Goldman’s Cohn May Soon Resign From White House; Goldman Out with Negative Note on Steel Tariffs

Trump is thinking about signing the steel tariff bill next week in Pennsylvania steel country. But before he could do that, Goldman’s Gary Cohn is desperately trying to change his mind. Bloomberg is reporting that it his efforts fail, he will resign.

SCOOP: Gary Cohn has orchestrated a meeting on Thursday between Trump and executives from American aluminum and steel end users who would be hurt by the tariffs, sources tell me and @margarettalev.

It’s part of a last-ditch effort inside admin to stop or blunt the tariffs.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 6, 2018

“Colleagues and friends who have spoken to [Gary Cohn] believe he could resign at any moment. Mr. Cohn and other aides felt blindsided when word spread Wednesday that the tariffs were imminent, White House aides said.” (via @wsj) https://t.co/OKhpKGaTLN

— Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) March 3, 2018

Frankly, people have been crying wolf about Cohn resigning since day 1. But you and I both know Cohn isn’t long for the Trump White House.

Here’s Goldman’s take on the proposed tariffs.

“Import tariffs make the U.S. less competitive by raising the prices of raw materials,” the New York-based bank said in a report received on Tuesday. It added: “By imposing across-the-board tariffs to all steel and aluminum imports, the larger economic impact is on Canada, Mexico and the EU, and it ironically eases the economic impact to China and Russia.”

Goldman said the U.S. action — which invokes Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act — would risk adding to inflationary pressures just as the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates. “The tariffs reinforce the reflationary pressure already under way globally.”

“Net consumers of steel and aluminum in the U.S. now face cost disadvantages relative to their international competitors, especially at a time when the labor market is tight and wage inflation is picking up,” the bank concluded. “This is the irony of Section 232: a tariff intended to support U.S. industry may end up boosting margins and investment for a small subset of producers while leaving the broader economy at a disadvantage.”

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers calls Trump’s plan “probably the most irrational economic policy that any President has ever introduced in the last half century.” Really? See when people read shit like that, it automatically sounds like horseshit.

Trump's tariff plan "is probably the most irrational economic policy that any President has ever introduced in the last half century," former U.S. Treasury Secretary @LHSummers tells me, calling it "really crazy, dumb protectionism."
https://t.co/C2z9qgdXw2

— Christiane Amanpour (@camanpour) March 5, 2018

With regards to Canada and Mexico, the President is said to be flexible on providing them exemption, only if they’d be willing to renegotiate NAFTA.

From a media watchdog perspective, they’ve unhinged and are losing their shit over these meaningless taxes on items that can easily be produced here. Relax, the sun also rises.

It’s probably going higher — but I wanted to go eat something without having to worry about this fucking stupid ETF. It’s 3x long semis and is capable of chopping my fucking dick off clean with one fat finger. Being that I am +21 points on the thing since Friday, I felt now was a good time to sell.

I will have all of my others longs and they’ll likely remain in place. I am tempted to hedge — because we’ve run up so much, so soon. However, this is short squeeze territory and I’d rather be in cash and wait for a pullback then get steamrolled in a squeeze.

Nevertheless, I’m gonna go see about that breakfast now.

What a glorious morning. Futures are higher by 112, the air is both brisk and clean, and the melodious tunes of 17th century classical music reverberate throughout House Fly. I am prepared to book profits on my SOXL trade this morning. Even though I should hold for another day, maybe two, I don’t want to be greedy. One in the hand is always better than two in the bush.

After all, I bought it on Friday and now I’m +21 points, nearly 14% from my basis. I think it’s fair to say that I nailed this trade. As for the Exodus Quant SPY trade, I am scheduled to sell it tomorrow — due to the data for that signal. In the past, I would hold for 5-10 days. But this signal is saying the optimal holding period is just 3 days.

My other longs will likely remain intact, as I am mostly long oil in my trading account. I’m a big fan of the black and feel its scarcity will increase in the coming weeks — thanks to the MUH driving season.

Lads, I’ve been doing this a very long time and this is just about as good as it gets.

