Facebook Scores Trademark Victory in Beijing Court

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.

Much of the rally we’re all enjoyed, in one form on another, was predicated upon a resurgence in the cheap Chinese plastic economy that had stalled out in early January. Ever since the low point of 2016, copper prices had risen due to a renewed Chinese demand.

However, as we now see, that rally was only bulking up inventorie, not really indicative of a rally born through economic expansion. The rally has ended. Go in peace.

There’s “no need for imports given so much inventory as we enter the low season,” Ji Xianfei, an analyst at Guotai Junan Futures, said from Shanghai before the data were released. There’s also been no profit from arbitrage for a while, said Ji, referring to a lack of opportunity to benefit from differences between prices in China and overseas.

Ore Imports

Imports of copper ore and concentrate fell 8 percent to 1.26 million tons in April from a month earlier. In the first four months, purchases gained about 31 percent to 5.27 million tons year on year, the data showed.

Inventories in warehouses tracked by the Shanghai Futures Exchange swelled to a record in March, then fell 15 percent last month, according to bourse data. Holdings in bonded warehouses — which aren’t publicly disclosed — rose in April to the most since August, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

The Chairman of the Board, a man who has never waited on a line in his life, Frank Sinata. I’ve seen scores of documentaries, several about old blue eyes. This one made by HBO was easily the best Sinatra documentary and one of the best I’ve ever seen.

For those of you with HBO go access, you can watch it here.

Otherwise, go scour the Internet for it. I know it’s out there.

He lead a life that can only de described as lunacy, but also legendary. He was one of the best ever.

So the weaker than expected payrolls ended up being a net positive for the crazy people sloshing money in and out of the market. The prevailing wisdom is that the Fed will hold off until September to hike rates–due to this report. I believe the Fed will move in June, as my thesis has taken a turn from cynical to diabolically cynical.

It is the tradition of this great nation to implode its economy, just before a new President is coronated. This way, the new President can move with force in the first 100 days, working under a ‘mandate’ by the American people to right the ship.

Our elected leaders are caitiffs of the first order, wanton degenerates and disgusting perverts. But I digress.

Stocks lifted throughout the day and everyone will go home happy, like morons sucking on an iced cream pop. My bubble basket closed down 1%, thanks in large part to biotech. I closed out my XLE short yesterday, so my total market exposure is only 25%, which is invested in TLT.

The markets have closed now. Go in peace.

The biotech Einsteins at RBC have assessed their price target of KMPH and decided that their price target was a little ‘excessive’ in light of the 55% drubbing the stock is undergoing during today’s trade.

But don’t worry lads, they’re effervescently optimistic about the future.

RBC Capital Mkts lowers their KMPH tgt to $14 from $22. The FDA Advisory Committee voted 16 to 4 to support approval for Apadaz but 18 to 2 against inclusion of an abuse-deterrent claim in the label. While the outcome is disappointing, it does not speak to the overall platform value of co’s prodrug technology; mgmt will work with FDA ahead of the June 9 PDUFA. Firm expects Apadaz to be approved, with the AdCom voting overwhelmingly in favor for FDA to approve the prodrug. But the key was the abuse-deterrence labeling of Apadaz, and the AdCom was decisively opposed. The crux of the argument lay with co’s clinical data, which the AdCom indicated displayed “lack of evidence” of a clear distinction of abuse deterrence.

I’m sure plenty of you homeowners out there deal with the incessant parade of two bit salesmen coming to your door in search of a sale. Recently, I was entreated to a very special Bernard Maddof character, who was from the solar company VSLR in search of personal fortune.

He was most likely employed straight out of a prison facility, white male , mid 40s, wearing an orange and black construction vest.

Upon opening the door, I saw that he had a Pg&e (my local electric utility) clipboard with him, with an official document facing me, from Pg&e, attached to it.

He asked me ‘ hello Sir, have you seen the construction trucks passing by the neighborhood recently?’

Because I have an aversion to door-step salesmen, immediately, I denied seeing anything. Had God himself been down the block creating humans with a magic staff, I’d deny seeing it too, if asked by a fucking porch planted salesman.

Then I spotted his ID tag and it said Vivint Solar. I shot back with force “not interested.”

He responded, wearing a fucking construction company hard hat, “excuse me? What do you mean? I’m from the local utility and we’re seeing if you qualify for renewable energy.”

I interrupted him and said “you’re from a solar company, selling those hideous panels and sticking them onto innocent people’s roofs. Again, I’m not interested.”

He shot back in a smug, condescending manner  “you’re not interested in green energy, even though it’s paid for by the government?”

I said “yep, not interested.”

In a valiant last ditch effort, with a chuckle that he probably learned in prison, he said “I don’t even know if you’re qualified. That’s why I’m here, to assess your home. We have a contract with your utility, Pg&e.”

I interrupted him again and said that I didn’t like ‘green energy’ (extra Cat in the Hat) and that ‘I  loathed solar panels with every fiber of my existence.’ Moreover, and indelibly so, ‘had you offered to pay for those panels and then continue to pay me a monthly fee to store those blights that you call solar panels on my roof, I’d still tell you that I wasn’t at all interested.’

‘Okay, I guess you don’t like green energy.’

‘Indeed.’