Dr. Copper’s Prognosis is Inexorably Grim

The slide in copper, and metals as a whole, is starting to pick up in earnest.

Shares of the copper giant FCX are getting poleaxed, even after divesting their jungle mine in the Congo. As suspected, the market isn’t keen on the company selling too many assets at distressed prices.

Note the drop in palladium as well, which is a key tell for the automotive market. If the drop in copper is predictive in any way, expect to hear negative news out of China soon, whose market plunged by 2.7% last night.

The price action in the crude markets is beyond absurd. I envision a clown car rolling up at the exchange and then getting out and slapping each other in the face –in the pits– buying and selling WTI based off fire reports from Fort Mcmurray.

Canadian officials on Sunday showed some optimism as favourable weather helped fire fighters, driving the flames away from the oil sands town Fort McMurray, but there was no timeline for a restart of operations at evacuated sites.

I am sure there are some crude traders getting burned right now, who are actually disappointed the entirety of Fort Mcmurray didn’t end up in cinders.

Should a strong gust of wind materialize, shifting the fires back into the direction of the tar sands, expect to see the price of WTI jump again.

I’m not surprised, nor angry, by the story out from Gizmodo this morning– who interviewed a few Facebook whistleblowers that worked on the very popular news section–claiming the company regularly injected a liberal bias into their news stream.

I suppose people assumed Facebook’s algorithms did all the work, when in fact human bias plays a significant role in choosing which stories get featured on the social media site.

If any of you thought Zuckerberg’s bias wouldn’t permeate his website, you’re nuts.

“Depending on who was on shift, things would be blacklisted or trending,” said the former curator. This individual asked to remain anonymous, citing fear of retribution from the company. The former curator is politically conservative, one of a very small handful of curators with such views on the trending team. “I’d come on shift and I’d discover that CPAC or Mitt Romney or Glenn Beck or popular conservative topics wouldn’t be trending because either the curator didn’t recognize the news topic or it was like they had a bias against Ted Cruz.”

The former curator was so troubled by the omissions that they kept a running log of them at the time; this individual provided the notes to Gizmodo. Among the deep-sixed or suppressed topics on the list: former IRS official Lois Lerner, who was accused by Republicans of inappropriately scrutinizing conservative groups; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker; popular conservative news aggregator the Drudge Report; Chris Kyle, the former Navy SEAL who was murdered in 2013; and former Fox News contributor Steven Crowder. “I believe it had a chilling effect on conservative news,” the former curator said.

Another former curator agreed that the operation had an aversion to right-wing news sources. “It was absolutely bias. We were doing it subjectively. It just depends on who the curator is and what time of day it is,” said the former curator. “Every once in awhile a Red State or conservative news source would have a story. But we would have to go and find the same story from a more neutral outlet that wasn’t as biased.”

Stories covered by conservative outlets (like Breitbart, Washington Examiner, and Newsmax) that were trending enough to be picked up by Facebook’s algorithm were excluded unless mainstream sites like the New York Times, the BBC, and CNN covered the same stories.

Other former curators interviewed by Gizmodo denied consciously suppressing conservative news, and we were unable to determine if left-wing news topics or sources were similarly suppressed. The conservative curator described the omissions as a function of his colleagues’ judgements; there is no evidence that Facebook management mandated or was even aware of any political bias at work.

Managers on the trending news team did, however, explicitly instruct curators to artificially manipulate the trending module in a different way: When users weren’t reading stories that management viewed as important, several former workers said, curators were told to put them in the trending news feed anyway. Several former curators described using something called an “injection tool” to push topics into the trending module that weren’t organically being shared or discussed enough to warrant inclusion—putting the headlines in front of thousands of readers rather than allowing stories to surface on their own. In some cases, after a topic was injected, it actually became the number one trending news topic on Facebook.

“We were told that if we saw something, a news story that was on the front page of these ten sites, like CNN, the New York Times, and BBC, then we could inject the topic,” said one former curator. “If it looked like it had enough news sites covering the story, we could inject it—even if it wasn’t naturally trending.” Sometimes, breaking news would be injected because it wasn’t attaining critical mass on Facebook quickly enough to be deemed “trending” by the algorithm. Former curators cited the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris as two instances in which non-trending stories were forced into the module. Facebook has struggled to compete with Twitter when it comes to delivering real-time news to users; the injection tool may have been designed to artificially correct for that deficiency in the network. “We would get yelled at if it was all over Twitter and not on Facebook,” one former curator said.