Cryptos are getting fucking manhandled this morning, especially Ripple — off by 14%.

Here are this morning’s standouts.

Gapping up
In reaction to strong earnings/guidance:

• BTE +12.8%, TNTR +10.4%, AMRC +10.2%, ALOG +10.1%, TEDU +8.3%, HAIR +6.3%, BZUN +6.3%, NX +5.2%, EGLE +4.8%, PQ +4.2%, YY +3.5%, CARS +3.5%, ANAB +2.5%, KLXI +2.4%, CIEN +2.3%, PARR +1.8%, NVGS +1.8%, LOGI +1.1%, (guidance), FAST +0.5%, (Feb Sales)

M&A news:

• CAG +1.9% (ConAgra responds to FTC decision to challenge the sale of Wesson oil to The J.M. Smucker – disagrees with the Commission’s decision; to review all of options)

Other news:

• QDEL +5.1% (receives FDA clearance for its point-of-care Sofia Lyme Fluorescent Immunoassay)
• TI +4.3% (indicated higher on reports of Paul Singer’ Elliott Management stake)
• MU +2.2% (positive Cramer mention)
• HL +1.9% (receives $31.6 million loan investment in Hecla from Ressources Quebec)
• BOJA +1.8% (CEO Clifton Rutledge resigns for personal reasons; co puts current Director James “Randy” Kibler in place as Interim President and CEO)
• GOGO +1.5% (CEO Michael Small steps down, co appoints appoints Oakleigh Thorne as President and CEO)
• ADRO +1.5% (earned a $3.0 mln development milestone payment under its worldwide licensing agreement with Merck for the initiation of a Phase I clinical trial of its anti-CD27 antibody)
• GSK +1.3% (reports new clinical data demonstrate high vaccine efficacy of Fluarix Tetra in children 6-35 months of age)

Analyst comments:

• GNCA +25.2% (initiated with a Overweight at Cantor Fitzgerald)
• MYL +3.2% (upgraded to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley)
• HLF +2.9% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup)
• ALB +2.1% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Seaport Global Securities)
• UPS +2% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at Stifel)
• BG +1.6% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup)
• NTAP +1.5% (added to US 1 List at BofA/Merrill)
• ADM +1.2% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup)

Gapping down
In reaction to disappointing earnings/guidance:

• MRNS -14.3%, ASNA -13.2%, FRPT -12.5%, NLS -6.7%, SNDX -5.6%, FATE -5.5%, TGT -4%, STRL -2.4%, BLRX -1.8%, RYI -1%

M&A news:

• JWN -2.2% (Nordstrom announces the receipt and rejection of an indicative proposal to acquire the company; Nordstrom family offered $50.00/share)

Other news:

• GLYC -17.2% (GlycoMimetics announces its design for a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate GMI-1271 in combination with MEC Mitoxantrone, etoposide and Ara-C or in combination with fludarabine, cytosine arabinoside and idarubicin in individuals with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemi )
• SCYX -11.2% ( commences an underwritten public offering of shares of its common stock and warrants)
• ARES -9.1% (announces 15 mln share offering -10 mln by selling shareholder and 5 mln by the company)
• UQM -6.2% (UQM Technologies and CNHTC have withdrawn their CFIUS Application)
• NYRT -3.8% (announces 1:10 reverse split effective at approximately 5:00pm ET on March 15, 2018 )
• GTHX -1.5% (filed for 3 mln share common stock offering)
• CDEV -1.5% (commences an underwritten public offering of 25,000,000 shares by selling shareholders)
• TRU -0.8% (pricing of underwritten secondary offering by certain of its stockholders of 19,889,564 shares of common stock )

Analyst comments:

• GRUB -2.9% (downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill)
• CNI -1.1% (downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA/Merrill)
• SEP -0.8% (downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel)

Samuel Nunberg is my new hero. I have about a dozen videos of this beautiful man on iBC’s Youtube channel and all of them are cringeworthy and also fantastic.

