Seoul Refuses to Pay for Trump’s ‘Phenomenal’ Billion Dollar Missile Defense System That ‘Shoots Missiles Right Out of the Sky’

S. Korea is comfortable without having THAAD, or at least paying for its missile defense abilities. In an interview with Reuters last night, President Trump said he thought S. Korea should pay for the system.

“I informed South Korea it would be appropriate if they paid. It’s a billion-dollar system. It’s phenomenal, shoots missiles right out of the sky.”

Seoul on Friday brushed aside US President Donald Trump’s suggestion it should pay for a $1 billion missile defense system the two allies are installing in South Korea to guard against threats from the North.

U.S. officials says the missile defense shield will be operational shortly, much to the chagrin of the ‘villagers’ of S. Korea, who fucking hate it.

The S. Koreans thought about Trump’s suggestions and passed, citing the military agreement between the two nations, saying all they were obligated to do was provide logistics and the infrastructure for the system, but the Ameri-burgers would have to pay.

“There is no change to this basic position.”

In other news, Trump said he wanted to get rid of the free trade deal with the ingrates from S. Korea, saying “It is unacceptable, it is a horrible deal made by Hillary.”

Get ready for nuclear war, S. Koreans. The United States will have plenty of opportunities to help defend your nation against a sundry of missiles, some armed with poisonous gas, others of the nuclear varietal. But some will slip by, leveling your cities to ash — pushing you back into the bronze age. But from that ash will rise Samsung, greater and stronger than ever. Miraculously, you will be placed under a Marshall plan, led by the United States “and its allies”, to rebuild your proud peninsula. Your dear Japanese friends will assist in the occupation, as they’re very familiar with your terrain and the logistics and all that.

Hence, inside of 100 years, your nation will be stronger than ever — without the menace of N. Korea threatening the world with its MUH nuclear weapons.

Rex Tillerson makes the case for ‘action’ to the UN. This is a prerequisite for war. Not only is Tillerson warning N. Korea here, he’s also warning all nations who support them, threatening them with sanctions.

You’re all animals — greedy little savages trying to make money. GDP is practically non-existent. World War 3 is just around the bend and you can’t get enough of the market. Pardon the slowness of the site this morning, one of our stories went viral and the faggots from Reddit are bogging down our servers. Hopefully, people will stop reading it soon and the site can get back to normal.

Aside from last night’s tech earnings, the most notable thing this morning is oil — higher by 0.84%. On Jupiter’s Stone, it will trade higher and soon.

Look, the economy grew at just 0.7% last quarter, the slowest pace in three years. The Fed cannot hike into this kind of economy, especially with global tensions and Trump’s stimulus plans on hold.

The euro is higher by 0.37% v the dollar, but bond yields are higher. Meaning, no one thinks the Fed is on hold yet. Everyone seems to think it’s perfectly normal to contract the money supply at a time when the economy sucks.

(ADJUSTS MICROPHONE)

Wrong!

You will find out how much of a mistake that will be — should the Fed continue on this path of ruin.

Nevertheless, there is a strong underpinning in the tape this morning. I’m expecting stocks to start heading higher here — accelerating as the day goes on.

In a somber interview with Reuters this evening, Trump sounded a bit lonely, a bit taxed — conceding that we might be heading for a ‘major, major conflict’ with N. Korea.

“There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely.”

He did say, however, that he wasn’t going to do anything that might hurt the President of China now, as he considers Xi to be a great leader and a friend.

“I believe he is trying very hard. He certainly doesn’t want to see turmoil and death. He doesn’t want to see it. He is a good man. He is a very good man and I got to know him very well.”

Trump added, “We’d love to solve things diplomatically but it’s very difficult.”

He then went on to lament about how much work the Presidency is and how his privacy is non-existent — drolling on about being isolated by security. He bemoaned about not being able to head outside to dinner or drive a car.

Then back to foreign affairs, he said the Saudi’s were treating us very unfairly. Essentially, we’re their defense and they do nothing for us.

The path to defeating ISIS is via humiliation, said Trump.

“I have to say, there is an end. And it has to be humiliation.”

Trump said North Korea was his biggest global challenge. He lavished praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping for Chinese assistance in trying to rein in Pyongyang. The two leaders met in Florida earlier this month.

Summing up N. Korea, Trump noted how difficult it must’ve been for 27yr old Kim Jong Un to take over his Father’s role as leader.

“I’m not giving him credit or not giving him credit, I’m just saying that’s a very hard thing to do. As to whether or not he’s rational, I have no opinion on it. I hope he’s rational.”

DEVELOPING…

While pursuing the slums of Lindzon, I came across this lecture by none other than Uncle Fred Wilson. By accident, I clicked play and set my timer for 5 minutes to see if he possessed any words of wisdom that was worthwhile.