“Facebook got a lot of pressure about not having a trending topic for Black Lives Matter.”

In other instances, curators would inject a story—even if it wasn’t being widely discussed on Facebook—because it was deemed important for making the network look like a place where people talked about hard news. “People stopped caring about Syria,” one former curator said. “[And] if it wasn’t trending on Facebook, it would make Facebook look bad.” That same curator said the Black Lives Matter movement was also injected into Facebook’s trending news module. “Facebook got a lot of pressure about not having a trending topic for Black Lives Matter,” the individual said. “They realized it was a problem, and they boosted it in the ordering. They gave it preference over other topics. When we injected it, everyone started saying, ‘Yeah, now I’m seeing it as number one’.” This particular injection is especially noteworthy because the #BlackLivesMatter movement originated on Facebook, and the ensuing media coverage of the movement often noted its powerful social media presence.

(In February, CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed his support for the movement in an internal memo chastising Facebook employees for defacing Black Lives Matter slogans on the company’s internal “signature wall.”)

When stories about Facebook itself would trend organically on the network, news curators used less discretion—they were told not to include these stories at all. “When it was a story about the company, we were told not to touch it,” said one former curator. “It had to be cleared through several channels, even if it was being shared quite a bit. We were told that we should not be putting it on the trending tool.”

Truth be told, this is damning news for the Facebook brand. Although I’m cynical and believe everyone is as crooked as Hillary, many people trust Facebook to deliver unbiased ‘trending’ topics. These miscreants are nothing more than hacks toiling away, venting their frustrations out through their biases.

Facebook, like most media companies in America, are nothing more than propaganda arms for the government.

I bet this fucking story won’t trend on Facebook.

Apparently, some assholes in China took out ads, claiming to have a surgical cure for cancer. A 21 yr old student with cancer took them up on the offer and died as a result. As such, a firestorm erupted over the wanton depravity and savagery taking place on the BIDU search engine. Government officials have caved into the public pressures and have placed restrictions on the amount of lying that is permitted to take place online.

The restrictions mean the company must clean up in-search healthcare adverts and paid-for search adverts of any kind cannot only be based on the highest bidder, a statement from the internet, industry and health regulators which was posted on the website of the Cyberspace Administration of China said.

Such adverts must be restricted to no more than 30 percent of a page of search results, the statement said.

“If they do enforce that, it would likely significantly cut into revenues,” said Mark Natkin, managing director of Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting.

A spokeswoman for Baidu said it accepted the regulator’s decision and will firmly implement the requirements on it following the in-search adverts investigation.

Baidu has come in for fierce online criticism for how it handles adverts within its search results.

Before his death, 21-year-old student Wei Zexi not only criticized the military-run hospital that provided the failed treatment for misleading claims about its effectiveness but also alleged that Baidu, which controls 80 percent of the Chinese search market, had promoted false medical information.

Shares of BIDU are lower by $9 or 5% in the premarket.

Time to lever up the balance sheet and make a few PE guys rich-er.

Krispy Kreme donuts is going private, acquired by JAB Beech for $21.

Via Briefing:

The co and JAB Beech Inc., an indirect controlled subsidiary of JAB Holding Company in which BDT Capital Partners is a minority investor alongside JAB, announced that the companies have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which JAB Beech will acquire Krispy Kreme for $21 per share in cash, or a total equity value of approximately $1.35 billion. The agreement, which has been unanimously approved by Krispy Kreme’s Board of Directors, represents a premium of approximately 25% over the Company’s closing stock price on May 6, 2016.

At the close of the transaction, Krispy Kreme will be privately owned and will continue to be independently operated from Krispy Kreme’s current headquarters in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The transaction is not subject to a financing condition and is expected to close in the third quarter, subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of regulatory and shareholder approvals.

