U.S. Q4 GDP GREW AT 1.4%

I can’t believe they titled this ‘better than expected.’  One point four percent is an abysmal growth rate. Please.

More importantly, profits dropped by 3.1%, the most in 7 years.

Stripping out inventories and trade, the two most volatile components of GDP, so-called final sales to domestic purchasers increased at a 1.7 percent rate, compared with a previously estimated 1.4 percent pace.

Friday’s report also offered a first look at corporate profits for the period. Pre-tax earnings declined 7.8 percent, the most since the first quarter of 2011, after a 1.6 percent decrease in the previous three months. The estimate of nonfinancial corporate profits was reduced by a $20.8 billion settlement, considered a transfer to the government, between BP and the U.S. after the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Profits in the U.S. dropped 3.1 percent in 2015, the most since 2008. Earnings are being weighed down by weak productivity, rising labor costs and the plunge in energy prices.

“If profits remain depressed, the prospects for capex and hiring will come under greater pressure,” Sam Bullard, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina, wrote in a research note.

Corporate outlays for equipment declined at a 2.1 percent annualized pace, subtracting 0.12 percentage point, the Commerce Department said.

The median forecast was for a gain of 1%. Now in the rational world, these numbers put the Fed on ice. But since they’re crazy and view things through a distorted lens, they might just view this as a hot number, one that calls for action.

The people of China are living in a coal infused dystopian society, spitting out Apple iPhones from its prison factories, arresting people for exercising free speech. Yet, when was the last time you heard anyone in the media criticize our dealing with such a regime? The status quo seems to be, if they do evil and we support them, we are not really evil. Meanwhile, if you harbor a murdering terrorist in your house and give him money to carry out future events, guess what? You’re a fucking terrorist too.

The double standards and the hypocrisy are outrageous.

Twenty people were arrested for asking the President of China to resign.

Here is the letter, translated thanks to Google.

Xi Jinping, hello.

We are loyal communist. On the occasion of the “two sessions” held, we write this letter to you, asking you to resign from all party and state leadership positions. Made this request, out of consideration of the Party’s cause, out of the country and nation’s future to consider, too, it is out of consideration for you and your family own security.

Xi Jinping, you since 2012 since the party’s “eighteen” was elected the new general secretary of the Central Committee, determined to fight corruption tiger, party corruption and other malpractices improved. You personally served more than one team leader of the Central Leading Group for comprehensive deepening reform, but also a lot of work for economic development, got some people’s support, which we see in the eyes.

However, Xi Jinping, we have to point out that it is precisely because this way you will be fully caught up power into their own hands, direct decision-making in all areas of political and economic ideology and culture, have caused unprecedented problems and crisis.

Politically, you abandoned the party’s fine tradition, in which the most significant is to have leaders at all levels to support your position as the core, abandoned the democratic system as the core set of the main principle of collective leadership of the Standing Committee, excessive concentration of power. You strengthen the functions of the NPC and the CPPCC Council committee at the same time, weakening the independence of the national authorities of each, including Premier Li Keqiang and other comrades, including the terms of reference has been greatly affected. Meanwhile, the Central Discipline Inspection Commission departments and units stationed in the patrol group and state-owned enterprises has become a new system of power, leading to unclear responsibilities party committees at all levels of government decision-making chaos.

Diplomatically, you abandoned Deng Xiaoping’s “low profile” consistent policy of blind shots, not only failed to create a good surrounding international environment, but also to the DPRK successfully conducted an atomic bomb and test missiles, forming a huge threat to China’s national security; also the United States successfully return to Asia, with South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Southeast Asian countries formed a united front to jointly contain China. In dealing with Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan issues, fails to comply with Comrade Deng Xiaoping wise “one country two systems” concept, dilemma, leading Democratic Progressive Party won power in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the rise of independent forces. Especially in the issue of Hong Kong, in an irregular way back to the mainland to Hong Kong booksellers, on the “one country two systems” pose a direct injury.

