Trump Admits: He Did Not Tape His Conversations with Comey

The 4D chess theory behind Trump’s tweet alluding to the possibility of ‘tapes’ that recorded his conversations with Comey was that it would force Comey to be as truthful as possible, with regards to making claims that the President ‘obstructed justice.’

More or less, it worked — since Comey dialed back his charges, using loose terms like the President said he’d ‘hoped’ that Comey might let the ‘good guy’ Flynn off the hook. Whatever.

Ever since that tweet, the media has been going ape, wondering when, if ever, the President would reveal such delicious fuckeries. Today, the President admitted to shitposting. There aren’t any tapes, unless of course they were made by deep staters illegally spying on him.

With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017

…whether there are "tapes" or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017

Prepare for more indignation. When is the earliest Trump can sign his impeachment papers and leave the White House? Clearly, we can’t have a madman in charge of the nuclear arsenal.

These people are so disconnected from reality, they probably think charging six figs for their subpar, shit, research is a bargain.

Starting early 2018, the EU will ban brokerages from bundling research with commissions, citing conflicts of internet, which will force banks to find a way to monetize of even justify the existence of their expensive research departments. They are exactly like newspapers, only with highly profitable trading and fee based divisions that make it bearable. But with new rules taking place, Nomura belives they have to charge 120,000 euros per annum to clients to access their reports.

What!?

That’s what the Japanese bank quoted in April for an all-inclusive “premium offering,” according to a pricing document seen by Bloomberg News. While Nomura said pricing is still fluid and it’s being flexible in talks with clients, the guidance may indicate how banks and their clients will settle on how to value something they’ve rarely charged for.

The European Union’s MiFID II regulations, which will be enforced from Jan. 3, aim to tackle conflicts of interest by requiring asset managers to separate the trading commissions they pay from investment-research fees. Banks have worked to find a model to sell their research at a price that won’t drive away clients, while also not being so low that regulators accuse them of gaming the system.

Cheaper options will include a la carte currency and economic reports — for the bargain price of 60k euros. For EM, fixed income and credit, prices will start at 80k euros.

Who’s ready to sign up?

What the fuck is the Orange God up to today? Based off his speech yesterday, he’s building a solar paneled Mexican border wall, and eschewing ‘poor people’ from running the economy.

Some people are utterly besides themselves with unchecked rage because Trump said he didn’t want poor people running the economy.

Trump's comments on poor people being hired in his administration is the single most tasteless and offensive comment ever made by a POTUS.

— Kienan Wear (@kienanwear) June 22, 2017

Trump literally just said rich people are better than poor people.

— Brian Bruce (@BrianBruce7) June 22, 2017

Trump's statements yesterday on how he doesn't want poor people in his cabinet infuriate me to the end of my wits.

— Xy (@XylariaVG) June 22, 2017

There’s a bunch of that nonsense being posted all over the Twittersphere today. But, if we’re being honest with one another here, I think we can surmise, generally speaking, poor people are fucking idiots. I do not intend to offend some of you housing tenement ballers out there drinking 40 ounces of malted liquor while reading me, but you damned well know that you weren’t born to run a $20 trillion economy. Let the caitiffs at Goldman figure out how to screw everyone. You and your submental friends can steal hubcaps, or trick some women into having your children — passing on your fucked up DNA.

It is a fact, poor people, as a whole, have lower IQs than rich people.

I have a unique and enriching experience in this regard, having grown up in the sewers of Brooklyn, traversed in the very worst neighborhoods as a teenager — cavorting with individuals who should’ve been incarcerated from the day they were born. Reflecting on my experiences in the hood, I can proudly say that I was, by far, the smartest person there, by a factor of 10 (maybe more). All they wanted to do was get drunk, find women, get drunk, act like retards.

After I left that God forsaken area and entered Wall Street, I was introduced to a new type of people, one with the cognitive ability to build and keep wealth. That, my friends, is the principle difference between the cromagnons populating denizens of poverty and the well off. One is a productive member of society, with far reaching knowledge of how the world works, the other is only interested in the Sunday foolsball game, chicken wings, beer, and impregnating women.

