TUESDAY 2/25/14; Consumer Confidence

The Aussie ASX 200 winning streak ends at six days. China stocks drop the most in seven weeks with the SSEC falling -2%. Further data is surfacing showing that Chinese home prices are dropping for the first time in over one year. The long awaited-popping and collapse of the China housing bubble may be in progress. Copper is weak again today. Traders are ignoring the copper canary in the coal mine. Doctor Copper is ill and it is a key market leader. The dollar/yuan is 6.1243. The dollar/yen is 102.35 trailing lower from 102.50 but the Nikkei plays catch up to US markets and gains +1.5%. Fast Retailing and Rakuten gain about +2%. SNE sells off. Japan markets are positive believing that the BOJ will continue the easy money policies. Korea promises to boost growth by +4% by 2017. The Thailand violence continues but the SET Index finishes the day higher.

Ukraine drama continues with the forming of a new coalition government now delayed for two days until Thursday. Kiev is in a somber mood laying flowers around the protest area where folks were shot in the head by snipers a couple days ago. The Ukraine currency keeps weakening and depreciating with the dollar/hryvnia currency pair moving higher to 9.845. Ukraine can probably hold its own in the short term concerning currency and debt issues, however, the intermediate and longer term are highly in question. Capital controls may be implemented on banks if a flight of money occurs. 100 binders of dumped documents are recovered from the river near Yanukovych’s presidential palace. Volunteers are drying the documents ironically making use of the heated floors in the palace. Yanukovych lived like a king surrounded in gold leaf splendor with heated marble floors and every luxury at his fingertips. The average Ukraine citizen is poor only earnings about $4K per year.

The Turkish lira continues weakening as a tape recording is released concerning Prime Minister Erdogan instructing his son on how to hide money. Erdogan calls the recoding a fake but the potential proof of nefarious activity and corruption destabilizes the Turkey. TUR drops nearly -4%. The turmoil in Turkey is now on the front burner again. Basic resource stocks are beaten in European trading as worries grow over a China slowdown. German exports rise the most in three years. The FTSE touches 1999 highs. The EC increases the euro zone growth forecast to 1.2% for 2014. European indexes trade flat. Brazil and the EU are planning to install an undersea cable from Brazil to Portugal that can allow communication between Europe and Brazil free of NSA spying.

The Mt Gox bitcoin exchange goes dark. The last bitcoin price listed is 135 and it appears that the site is closed down permanently. Anyone storing bitcoin at Mt Gox may lose all their money. The bitcoin topped at a price of 1151 on 12/4/13. Other exchanges are distancing themselves from Mt Gox and bitcoin price remains 450 at these exchanges. Bitcoin enthusiasts are concerned about the virtual currencies fate going forward. Will bitcoin survive? About 700K bitcoin were hacked and have gone missing due to the .....




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The major indexes are negative at the closing bell but only marginally. The SPX, INDU, COMPQ and RUT are all down -0.1% in sync showing the robots completely in control of trading. The S&P 500 prints 33 new highs. The retail sector, RTH, jumped +1.1%. HD jumps +4%. TSLA is the top performer up +14%. Shorts got run over today by a Model S. BBRY gains +8%. CSCO loses -1.3% after a bond offering shows muted interest. TMUS -6%. BA -2%. RVBD jumps +4%. FSLR pukes -11% on an earnings miss. The illustrators at DWA animate sad-faced characters this evening after reporting an earnings miss and dropping -6%. SAM staggers lower losing -5.2% after missing on EPS and guiding lower. Gold is up 14 of the last 16 sessions moving from 1240 to 1340, a 100-dollar, +8% gain.

Chicago has sub-zero temperatures for 22 consecutive days making this winter one of the top five coldest in history. Natty gas is at 5 as the contract rolls over for the month. Traders expect natty gas prices to remain elevated since the severe winter does not want to quit.