Economically, you pass the Central Financial and Economic Leading Group, directly involved in the formulation of macro and micro-economic policies, leading to a huge upheaval China’s stock and property markets, hundreds of thousands of people of wealth vanished, devastated. Supply-side capacity to reform and policy, resulting in a large number of state-owned central enterprises laid off workers; private business failures blunts, large numbers of people unemployed. “Along the way” strategy, large foreign exchange reserves into chaos countries and regions, but no return. Excessive consumption of foreign exchange reserves, the depreciation of the RMB into the cycle, everyone’s confidence in a decline in the national economy is about to collapse into a situation, people wanted change.

On the ideological and cultural, you stressed that “the media surname Party”, while ignoring the people of the media, the whole nation was stunned; you support lower Zhou Xiaoping Hua Qianfang this level of people to become the representative of the literary front, so many writers and artists chilling; you condone singing the praises of cultural institutions directly to you, your wife Peng Liyuan sister CCTV Spring Festival Gala served as producer, director, so that we would have loved to be your personal Spring Festival a propaganda tool.You condone these cult of personality, and not to “jump Yee central”, to engage in “a party statement” approach, let those of us who experienced the “Cultural Revolution” can not help but secretly worried – our party, the state and the nation can no longer afford new Shinianhaojie! .

Xi Jinping, you carry out anti-corruption high pressure, to correct unhealthy tendencies in the party’s helpful role, but because there is no supporting measures to keep up, the objective, but also led to the current government at all levels slack phenomenon, officials do not act timid, people complaining It has further exacerbated the deterioration of the economic situation. We also see that the current anti-corruption, target only focus on the struggle for power. We fear that this practice intensified power struggle within the party, also may give you and your family bring risks of personal security.

Therefore, we believe that Xi Jinping, you do not have to lead the party and the country into the future ability, no longer suitable for the post as general secretary. We ask you for the Party cause, for long-term stability and security for you and your family, resigned from all positions of the party and the country, so that the CPC Central Committee and the National People’s alternative elite, aggressive lead us into the future.

Loyal Communists

March 2016

Participation starter, reproduced please indicate the source. (Www.canyu.org)

All twenty people connected with the letter were arrested. The government said they are ‘getting to the bottom of it’ and will be making further arrests if necessary. Moreover, the website in connection to this letter said their other journalists are no longer publishing new articles.

Explain this to me. The United States announced today that it has indicted 7 Iranian men who hacked into our banks are tried to take control of an American dam. They described the attacks as ‘relentless’, ‘systematic’ and ‘widespread.’

In another era, an attack of this magnitude and maliciousness would be equivilant to a declaration of war. A foreign government hired operatives to blow up an American dam and steal money from U.S. banks and this isn’t news?

The worst part of this story isn’t the fact that we’re still ‘friends’ with Iran, giving them $150 billion and removing sanctions from the well known insidious regime. The worst part, the unforgivable part, is the fact that the Obama administration purposely kept this quiet so that it would not deter the nuclear deal, allowing Iran to have access to $150 billion, seeing the sanctions removed, and normalizing relations with the U.S. and Europe.

So whose government are our government really working for?

Seven Iranian hackers conducted a coordinated cyber attack on dozens of U.S. banks, causing millions of dollars in lost business, and tried to shut down a New York dam, the U.S. government said on Thursday in an indictment that for the first time accused individuals tied to another country of trying to disrupt critical infrastructure.

It said the seven accused were believed to have been working on behalf of Iran’s government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Those named live in Iran and the Iranian government is not expected to extradite them. There was no immediate comment from Tehran.
At least 46 major financial institutions and financial sector companies were targeted, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and American Express, the indictment said. AT&T also was targeted.

The hackers are accused of hitting the banks with distributed-denial-of-service attacks on a near-weekly basis, a relatively unsophisticated way of knocking computer networks offline by overwhelming them with a flood of spammed traffic.

“These attacks were relentless, they were systematic, and they were widespread,” U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told a Washington news conference.
The indictment from a federal grand jury in New York City said the attacks occurred from 2011 to 2013. Washington has previously accused military officers from China and the North Korean government of cyber attacks against U.S. businesses.