This is a classic lecture to consume for any investor, especially VCfags.

Enjoy.

I posted earnings on my Twitter feed in real time as they came in. Big beats by GOOGL and AMZN — and a little disappointment from BIDU, INTC, KLAC and SBUX. But thanks to the heavy weighting of the former, Nasdaq futures are indicating +50 in the after hours.

Considering the number of misses reported tonight, I’d say the net result is slightly negative — especially thanks to INTC.

Remember just a few years ago when the semis were a dead sector, bedraggled by Apple margin squeezing tactics? I think the turning point came when Broadcom merged with Avago. Since about that time, the sector has been white hot — with monstrous gains found in NVDA, SWKS, TER, LRCX and many others.

Is the sector expensive?

The semiconductor equipment sector is trading at 27x earnings, on a media basis. On a price to sales basis, it’s trading just 2.11x. But the premium to the technology sector, according to Exodus, has shrunk from +47% in 2015 to just +8% now — thanks to a ramp up in earnings. In other words, the sector is appreciably cheaper now, on a p/s basis than it was in 2015.

To be fair, all of the other sub-sectors in the semis, such as broadline, memory, specialized and integrated, are trading at or near the high end of their historical ratios. Only the semi equipment sector is considered cheap. Even with that ‘cheapness’, the sector was appreciably cheaper, when compared to the overall tech sector, back in 2012.

Convoluted, isn’t it?

Ultimately, the tech sector is guided by the semis, whose market caps total more than $1.1t, matching the application software sector. Whenever the tech sector cascaded lower, it was led by either software or semis.

Here are is the tech sector performance, year to date, broken down by industry.

This is almost a useless shitpost. But I think it’s important to acknowledge how important the semis are to the market — as we head into earnings season. If they reaffirm expectations and impress, we’re likely going to enjoy another leg up in the Nasdaq. If they disappoint, a la 2014, things can unravel very fast — since these stocks are already owned by every cocaine addled money manager in America.

Kim Bhasin, a reporter at Bloomberg, Huffpo, and Business Insider, has a bone to pick with President Trump — as evidenced by his recent reporting. Oh, you want me to prove it, faggot? Have a look at this ridiculousness.

Bhasin editorializes:

Meanwhile, Under Armour’s cool factor keeps getting hit. In February, Plank’s positive comments about the new U.S. president drew the ire of Curry, as well as of spokes-stars Dwayne Johnson and Misty Copeland. The company took out a full-page ad in its hometown newspaper to try to defuse the situation.

And here is today’s absurdity.

Notice a pattern?

Pray tell me, how did Under Armour lose ‘whatever swagger it had left’ after reporting better than expected results, sending the stock screaming higher by 10%? This brand of financial journalism is yellow — passive aggressive rubbish concocted inside of the mentally addled mind of a very sick person. Kim had this article written before the results came out — in an attempt to punish the CEO, Kevin Plank — because he once had the audacity to say a nice thing about President Trump.

Here was Mr. Plank’s mortal sin, for the freedom of speech hating far left.

Everything you thought you knew about the steel industry was a lie, apparently.

In spite of Trump’s tough talk on China, steel prices have re-engaged the downside in recent month — which is wreaking havoc on the underlying shares in the sector.

spot iron ore, beatdown

Let’s think about the psychology behind this trade. It went from milquetoast to red hot, to retraction, to prolonged underperformance to despondency. After yesterday’s drubbing in X and today’s cataclysm in CLF, I am warming to the sector.

Here are some of the ‘returns’ for some of the more popular names, during 2017.

AKS -38%
X -31%
SID -27%
SCHN -26%
CLF -24%
ZEUS -23%
NWPX -19%

Valuation wise, the sector isn’t especially cheap or expensive, leaving the fate of the sector to human emotion. Is this the flushout?

My favorites in the space are in zinc, the metal used to galvanize steel. The best in the sector are HBM, TECK and VEDL.

Good news Ameritards, you’re about to keep that high paying factory job that you’ve been clinging onto. President Trump just announced that the leaders of Mexico and Canada called and begged him to renegotiate the NAFTA trade deal, which has been a tremendous disaster for our country, believe me.

Also, he said that if he didn’t cut a good deal for the Ameritard people, he’d simply fire both the Canadian and Mexican leaders and cancel the agreement.

It’s important that you remember America is superior to all of its neighbors. These nations only exist to serve out interests. When they drift off outside of their natural borders, it is our job to correct them and place them back on track. By redoing the trade deal to our advantage, we can, once again, live long lives cutting off each other’s fingers inside hot, steamy, factories. Believe me.