. Broadly, Italian equities had their best day since the Macron rally: 

FTSEMIB

The FTSE Italia All-Share Banks index surged nearly 6%, in another “since the Macron bump” moment. Obviously, there’s still a lot of ground to make up though (top pane):

BanksIt

10Y yields fell a remarkable 29bps and the BTP-Bund spread compressed dramatically:

ItalyBonds

The lira resumed its decline on signs that the economy is still running hot and on a further widening in the current-account deficit:

USDTRY

“Given the authorities’ pro-growth bias, to what extent the economy will be allowed to slow down remains to be seen,” Goldman wrote this morning, adding that while “some moderation in gold imports and continued recovery in the tourism sector could help to contain the deficit, without a slowdown in domestic activity, a genuine improvement in the current account seems unlikely.”

Meanwhile, that other problem currency, the Argentine peso, fell to a new record low in a continuation of last week’s post-IMF deal selloff (presumably, the central bank won’t defend 25 anymore now that the IMF is in the game):

USDARS

Oh, and Bitcoin is down 12% over the past three days after (another) hack and as jitters about the ongoing China crackdown continue to weigh.

Bitcoin

Seriously you guys… stop listening to morons and conspiracy theorist bloggers who swear cryptocurrencies are going to replace the fiat money they spend every waking moment railing against. Get the hell out of this P.O.S. before it’s too late:

Bitcoin2

Finally, for your moment of zen…

 

 

 

Leave a Reply to bunnyCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

5 thoughts on “Meet Me In Singapore.

  1. I’m in Singapore. So is Kim Jong Un. Anyone else?? Oh yeah, famed Martin “The Forecaster” Armstrong.

    Kim has been running all over like a tourist (obviously I mean metaphorically not literally). With his sister.

  2. I thought bunny was being sarcastic. If she/he isn’t sarcastic, then they are insane. Trump just got used by little rocket man to legitimize himself to his slaves back at the fascist ashram that is NK….Look how the leader of the free world loves our dear leader. Fuck, I don’t have the words to convey how ridiculous this is!

    1. AGREE! Trump’s only goal was to achieve world news coverage — he actually has no concern about world peace, only his piece.

  3. BBC: Nobel secretary regrets Obama peace prize

    Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama in 2009 failed to achieve what the committee hoped it would, its ex-secretary has said.

    Geir Lundestad told the AP news agency that the committee hoped the award would strengthen Mr Obama.

    “No Nobel Peace Prize ever elicited more attention than the 2009 prize to Barack Obama,” Mr Lundestad writes.

    “Even many of Obama’s supporters believed that the prize was a mistake,” he says. “In that sense the committee didn’t achieve what it had hoped for”.

    Mr Lundestad served as the committee’s influential, but non-voting, secretary from 1990 to 2015.

    He has broken with the tradition of the secretive committee, whose members rarely discuss proceedings.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34277960

NEWSROOM crewneck & prints