The attack on the Bowman Avenue Dam in Rye Brook, New York, was especially alarming, Lynch said, because it represented a known intrusion on critical infrastructure. A stroke of good fortune prevented the hackers from obtaining operational control of the flood gates because the dam had been manually disconnected for routine maintenance, she said.

The Bowman hack was a “game-changing event” for the U.S. government that prompted investigators to uncover other systems vulnerable to similar attacks, said Andre McGregor, a former FBI agent and a lead case investigator on the dam intrusion.

“The investigation’s discovery of many more exposed computer systems with vulnerable management consoles is a constant reminder that basic cyber hygiene remains at the forefront of the battle against cyber attacks,” said McGregor, now director of security at Tanium, a Silicon Valley cyber security firm.
“We must step up our counter-hacking game ASAP to deal with threats from places like Iran and would be terrorists,” said New York Senator Chuck Schumer in a statement.

The defendants were identified as Ahmad Fathi, Hamid Firoozi, Amin Shokohi, Sadegh Ahmadzadegan, Omid Ghaffarinia, Sina Keissar and Nader Seidi, all citizens and residents of Iran. They are accused of conspiracy to commit computer hacking while employed by two Iran-based computer companies, ITSecTeam and Mersad Company.
Firoozi also is charged with obtaining and abetting unauthorized access to a protected computer.

“An important part of our cyber security practice is to identify the actors and to attribute them publicly when we can,” Lynch said Thursday. “We do this so that they know they cannot hide.”

U.S. officials largely completed the investigation more than a year ago, according to two sources familiar with the matter, but held off releasing the indictment so as to not jeopardize the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran or a January prisoner swap.

This is the most epic corporate failure in the history of mankind. The eggheads at MSFT wanted to be cool and hip, so they launched an AI bot onto Twitter named Tay. She was supposed to be a fun loving teenage girl, chatting with the masses, making MSFT, and the nerds who live there, look cool again. This was Microsoft’s shot at making a big splash onto the social media scene, drawing in countless teenagers into their large corporate fold, forever imprinting their awesomeness into the minds of millions of prospective customers.

It didn’t turn out as they had planned.

In a matter of hours, the infection called the human race turned Tay into a genocidal, racist, Nazi loving machine of hate. If she possessed a physical form of robotic abilities, she’d probably still be killing people right now. Microsft was very panicked by this and deleted all but a handful of her 96,000 tweets. Luckily for us, some of them were saved by the masses of people who moulded Tay into their own little robot Hitler.

Here are some for your perusal.

Because of this, Microsoft has pulled Tay from Twitter. No word as to when she will reemerge.

So very classic. Thank you Microsoft.

No one is able to explain the fuckery better than Cramer. Love or hate his stock picks, the man knows the market better than most and is able to sense shifts in sentiment like no other. That being said, Cramer is taking the Fed to task for the numerous hawkish speeches given this week, which directly contradicted the edicts set forth by their leader, Janet Yellen.

What has hitherto been a rather melodic and harmonious melt up for the better part of 5 weeks now, Cramer is sensing a shift in sentiment and is warning his viewers that if next Friday’s jobs numbers are strong, the devil himself will emerge from a seal directly under the NYSE and unleash his army of centaurs (half goat, half man) to kick in the chests of the traders loitering about the floor.

Strong jobs numbers mean more hawkish shit talking, equals surging dollar, plummeting oil, sharply lower equity prices.

The market looked dreadful this morning, yet managed to reverse course and lay waste to those short.

The Nasdaq, helped by a broad recovery in crude, edged higher, reversing a 30 point deficit.

Shotgun to the head advice: keep a long bias until mid to late April and not a single day into May.

Enjoy the weekend. Note: Vince will be doing a live demo for Exodus tomorrow on the iBankCoin YouTube channel. Details with be forthcoming. Also, we will be doing an Easter egg hunt in Exodus, hiding eggs in random tickers with prizes attached.

Nerds everywhere unite and hop on over to Gamestop before they start shutting down stores. These numbers were abysmal. The shares are, inexorably, lower in the after hours.

