President Trump Lays Waste to Washington (LIVE STREAM)

Discuss.

My portfolio was ripped apart to pieces today — as if rabid dogs had attacked a sack of meat dripping with blood. Boldly, I’ve tied my fate to the so called ‘Trump trade’, a gamble on the prospects of big government spending and a wanton relief of Obama’s absurdities.

At last glance, I was off by 2% at 160% long, or down by 3.2%.

The entire construct of Trump’s swag is on trial now — as the winter winds abate, so does the frost on the brain. Ergo, people are waiting for tangible action and results. Our do nothing republican congress has offered zero support for any of Trump’s policies — because they’re horrible people and shills.

Take a gander.

The highlight of my day was reveling in the agony of Amazon s3 users — down as the CIA updates their firmware into their cloud. Other than that, 75% of stocks were down — tentatively, ahead of tonight’s speech, which is sure to rattle a few cages and cause some people to undergo conniption fits.

A few years ago, iBankCoin was hosted at a big corporate data center. It was great, with lots of bells and whistles, but very little service and I wanted to have someone responsible for the site’s functionality. I switched over to a small firm and have been very happy since I’ve made the decision.

Today, Amazon’s s3 cloud corporate server farm is offline — taking with it a sundry of sites and apps — like Stocktwits, Amazon’s echo, Medium, Trello and many, many more.

If you’re having an issue logging onto a site, blame the fuckers from Amazon.

The corraling of sites into these corporate ghettos leaves the very fabric of the internet itself at risk. If you’re running a site and rely upon it as your sole source of income, reconsider the alluring marketing pages of Amazon’s AWS or GoDaddy and stay local instead.

The cloud never goes down, until it does, and then you’re fucked.

CRINGEWORTHY presentation during AWS failure.

The moment the presenter realizes S3 is down. #AWS #S3 #Amazon pic.twitter.com/S8gY1J9lrH

— Ian Sherwood (@ian_surewould) February 28, 2017

The Godfather of Fake News, Sec.gov, is down. Thank you Amazon.

Populism and nationalism continues to spread the globe, like a wildflower amidst a field of shit. Any of you lads familiar with Geert Wilders? He’s been under 24hr surveillance for the past 13 years — ever since Van Gogh was stabbed to death in the streets of Netherlands for having an anti-muslim opinion. Wilders, a party leader in Netherlands, was thought to be next on the list for his views — which are fuck the EU, cease all Islamic hordes into Netherlands, ban all mosques and the koran wherever he might rule.

The Centre for European research gives Mr. Wilders an 80% chance of winning the March 15th elections. It is, however, unlikely that he can form a coalition and become Prime Minister. No one really knows what will happen once he wins.

It is abundantly clear that there is something happening in the world now, an anti-globalist, anti-multiculturalism movement — which is as old as humanity itself. It is normal for French people to take pride in their culture, just like it’s normal for southerners in the United States to celebrate General Lee’s birthday over a large serving of buttery grits.

As investors, none of these changes have made a single difference in the trajectory of markets. For a brief while, both BREXIT and the Trump win jarred markets — but soon quickly reverted to its fake ways and jimmy-rigged its way back upwards.

But what will happen when Geert wins and his dynamism spreads into France — further convincing the French people to become great again and to reject German hegemony via the EU by voting Le Pen?

For now, ABN Amro thinks Europe is mesmerized by Trump — ignoring the perils of EU disintegration.

Leave it to the French to dredge up unnecessary drama. Below is a clip of fuckery of the first order. Apparently, a police sniper’s rifle fired a round, injuring a waiter and a working attendant, one shot to the leg and the other in the ankle, while the President was trying to give a god damned speech.

It appears the policeman left his safety off and was probably snap chatting himself when the shot fired off into the help.

Enjoy.

A French police officer accidentally fires a shot during a speech by President Hollande, slightly injuring 2 people https://t.co/FE51fCWatq

— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 28, 2017

Don’t even think about selling your stocks you fucking cave apes. We’ve got walls to build and toxic pipelines to lay down. Once the EPA is dismantled and Trump’s right wing goon squads hit the streets to take out the trash, America will be great again.

Also, the Mexicans will be financing mostly everything, while the Chinese will owe us bigly for permitting them to keep those fake islands in the south China sea.

