THURSDAY 5/8/14; ECB Rate Decision; Draghi Sends Euro Lower; PCLN; 30-Year Bond Auction

China’s trade data is better than expected with both imports and exports increasing. Asian indexes run about +0.5% higher on the news. The Aussie dollar is 0.9382. Australia’s jobs data is far more positive than expected with over 14K jobs created in April. Nickel is at a 2-year high due to Indonesia limiting supply. Chinese energy stocks bounce strongly higher following the US lead. NIKK rebounds +1.3%. Dollar/yen 101.82. TM reports a blowout 90% increase in profit over the last year. Softbank drops -2% adding to the prior days -5% loss. Chinese ships intentionally ram into Vietnamese ships in the South China Sea so the Vietnamese market drops -5%.

Ukraine turmoil continues and Russia does not appear to be ............




[Text is Redacted: Purchase May 2014-05 to Read the Complete Chronology]

Housing data shows that cash sales are making up a huge 45% of the sales transactions in Q1. In some major cities such as New York, the cash buyers are over one-half the market even towards 60% of the sales. The cash buyers keep home prices elevated and out of reach for the young starter family. Wealthy Chinese and Russians, as well as the rich in the US, made richer by the Fed’s policies, are taking obscene stock gains and buying real estate, art, collectibles, wineries and other high-end investments. The Fed and central banker intervention causes market disruptions and distortions, destroys price discovery and is not helping the common folks that remain unemployed. Folks are cashing out of their 401k plans using the money to meet monthly bills.

The House approves the formation of a select Benghazi committee to investigate this potential cover-up in more detail. The vote for the Benghazi committee passed on a vote of 232 to 186 with seven democrats voting in favor of the committee. Minority House Speaker Pelosi instructed all democrats to vote against forming the committee. The IRS plans to turn over all of Lois Lerner’s emails in light of the contempt vote last evening. The IRS has audited 10% of the Tea Party donors. This is shameful since 1% is the average. Ten times as many Tea Party folks are audited than everyone else. What happened to the US? Perhaps the Lerner emails will help the ongoing IRS scandal investigation.