Post haste, go reserve that new super Mario bros game, nerds, post haste.

Via Briefing.com

Reports Q4 (Jan) earnings of $2.40 per share, $0.14 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $2.26; revenues rose 1.4% year/year to $3.52 bln vs the $3.56 bln Capital IQ Consensus; sales of non-physical gaming products, such as digital, mobile & consumer electronics, and collectibles, offset a decline in new software sales.

Preannounced: Raised EPS guidance to $2.19-2.25 from $2.12-2.32 on Jan 12; guided for EPS exceeding $2.19-2.25 on March 2.
Pre-owned sales were flat (a 3.0% increase in constant currency) compared to the fourth quarter of 2014.

Consolidated comparable store sales increased 3.1% (a 3.0% increase in the U.S. and a 3.3% increase internationally).
Non-GAAP digital receipts increased 9.7% (a 13.4% increase in constant currency) to $404.5 million, or $60.7 million of sales on a GAAP basis, a 14.5% increase over the prior year quarter. The growth was driven by downloadable content and mobile digital sales.

Technology Brand revenues increased 57.4% to $177.9 million and operating earnings for the segment were $16.9 million, a 69.6% increase over the prior year quarter.

Co issues downside guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.58-0.63 vs. $0.70 Capital IQ Consensus; sees Q1 revs -7 to -4% to ~$1.92-1.98 bln vs. $2.1 bln Capital IQ Consensus; comps down 7-9%.
Co issues downside guidance for FY17, sees EPS of $3.90-4.05 vs. $4.08 Capital IQ Consensus; sees FY17 revs +0-3% to ~$9.36-9.65 bln vs. $9.67 bln Capital IQ Consensus; comps -3% to flat vs. ests near +1.5%

Tad Smith was born to run the famed art auction house, Sotheby’s. He graduated from Princeton, earned his MBA from Harvard (where else, duh?) and then took up a career at Cablevision (that’s not a typo).

After installing cable boxes into the homes of people in the south of Bronx, Tad became CEO of MSG and then transferred all of those skills he learned in the cable world to become Master and Commander, Dictator, of Sotheby’s.

Since his reign of terror began at BID, the stock has suffered. The stock is down a staggering 41% under his rule. This, of course, means that Tad’s compensation must’ve fallen in line, yes? After all, he isn’t running an investment bank.

Tad Smith, Cable Buy, CEO of Sotheby’s

WRONG.

Tad took home over $20 million last year, most of which came from stock compensation

Smith, who started on March 31, 2015, received a salary of $1.06 million, a sign-on bonus of $1.1 million and a stock award valued at $16.5 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. He also accepted a $1.4 million stock award in place of an annual cash bonus.

If you recall, Dan Loeb was trying to increase shareholder value in BID at the same time Tad took over. Furiously, he rejected the know-nothing Dan, cast him aside like a post modernism ashtray, and then proceeded to entrench himself amidst all of the art and champagne and decadence.

Smith has replaced key executives, offered staff buyouts and scrapped the dividend to buy back shares. Sotheby’s fell 39 percent in his first nine months as CEO and had the worst annual stock performance last year since 2008.

So he bought back the common stock while slashing the dividend, eh? How’d that work out?

At the same time, the global art world suffered, due to Chinese disinterest. Sales for fine art fell by 7% to $63.8 billion last year. Seeing this, what does Tad do in response? How about guaranteeing the Alfred Taubman Estate a mind boggling $509 million for their collection, just to keep it out of the hands of those evil fuckers at Christie’s?

Yeah, he did that too. In turn, Sotheby’s was only able to recover $470 million in auction, with $33 million worth of unsold nonsense sitting in inventory. Then again, I am merely a rube from the sewers of Brooklyn. What the hell do I know?

Tad likes to call this ‘Le Slide’

Oh, I forgot to mention that Alfred Taubman’s son was on the Sotheby board. I am sure it was just a coincidence and there wasn’t a conflict of interest. No matter what I think, after the failed auction, he was summarily dismissed from the board, given his paltry $161,354 in compensation for 2015, and told to go and never to come back again. Ever!

