John McAfee on the Panama Papers: It’s an American Hoax to Blackmail People

The Panama Papers are all the rage in the media. It speaks very poorly for Icelandic leaders, who told the UK to fuck off during the financial crisis and actually jailed dozens of bankers. It also makes Putin look bad, someone on Obama’sa naughty list. In its totality, McAfee believes America released these papers in order to hurt its enemies and use additional information as leverage over people of importance.

Here is the interview aired today with A. Jones.

CREE just humiliated themselves in the after hours, with an earnings miss that is bound to leave a significant sting. The competitive field of LED lighting, one that isn’t ingratiated with tax breaks most enjoyed by the solar crowd, is cannibalizing itself in a never-ending quest for commercial contracts.

The stock is down more than 15% in the after-hours.

Here is the companies statement, regarding this disaster.

“The estimated revenue is below the Company’s previously targeted range of $400 million to $430 million due to lower Lighting Products revenue,” stated Chuck Swoboda, Cree Chairman and CEO. “I believe we’ve addressed the root causes that led to our recent business challenges. While it’s premature to provide specific targets at this time, the order rate in commercial lighting improved in March, and we’re optimistic that this, combined with demand for new products, will begin to drive growth in fiscal Q4.”

• Lighting Products revenue is estimated to be approximately $187 million, lower than previously targeted due primarily to lower commercial orders driven by three main factors: customer service disruptions related to our ERP system conversion, new product delays and a slower than forecast calendar Q1.
• LED Products revenue is estimated to be in-line with the expectations for this segment in the Company’s previously announced revenue targets at approximately $151 million.
• Power and RF Products revenue is estimated to be in-line with the expectations for this segment in the Company’s previously announced revenue targets at approximately $29 million.
• GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins are estimated to be below the Company’s previously announced targets at approximately 29.7% and 30.5%, respectively. The difference between GAAP and non-GAAP gross margin is stock-based compensation expense.
• GAAP and non-GAAP operating expenses are estimated to be $5 million lower than previously targeted. The difference between non-GAAP and GAAP operating expenses is stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquired intangibles and income from equipment sales associated with the LED business restructuring.
• The estimated earnings are below the Company’s previously targeted range of $0.04 to $0.11 per diluted share on a GAAP basis, and $0.22 to $0.29 per diluted share on a non-GAAP basis.
• During its third fiscal quarter the Company repurchased 0.6 million shares of its common stock under the Company’s stock repurchase program at an average price of $28.15 per share with an aggregate value of $17.8 million. After this repurchase, there is $350 million in aggregate purchase price value remaining in the Company’s stock repurchase program through June 26, 2016.

Come 2018, NYC will be blessed with heaven on earth. Starbucks is set to open its 2nd ‘roastery’ super store, the first being in Seattle. These stores are designed to hypnotize its customers into joining the coffee collective, for resistance is futile and the bean always wins.

“Our Seattle Roastery experience created something that had never been done before, transforming a retail environment into something far beyond just a coffee shop and into the single-best retail experience of any kind,” said CEO Howard Schultz in a statement.

These stores are like places of worship for coffee connoisseurs. All other NYC coffee retailers will soon be subjugated to the coal room class in the coffee hierarchy. H. Shultz and his billions will do for coffee what Walt Disney did for rollercoasters.

BEHOLD the Seattle roastery, coming soon to the major city near you.

China.

How is this debt/gdp story going to play out? Will the Chinese devalue again and if so, are they prepared to inflict that sort of FX damage to their corporations? Their markets are a sham and time will not prove to be kind to them, in my opinion.

Oil.

Anything less than $60 is an exercise in futility. The vast majority of these oil companies aren’t making it through 2017. Once the defaults come streaming through, you will behold a much different market than the one you are bearing witness to right now.

Earnings.

Ah, the E word. For the past 6 weeks, you’ve all been skipping throughout the streets like Alice in Wonderland. Now, you will begin to understand what it feels like to grow at just 0.4% for the quarter. Mark my words, it will not feel good.

Markets closed down almost 1% on the NASDAQ, in a do nothing sell off that instilled fear into no one. But a storm is coming.

Board the ark.

And the fucking stock doubles on this news.