Both silver and gold stocks are ripping higher — mostly by 3%, because panic. Second to that is the cleaning product space, with sexy names like $CLX, $DAR and $SCL. It’s a shoot yourselves in the face type of tape.

Bonds are higher and so are utilities. You get the picture.

Oil and gas stocks continue to get hammered, now down by almost 10% for the month. Mind you, this is an extremely oversold situation and will not stand for too much longer.

According to Exodus, the following stocks are oversold.

$TECK, $FSM, $CZZ, $PRTY, $HL, $DLB — amongst many others.

RELATED: Exodus is also flagging the euro, via $FXE, overbought. The track record for this signal is zero losses, 6 wins, over the past 6 months. Look for a dollar spike soon.

Aside from fake news revelations and how poorly the failing NY Times is doing, we should all be cognizant that certain sectors have already forecasted huge windfalls — which need to be fulfilled by the President, else they’ll be annihilated.

I know this is hard for many of you 75IQers to grasp, but stocks do trade on fundamentals, ultimately.

Banks: Need to hear about Dodd-Frank and big growth talk. The more shit Trump talks about America being great again, the higher $BAC will go.

Retail: The border tax idea will positively fuck retailers — since most of their crap is made overseas in slave factories. Any mention of China or Mexico will lower the market caps of $WMT, $GPS and $TGT appreciably.

Nuclear: I know some of you are worried about Trump getting his hands on the nuclear football codes, but that’s the least of your problems. We’re gonna have Saddam styled nuclear missile bomb parades, not before long — covered by the only news agency left in America: Breitbart.com. We want to hear about nuclear energy and the rebuilding of our nuclear arsenal. From what I’ve gathered, at present strength, we could only destroy the world 109 times over, sending the planet into an ice aged which would last 15,000 years. Clearly, this isn’t enough. We need MOAR. Look for moves in $UEC, $CCJ and $URG should Trump tout uranium.

Infrastructure: We want to hear about the wall and oil pipelines heading into the loyalist cesspool known as Canada. Also, we want to hear about superfluous things, like new bridges and airports, highways and tunnels. Bold words might help buoy the shares of $ATRO, $X, $FCX, $TECK and $HBM — amongst many others. But it’s important to note that this sector is already up big. The downside would be material should his infrastructure schemes be delayed.

Healthcare: Trump will defecate all over Obamacare tonight. It’s one of his favorite things to do, ever. Whether he has a better national plan remains to be seen. Personally, I rather miss the days when I’d pay just $1,200 per month for family insurance. I don’t think there’s any upside to the insurance companies involved here. If anything, look for big downside in big pharma and enterprising biotechs who’ve made a living off gouging the system. Names like $ENDP, $AGN, $GILD, $MNK and $VRX should be watched.

Additionally, we want to hear about lower tax rates — which helps almost all major companies. And, we want to hear about a tax holiday for money held overseas: repatriation.

According to Bloomberg, the following companies have the most cash overseas, as a percentage to their respective market caps.
$XRX, $MAT, $WU, $HPQ, $FSLR, $IR, $MUR, $WDC, $GLW, $HES

And here is Goldman’s top high tax rate plays.

Subway’s prides themselves on serving the ‘freshest’ ingredients. The main question is, what exactly are in the ingredients?

According to DNA tests conducted by Trent University and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Subway’s chicken fillets, found in their Oven Roasted Chicken sandwich, had just 53.6% chicken in it, while their sumptuous strips, found in their delicious Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich, contained only 42.8% chicken.

In case you’re wondering, the remainder of the ‘chicken’ substance is made from soy.

Subway’s Canada responded to the findings with the following statement.

“SUBWAY Canada cannot confirm the veracity of the results of the lab testing you had conducted,” the company said, adding, “Our chicken strips and oven roasted chicken contain 1% or less of soy protein. We use this ingredient in these products as a means to help stabilize the texture and moisture. All of our chicken items are made from 100% white meat chicken which is marinated, oven roasted and grilled.”

Related: CBC and Trent also tested the chicken from fast food chains, including A&W, McDonald’s, Tim Horton’s and Wendy’s — most of which contained 80-90% chicken.

Here’s a video of the results below.

Stop eating fast food.

Surprise, surprise. Do you mean to tell me that President Obama, the only former President since Woodrow Wilson who has decided to stay in DC after his term, is interfering with Trump’s administration? Some conspiracy theorists believe he has set up a ‘shadow government.’

President Trump thinks so, apparently.