There’s a fuckery occurring at BID and Tad the cable guy is at the root of it.

The machines made me do it.

86% win rate over 5 days.

There wasn’t a single person on this planet who was more bearish than I, heading into today’s trade. I dreamt of black clouds and ominous share price deductions, awakening with a smile. There weren’t any stocks that I liked, aside from those of the hamburger varietal. I wanted America to be great again, Belgium to have the backbones of grandmas, and my President avoiding, at all costs, taking pictures in front of Che Guevara murals with a Cuban dictator, then shuttling off to do the tango, quite badly might I add, in Argentina.

Instead, the effervescent and everlasting algorithmic dynasty that is Exodus told me something that I didn’t know, ever so quietly. Stocks weren’t ripe to head lower just yet and the decline would be met with people, foaming from the mouth with rage, elbowing one another in the faces to buy stocks.

Hence, as of this morning, I suspended my overarching bearishness for stocks, in favor for pragmatism, and I purchased a lot of SPY, at $202.15.

Have a look. I took a picture.

The numbers do not lie. Markets are higher now. Join us now in Exodus. We’re running free trials through Easter.

There’s a clown at the Reuters news desk with an ax to grind, a Hillary photograph to shine, and a distinct lack of understanding how people with extreme wealth manage their finances. It’s probably because this ‘journalist’ do-gooder multi-culturalist, who feels it’s his duty to defeat Trump, for the sake of indigenous people everywhere. Feeling anything at all was his first mistake. His second mistake was pissing me off with this story.

Both Reuters and Yahoo Finance are running headlines, depicting Trump as a bad businessman, because, get this, HIS INVESTMENTS IN CERTAIN HEDGE FUNDS LOST MONEY THIS YEAR AND LAST. That’s right, you’re now considered to be a bad businessman when you have 1% of your net worth with hedge fund managers who lost you money. So if you send your broker money and the market goes down, and you lose money as a result, you’re the bad businessman, not the broker?

The fuck sort of world am I living in.

Here is the drivel, in its entirety. First, entreat yourselves to see at how they framed the headlines.

And Yahoo Finance.

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is built on his business acumen. But some of the Wall Street funds that he has invested in have proven less successful, underperforming industry benchmarks in the last 15 months, according to a Reuters examination.

Eighteen out of 21 hedge funds and mutual funds in Trump’s portfolio lost money in 2015, and 17 of them are down so far this year, according to public disclosures and private performance data seen by Reuters.

The funds managed by Paulson & Co, BlackRock Inc, Baron Capital and others lost an average of 8.5 percent last year, according to Reuters calculations, whereas stock market and hedge fund industry benchmarks broke even or came close to it. Trump’s funds are down another 2.9 percent so far this year, underperforming many benchmarks again.

The performances in part reflect broader weaknesses in the investing climate. The last 15 months have been difficult for many portfolio managers amid volatile stock markets, tumbling oil and commodity prices, and an economic slowdown in China.

Trump defended his holdings in an interview with Reuters, saying he invested in the funds three or four years ago and they have done well over time.

“I put some money with people that are friends,” the New York businessman said by phone on Monday, without naming names.

“I have no idea if they are up or down. I just know that they have been very good over a period of time,” added Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination for the November presidential election.

Representatives for Baron, BlackRock and Paulson declined to comment.

To be sure, some of Trump’s funds have performed well this year. For instance, Gabelli Funds’ GAMCO Global Gold, Natural Resources & Income fund, a closed-end vehicle, has gained 16.27 percent through March 22, beating a benchmark return of 15.89 percent for natural resource funds, according to net asset value data from Morningstar.

Another fund that Trump has invested in, the Invesco European Growth Fund, gained 4.82 percent last year versus a benchmark loss of 5.66 percent, according to Morningstar.

Gabelli and Invesco declined to comment. Both funds are listed as small holdings within Trump’s broader brokerage accounts.

SOME FUNDS OUTPERFORMED

The 21 funds examined by Reuters were among 23 funds that Trump disclosed last year in a July 15 filing with the Federal Election Commission. The performance of two of the funds could not be discerned.