This is a man going through a mid-life fucking crisis in real time, on live television. A short while ago he visited Mueller for a 5 hour chat. They discussed a bunch of things, a little of this and a little of that — and then Sam left to his nice little life being a NYC attorney — until Fucked Face Mueller decided to invite him to a grand jury to chinwag a little more — but this time he asked Sam to bring his fucking email box with him.

That’s where Sam lost his fucking marbles, literally told Mueller to fuck off and dared him to arrest him. He was on MSNBC and CNN today, saying shit like ‘what is he going to do about it?’, ‘come and arrest me’, ‘I’m not going to spend 80 hours getting emails for him’, ‘NOT INTERESTED’, ‘PFFFT, screw that,’ ‘Trump is an idiot.’

Sam Nunberg is an American hero, the quintessential American who was born to die in prison, motivated by sloth and his hatred for his government and their annoying requests. Sam is an attorney who has better things to do, operas and ballet to enjoy, making this stand all the more wonderful in a reckless 100mph car heading towards a dynamite depot sort of way. He’s perfectly competent and aware of the laws; he’s simply not going to abide by them — literally zero fucks given.

Towards the ass end of Sam’s day of giving interviews, he met with Erin Burnett, who was keen to ask Sam had he been drinking (of course he had been!). She actually the gumption to say she smelled liquor on his breath — like a holier than thou mother badgering her naughty 15 year old son. Naturally, Sam denied it — knowing it would automatically ruin him in the eyes of the American people. It’s one of those oddball things about America — a country drowning in gin — who suddenly, and for no apparent reason, gets staid and drytown backward conservative about alcohol consumption when it comes to dealing with a crisis in public. Had that been me, I’d give the interviews with a martini in my hand — Frank Sinatra style — maybe an unlit cigar too for the zero fucks aesthetic.

The White House’s response to all of this theatre is to ignore Sam, since his a drunkard and off his meds.

Admittedly, Sam did say he was on psychotropics. He’s living the American dream , totally unwilling to take on any more Bleak House styled attorney fees — just because the GIGANTIC FAGGOT Robert Mueller said so.

BEHOLD, The Nunberg Files:

Good night sweet prince.

You cannot make this up UPDATE.

As it's Sam Nunberg Day on Twitter…

Remember when he was 5-years old, met Donald for the first time, appeared at WWF Wrestlemania, and did the Bushwhacker moves on camera?

Nope?

Here you go… pic.twitter.com/QII773SOOK

— Old Rant Dump (@TrumpinTheShark) March 6, 2018

“The Fly” wins again.Go ahead and enlarge the photo and bear witness to winship on a extraordinary scale, the likes of which you’ve only read about in comic books.

I didn’t sell a thing today, only added to an already full speed locomotive by adding GUSH to a gunpowder fueled engine.

Since everyone is disinterested in trading SHITCOINS nowadays, myself included, it’s probably a good time to start accumulating some of them.

Ripple is +12% on speculation that they will be added to the Coinbase trading platform. Every time a crypto gets added Coinbase — it fucking soars.

The genesis of this rumor?

You won’t believe this.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is set to appear on CNBC’s “Fast Money” Tuesday, alongside Coinbase President and Chief Operating Officer Asiff Hirji. The joint appearance had some on Twitter users speculating that a trading announcement was on deck.

XRP is still trading more than 70 percent off its record high of $3.84 hit in early January. The cryptocurrency had surged in December amid speculation it would be added to Coinbase.

Just because two clowns from Ripple and Coinbase were invited to the Fast Money program — people are thinking they will announce the inclusion of the crypto to Coinbase on the show? Are you people out of your fucking minds? There’s zero chance they’ll reveal such a big new item on a shit show like Fast Money.

ZERO-FUCKING-CHANCE.

As a matter of fact, if it happens, I’ll cut my own dick off.

Look at the WTI go you fucking faggots.

Praise to the House of Saud and OPEC for giving us this new bounty of highly priced oil barrels. I bought one for myself, opened it, and have been trading from inside the oil barrel all morning long. The light sweet crude is actually quite warming and somewhat delicious.