“I think President Obama’s behind it, because his people are certainly behind it.” –@POTUS on some of the protests around the country pic.twitter.com/YC3SEAYFts

— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) February 28, 2017

Related: Trump gives himself an A for his work and just a C/C+ to communication.

How would @POTUS grade himself?
Effort: A+
Messaging: C or C+
Achievement: A pic.twitter.com/2Pm0SxY71h

— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) February 28, 2017

Trump on EPA changes.

.@POTUS: We have hundreds of massive deals that are tied up with the EPA. Once Pruitt gets going, those projects are going to be freed up. pic.twitter.com/YoCNcPOrMJ

— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) February 28, 2017

Healthcare.

"We're set to propose a [health care] plan, and I'll be talking about it, as you know, tonight." –@POTUS pic.twitter.com/e42TKCXjbL

— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) February 28, 2017

Why he’s skipping the correspondents’ dinner.

.@POTUS addresses skipping WHCD: In light of the fact of fake news, I thought it would be inappropriate that I went pic.twitter.com/AlPnK2K7KV

— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) February 28, 2017

Here’s why he’s not filling jobs in DC.

It looks like Target is having some pricing issues — as the welfare states of America bargain shop elsewhere. To remedy this, the company has announced a ‘new financial model’ and 12 new brands, investing in ‘lower gross margins’ to ensure competitiveness.

In other words, the company is very worried about the sales trends and have decided to retail items at lower prices — even though it hurts their margins.

What in the fuck is going on here?

Shares are being menaced in the pre-market, off by 13%

Reports Q4 (Jan) earnings of $1.45 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.06 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus of $1.51; revenues fell 4.3% year/year to $20.69 bln vs the $20.69 bln Capital IQ Consensus, reflecting a 1.5 percent decline in comparable sales combined with the removal of pharmacy and clinic sales from this year’s results.

Comparable digital channel sales grew 34 percent and contributed 1.8 percentage points of comparable sales growth.
Segment earnings before interest expense and income taxes (EBIT), which is Target’s measure of segment profit, were $1,344 million in fourth quarter 2016, a decrease of 13.5 percent from $1,554 million in 2015. Fourth quarter EBITDA and EBIT margin rates were 9.5 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, compared with 9.8 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively, in 2015.

Fourth quarter gross margin rate was 26.9 percent, compared with 27.9 percent in 2015, reflecting markdown pressure from promotional and clearance activity and costs associated with the mix shift between the Company’s store and digital channels, partially offset by the benefit of the sale of the Company’s pharmacy and clinic businesses, a favorable merchandise mix, and cost of goods savings.

Warned on Jan 18: Guided Q4 EPS $1.45-1.55 vs. $1.65 consensus; comps (1.5)-(1%).

Co issues downside guidance for Q1, sees EPS of $0.80-1.00, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $1.33 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
Co issues downside guidance for FY18, sees EPS of $3.80-4.20, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $5.33 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

Target’s 2017 guidance reflects the impact of the Company’s transition to a new financial model, which will be covered in the Company’s meeting with the financial community later today.

Under the current program, the Company invested $264 million in the fourth quarter, leaving ~$4.7 billion remaining under the current program at the end of the quarter.

“Our fourth quarter results reflect the impact of rapidly-changing consumer behavior, which drove very strong digital growth but unexpected softness in our stores,” said Brian Cornell, chairman and CEO of Target. “At our meeting with the financial community this morning, we will provide detail on the meaningful investments we’re making in our business and financial model which will position Target for long-term, sustainable growth in this new era in retail. We will accelerate our investments in a smart network of physical and digital assets as well as our exclusive and differentiated assortment, including the launch of more than 12 new brands, representing more than $10 billion of our sales, over the next two years. In addition, we will invest in lower gross margins to ensure we are clearly and competitively priced every day. While the transition to this new model will present headwinds to our sales and profit performance in the short term, we are confident that these changes will best-position Target for continued success over the long term.”

Someone made a killing off this miss.

$TGT getting hammered, around $4M in Jan. 2018 puts bought on Friday pic.twitter.com/kNMM9dqX8Q

— Joe Kunkle (@OptionsHawk) February 28, 2017

Look who nailed it.

Ironically there's a good chance Target blows up without any outside help when it reports earnings on the 28th. $TGT

— Jeff Macke (@JeffMacke) February 18, 2017