The Reuters review included performance data publicly disclosed by 14 mutual funds, as well as performance data on seven hedge funds seen in confidential fund reports or shared by people familiar with those firms.

Trump told Reuters the funds are a tiny part of his investment portfolio.

“I do very little hedge funds business. I for the most part don’t believe in it,” he said.

The 23 funds were worth as much as $120.75 million, according to the FEC filing, a fraction of Trump’s self-proclaimed net worth of more than $10 billion.

While Trump selected the funds, their managers are responsible for choosing securities to invest in and the funds’ subsequent performance.

Some investing experts who looked at Trump’s portfolio and Reuters’ compilation of their performance were not impressed, saying he could have earned better returns by investing in other hedge funds.

For instance, Reuters previously reported that Millennium Management’s main Millennium International fund gained 12.65 percent in 2015, while Citadel gained 14.3 percent in its main multi-strategy hedge funds.

“By the looks of it, Mr. Trump’s investing prowess is very pedestrian,” said Brian Shapiro, chief executive of Simplify LLC, which tracks and analyses alternative investments like hedge funds.

“For someone who prides himself on being surrounded by the best talent,” added Brad Alford, an investment advisor and CEO of Alpha Capital Management, “I’m surprised to see so few winners.”

To be sure, some of Trump’s funds that fell in 2015 have fared better in previous years. For instance, BlackRock’s Obsidian fund has averaged annual returns of 3.39 percent over the last five years, according to a person familiar with the performance.

Obsidian fell 6.17 percent in 2016 through March 11, while other comparable funds rose 0.69 percent, according to a private client report by HSBC’s Alternative Investment Group seen by Reuters. BlackRock declined to comment.

“You can’t measure it in a short time. I’m way up with BlackRock. I’m way up with Obsidian,” Trump told Reuters, without elaborating further.

Trump disclosed a $27.6 million stake in Obsidian in May 2015, his largest fund holding. It is unclear when Trump first invested in Obsidian, which bets on corporate and government bonds, along with interest rates and other securities.

Obsidian was burned by a slide in oil and other commodities, according to a February BlackRock client note seen by Reuters.

PAULSON LOSSES

Trump’s stable of funds include two Angelo, Gordon & Co hedge funds, three Paulson & Co hedge funds, and 11 Baron Capital mutual funds. The mutual funds are open to virtually anyone, but hedge funds are only accessible to those that meet minimum wealth requirements, which typically include a net worth of more than $1 million.

A representative for Angelo, Gordon & Co did not respond to a request for comment.

Baron’s billionaire founder, Ron Baron, is known for long-term bets on companies and an optimistic world view.

Trump uses 11 Baron vehicles with different investment strategies, including small-cap stocks, real estate and emerging markets. Nine of the funds lost money in 2015, with one energy and resources vehicle falling nearly 32 percent, according to data compiled by Morningstar. Nine are down this year through March 22 with single-digit losses.

Baron’s long-term track record is better. The firm’s best-known Baron Growth Fund has gained an average of about 8.6 percent annually over the last five years.

Paulson’s funds have produced a mixed performance in recent years. Led by New York billionaire John Paulson, the firm became famous for its prescient bet on the collapse of the subprime mortgage market leading up to the financial crisis.

But in 2015, the three Paulson funds used by Trump all fell, according to data provided by an investor to Reuters. One of the funds, the Paulson Advantage Plus fund, had declined an average of about 22 percent every year over the last five years, according to a confidential fund report seen by Reuters.

Trump’s filing to the FEC lists myriad business ventures, including holdings in hotels and golf properties, as well as individual stocks such as Apple Inc, Goldman Sachs and Altria Group. (Click here for filing: here)

Trump told Reuters his stock picks have done well recently.

“I bought them low and I sold them high,” he said, referring to a series of sales in January 2014 that netted more than $27 million.

“It was very good timing,” he added. “I hit the market exactly perfectly.”

Look how long this article is. This little trollop spent a long time writing this evergreen piece of meaningless offal. Shame on Reuters.

This is the author. He looks like a very nice boy.