In the land of liars of thieves, the Beijing ‘people’s court’ ruled in favor of Facebook (U.S.) in a trademark case against some nefarious fuckheads in China who were plastering the name ‘Facebook’ on their beverages. Somehow, someway, the media believes this is a ‘glimmer of hope’ for FB in China.

Please.

As an aside, Apple recently lost a similar case after suing another company in China for brazenly stealing the Apple brand name and stamping it on their low-end leather goods.

Chinese people won’t be able to quench their thirst with a refreshing “face book” beverage, after the U.S. social networking company won a rare trademark victory against a local firm in China.

By contrast, Apple Inc (AAPL.O) last month lost its battle to prevent a domestic company from using the “iPhone” trademark on leather goods in China.

China’s intellectual property protections are often perceived as quite lax but they are steadily improving, lawyers say. The victory may offer a glimmer of hope for Facebook Inc (FB.O) in China, where its social network is not accessible and its business is mainly selling overseas advertising for Chinese companies.

The Beijing Municipal High People’s Court said the Zhongshan Pearl River Drinks application, filed in 2011, to label certain foods and beverages “face book” was an obvious act of copying and harmed fair market competition.

China has a long rich, history, of corporate thievery. As a matter of fact, they have entire Apple Store replicas in China, selling ‘Apple’ branded electronics, none of which that are actually made by Apple–complete forgeries.

Look at this shit.

Then you have the ever popular Sunbucks and Starbox in China.

And then there’s this, a personal favorite of mine.

The fucking comedy show continues. Fed’s Evans is out with comments, professing the need to chill and relax, wait and see how everything pans out–before jacking borrowing costs for the U.S. government.

“The continuation of a wait-and-see monetary policy response is appropriate to ensure that economic growth continues, labor markets strengthen further, wages begin to increase more, and all of this supports an eventual increase in currently low inflation back up to our 2 percent objective,” Evans said.

“We have of course to see now the effects of our very recent economic measures, which take time to produce effect,” he said. “But at the same time we have to keep being alert about any new external developments, so there is really no answer in terms of any timetable. We certainly hope that without major upheavals in the international economy, our policies as they are in place will be enough to obtain our objectives.”

Evans is looking for the economy to grow at the blistering clip of 2.5% this year. Every day is a different point of view from a different Fed head. I’ve never seen so much obfuscation out of the Fed.

European markets are reflecting the late day move we made last Friday, based off those miserable payrolls data.

The DAX forges ahead, crushing the helmets of bears everywhere.

‘merican markets are set to surge by 50 some odd points. Crude oil indelibly higher, as Canada burns to the ground.

The garbage rally continues.

This time it’s in China.

They’re selling a major copper mine asset in the jungles of Congo, hanging out with King Kong, all for the sake of deleveraging.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. agreed to sell a copper mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo to China Molybdenum Co. for $2.65 billion as the struggling miner seeks to cut debt.

China Molybdenum will buy Freeport’s stake in TF Holdings Ltd., which holds an 80 percent interest in the Tenke Fungurume copper mine in Congo, Freeport said in statement Monday. Freeport may receive a further $120 million based on copper and cobalt prices.

“This transaction is another significant step to strengthen our balance sheet and enhance value for shareholders,” Adkerson said in the statement. “We are committed to our immediate objective of reducing debt while retaining a large portfolio of high-quality assets and resources and a leading position in the global copper industry.

At this pace, the company will be left with a loose bag of peanuts and a few shells left to operate. With the share price above $11, perhaps they should just do a fucking secondary in order to avoid selling out the company at less than optimal prices now?

Paint me skeptical. The Alberta fires continue to blaze, enabling the price of crude lift by 2%. Just about 1 million barrels of crude are offline, thanks to this outrageously convenient blaze, from an oil man’s point of view.

I know, the dry climes have permitted the land to become a tinder for errant matches being idly tossed into the woods by men in large cowboy hats.

In the meantime, city officials have retained the services of Elevated Robotic Services to fly super powered drones in order to find the cause of the blaze.

Thus far, the drone was only able to pick this rough image of a nice man peering into the flames.

In all seriousness, officials believe a fucking campfire or lightning bolt (extra Great Scott!) was the cause of the fire that has rifled through Fort McMurray, shutting down Canada’s oil sand operations–depriving world markets of 1 million barrels of crude per day.