God Bless Trump and his love for rich people.

How is it possible for ORCL to be up 10% in the pre-market, yet NASDAQ futures are unch? Have you taken a look at Europe? Down around 0.5%. Gold is up this morning too, which leads me to believe we’re gonna sell off today.

Yesterday, in spite of the strength in healthcare and tech, most stocks traded down — with breadth sub 50%. TLT lifted towards the end of the session and posted gains…again.

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and suggest we’re due for a truly horrible few weeks of trading. Things are getting slow, investors lazy, and the data is milquetoast. Because of the complacency, the market can have a true black swan event. Now, I am hardly positioned to deal with such tragedies — but I’ll get there. My portfolio, as you know, is systematically controlled now. This is part of my plan to automate my investments to the point where I can drink martinis all day, without having to worry about inflows/outflows/whatever the fuck flows. I know exactly what I want in a stock/portfolio, so I set the rules in advance and merely adhere to them.

Thus far, the plan has gone better than I expected, with my trades beating out the SPY in each of the last 6 weeks.

I will be out of pocket most of the day, dealing with end of school year stuff. I’ll probably head on over to an amusement park later on — in order to waste inordinate sums of money and make myself sick from riding death coasters. I’ve never liked rides and do not, in the least, find them to be worthy of waiting on line. Nevertheless, being the sport that I am, I will comply.

It has been a fine market, probably the least drama free in years. But it’s a little boring, making money without consequences. It reminds of that Twilight Zone episode where a criminal dies, goes to hell, and is upset that he keeps winning when he gambled or never got caught when robbing banks. The fun was sapped out of his crime sprees, since there weren’t any consequences. Now I am not suggesting our little business is the equivalent to robbing banks. Us Wall Streeters are upstanding individuals, who love the environment and rarely, if ever, use fouled language. To that end, this is getting a bit redundant. I want fire, brimstone, blood flowing throughout the streets of Wall.

Have a productive day.

Back in 1997, Harold J. Nicholson, a former employee for the CIA, was sentenced to 23 years in jail for conspiring with the Russian government. Tonight on Hardball, Sen. Blumenthal went off the deep end of his own conspiratorial bend — proclaiming that both Flynn, Kushner and others in the Trump White House could succumb to conspiracy charges.

When discussing the matter of Flynn, the host, Chris Mathews, asked the Senator if he should be given immunity, so that he could spill the beans on the President — inferring that Trump had something to hide that Flynn knew about. Both Blumenthal and Mathews then started to theorize, incredulously as if disconnected from the real world, a grande Russian scheme had taken place — all at the behest of Trump, that could land Flynn 15 years in prison.

Mathews then staggered on, praising the press for providing the public with leaks, revealing what he deemed to be ‘Russian shenanigans’, saying ‘the press should be commended’.

‘All these Russian things going, all the time, and the only reason why we know about them is the press.’

Hmm, I wonder why democrats keep losing elections.

Reuters is reporting Sycamore Partners beat out Cerebus to possibly acquire Staples, the retailer of pens, pencils and pleather chairs — for around $6b — which is close to the last price quoted at the end of trading yesterday.

Financing for the deal is being finalized as we speak, which should lead to an official announcement something next week.

For the life of me, I have no idea why details of deals like this get leaked.

If the deal goes through, Sycamore will retool the company to cater to the enterprise market, in favor of back to school retards.

Sales for the beleaguered retailer have been in the shitter for some time now. I am sure the C level execs at Staples would prefer to end this nightmare now, with a deal, instead of dragging it out any longer than necessary.

Oil is finished. You’ll be visiting it at the graveyard, not before long.

WTI down ~3% for the session

Oil and gas stocks are now down 5% for the day.