I stepped in here like a fucking boss and bought GUSH. Before doing so, I read the entire prospectus — just like I did with SOXL on Friday. Don’t worry, we’re all good here.

Markets are down a little bit early going, huh? Any of you catamites interested in the oil barrel or just molten steel? If someone put a shotgun to your head and said “pick one motherfucker, cash tag CLF or cash tag FTK” which would you pick?

That’s a hard one right. Frankly, I might have to take an L on that question and tell the gent to fire away on such a paradoxical question.

The only thing I am really watching with my eagle tiered vision is SOXL. I am +13 since Friday’s purchase, on the Exodus OVERSOLD signal. Do you fuckers have any idea how rare that Pepe is? Back in the old days I used to boast with my cock out about Exodus OS all the time. Some of you used to get sick of the bragging and the little charts I’d post showing the SHOMP (sublime harmony of mathematical precision) inherent in the program. Then the market went on a gorilla raping rally for 14 months in a row and the ranges tightened and the market literally never went down. Having a mean reversion tool in a market that doesn’t revert is somewhat meaningless, no? But now we’re getting that to and fro again. The more chaos foments in the system, the greater trading opportunities we will have.

I know a lot of people out there had issues trading the market as it ascended up without pause. It was unnatural and fucking stupid. Those days have ended lads. We’re back in a market that cuts dicks off and whips people at the gibbet for sport. So many people are going to get ruined in the tumult — it’s gonna be great.

What the fuck was I talking about? I forgot.

Oh yeah, SOXL. This is a trade, so I don’t have to hold it if it gets too weak. I have some room here and I am not in a rush to sell. My SPY position is static until Friday; I cannot touch it. So far the loss in SOXL is easily made up in my oil stocks, which has created an aura of invincibility and immortality in my tactical account — now higher by yet another 0.6% for the session.

Anyone see The Shape of Water? I heard it was absolute shit — the type of movie some of you faggots in the comments section would enjoy. It was about a deaf girl who fell in love and fornicated with a fucking fish-man — later revealing she herself, in fact, was a fucking secret fish too.

Go fuck yourself.

Futures are down 30, substantially off the lows. The commentary on Bloomberg and CNBC this morning is one of sheer panic over Trump’s steel tariffs, with analysts lying about China’s true impact on US markets. What they’re telling you is China only has 2% market share in the US. What they’re intentionally leaving out is the fact that Chinese steel first goes to S. Korea, or Taiwan, or Mexico, or Canada before hitting our shores. Anyone in the steel industry knows this and the talking heads are either retarded or too ignorant to do a little channel checking.

As far as trade wars are concerned, quit fucking exaggerating. For the love of God, you people make me physically sick.

Moving on, the Italian elections favored two clown parties, one led by an actual comedian in the latest salvo against establishment politicians. One could only hope for a new Mussolini to take power and restore Rome to its former glory.

The only notable mover this morning is Bitcoin — now at $11,500.

Mosaic upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Cowen
Vertex Pharma target raised to $200 at Maxim Group
Foot Locker target lowered to $57 at Pivotal Research Group
Intrepid Potash upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform at Cowen
Amazon is in talks with JP Morgan (JPM) and other banks about creating checking account product, according to WSJ
CF Industries upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Cowen

This is literally a shit session. Asian markets are getting punched out because Trump is messing with their export schemes. The NIKKEI is -0.6%, Hang Seng -1.1% — and SPY futures are -0.35%.

Over on the commodity side of things, gold is +0.3%, oil +0.5% and BTC is 1% to the good. I feel like I’m wasting my fucking time even talking about the lack of happenings.

Tonight is Oscar Sunday and Le Fly is a huge fan of cinema. I do not partake in movies — only cinematic works of art. There is no need for me to watch tonight’s circle jerk, however, because there is only one movie worthwhile of the best movie award — Dunkirk.

What to expect tomorrow?

Perhaps a small drop at the open, followed by a fucking short squeeze higher. Mark my words, by the end of this week the market will be measurably higher. It has been foretold — therefore, it shall be ordained.

SHOMP.