Notable: High yield bonds are starting to get hit. This is common-fucking-sense. You idiots should die in fires for buying JNK and HYG up here. With oil getting mashed, expect credits to get hit next.

Why isn’t anyone talking about this? Oil stocks are getting murdered this year — yet all the media seems to talk about are the gains in NVDA. There are serious consequences to the stock price declines in a sector beset with so much debt. How much debt?

Hundreds of billions.

Year to date, the oil drillers are doing even worse than the retail stocks — off by 40%.

Big cap stocks like CLR, CVE and AR are down 30-50%. There are at least a dozen stocks down more than 50%, as oil drops on a daily basis — now sporting a $43 handle.

Here you can see the losses of the drillers vs the SPY, scaling out over 5 years.

Tech stocks now represent 25% of the overall market value. It’s very tempting to think ‘buy oils, sell tech’. But I can’t think of a catalyst at the present time that would cause a major rotation out of cash rich tech into poor oils.

Seasonally speaking, we’re heading into the worst months of the years for oil — so maybe take a shot at them during the end of summer.

Breadth is a tepid 58% and many stocks are sucking wind today. But the big standouts are the drug stocks. It was the only sector that had notable buying interest and it’s following through today.

From my momentum screen in Exodus, the following healthcare names are under buying pressure.

REGN, PACB, TTPH, PTLA, ZIOP, INCY, BIIB, CELG and GILD.

Tech gains are highlighted by CA, ADBE, CSIQ, MOMO, SYNA, VIP and Z.

Both AKS and X are bouncing today too — but those stocks have been ripped to shreds and do not have credibility.

Botton line: Mostly all of yesterday’s losses have been washed away. Maybe Trump trades will start moving again, as noted by today’s move in X. That’s a hard trade to get behind now, however, since none of his plans are being passed by Congress. Healthcare, especially highly profitable drug companies like GILD, CELG and BIIB, have strong fundamentals and could definitely go on a run here.

In the case of GILD, the stock is down 19% over the past year — due to pricing pressures for their drugs. Plus, the made the cardinal sin of curing hep c. They should’ve just made a treatment, in order to keep their customers for longer periods of time. By curing hep c, they’ve relegated themselves at the mercy of attrition and will need to expand into other areas of health. Nevertheless, the stock is cheap.

Frankly, I don’t understand how the democrats ever thought they were gonna win in Georgia. Sure, Trump only won that district by 2 points. However, and this is what the dems don’t seem to understand, you’re pissing off all of the republicans with this very obvious ginned up Russian conspiracy — trying to unseat a democratically elected President. I mean, you’re not even waiting a year or two before trying to remove him. You’ve got the investigations going, the former FBI director out to get him, and a special counsel hiring Clinton attorneys. What did you think would happen in Georgia, especially in light of all of the Californian money pouring into the Ossoff campaign, with high profile celebrities shilling for his victory?

Rule number 1: never use celebrities to get out the vote. While it might help young morons vote for your candidate, the larger voting block, who are more mature, view celebrities as social outcasts — pigeon holed for entertainment — not to be taken seriously.

So, in spite of Ossoff spending 7x the amount of money than Handel, in the most expensive congressional race ever — lauded and praised by the media as a referendum against Trump — polling way ahead in FAKE POLLS, he still took the L.

CNN’s Cuomo tried to console viewers, teaching them how to fail. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

“They teach you in campaign school … that you’ve gotta learn from failure, otherwise you’re doomed to repeated it,” Cuomo said.

“And there’s an acronym for ‘fail’: the Future Always Involves Learning. And that’s going to be the test … for Democrats, right?” he asked.

Rachel Maddow blamed the weather.

The Morning Shill so wanted Ossoff to win, in order to teach Trump a lesson. Alas, he says this is a ‘wake up call for the dems.’ Joe still thinks the dems will take the house in 2018.

I think it’s fair to say the DNC agenda to ‘resist’ Trump didn’t work, says Bill Bennett.

Alan Dershowitz said trying to make a criminal out of the President backfired.