We’ve seen this play our numerous times over the year. XYZ goes bankrupt and the stock flies in anticipation of a bankruptcy court breaking up the assets. This is a dangerous game, especially for the debt laden SUNE. Some analyst who called himself ‘Mok’ thinks the assets are essentially worthless, an entire waste of time for all people involved in this God foresaken company.

“We are dropping our coverage of SUNE with a final Hold rating,” writes Mok, “following multiple media reports suggesting SUNE is preparing to file for bankruptcy amid a cash crunch as the result of an over leveraged balance sheet and unclear accounting of its liquidity.”

“With no other options for accessing additional liquidity, we believe bankruptcy is the only viable outcome for SUNE.”

Mok thinks the two YieldCos., TerraForm Global (GLBL), and TerraForm Power (TERP), will survive “assuming they are able to unwind from SUNE” and to “find buyers for SUNE’s stake.”’

‘Pennies on the dollar’, equates to 90% gorilla raping run on Wall Street.

Unfinished projects likely sold for pennies. A vast majority of the cash on hand is committed to projects, but SUNE does not have the liquidity to complete those projects. A bankruptcy proceeding would likely force the company to sell its project portfolio and pipeline to raise capital for debt repayment. The completed projects should be able to fetch market value, but given the uncertain status of those unfinished projects in its pipeline, we expect those would be sold at a substantial discount.

What went wrong? Mok sums it up.

Part of SUNE’s trouble comes from its aggressive plan to ramp-up renewable project development, requiring substantial capital to complete. Management was relying on the combination of yieldco funding, debt project financing and its own liquidity. Additionally, SUNE was counting on dropping down projects to its yieldcos, which would also need to raise capital to fund those purchases from SUNE. While the yieldco strategy was initially successful, the dividend yield eventually became too low and the need to grow the portfolio pushed those entities to become more aggressive in fund raising. Finally, the strategy to become the world’s largest renewable energy company through multiple acquisitions overextended SUNE’s financial liquidity and ultimately accelerated its cash crunch.

These stocks are idiotic and without decorum.

The Atlanta Fed has, once again, revised its GDP estimates for the first quarter, now forecasting growth of just 0.4%.

The Atlanta Fed’s program initiated its first-quarter GDP forecast at 1.2 percent in early February and reached as high as 2.3 percent in March.
The regional Fed’s forecast program downgraded its GDP estimate on the slower growth in consumer spending and a drop in equipment investment following the latest data on vehicle sales and factory orders.

This is an abomination. Do investors care about this “old news” that was soooo long ago? Nope.

The Dow is off a hundred and oil stocks are barely lower.

Ignorance is bliss.

Need I remind you of the storm that is brewing? Like a fine cup of French Roast brew, the scents are strong, but the substance is weak.

For all of the talk of doom casting its web over the markets, everything about the market has been orderly. This decline, although disheartening, isn’t evoking fear into the hearts of bulls.

Yet, all the while, and inexorably so, the ark rises.

Financials are paving the path towards hardship today, as investors finally realize that the banks are a giant waste of time.

Risk on, risk off. We hear that moronic phrase all the time. The truth is appreciably more dire, as you’re being spoonfed to believe. The manipulation of the markets have saved 2016 so far. But the vast majority of the gains were found in the very worst sectors, like oil.

If you believe oil continues higher through the summer, you might as well stay long. But if you believe prices are bound to stabilize, you’re gonna want to take up that last seat next to the aardvarks on the ark, for anything less than $60 crude equals doom for the industry in 2017–which will start getting discounted into the markets around May the 1st.

I always find it amusing to see the Yen rise during times of tumult. The yen carry trade is always a topic of discussion during hard times. Fears of imminent collapse and subsequent hand wringing rule the day when the yen reaches certain levels v the dollar.

Since the beginning of the year, the yen has been doing nothing but rise v the dollar and people are starting to take note of it.

The rise of the yen is supposed to coincide with the fall of risk. Year to date, the yen is higher by 9% v the dollar.

America is going to be so great again, once we can build the wall.

Trump released his plans that will force Mexico to pay for the wall to the people who hate him most today, The Washington Post. The media, naturally, is having a frenzy with it. Here are the memos in its entirety.

Here are the lunatics from MSNBC urinating their pants over this intelligent plan.

I don’t know how anyone in their right mind could oppose this simple plan. If you want to send your people into America and use us for a defacto welfare system for your failed state, chalk up $5-10 billion for the wall–else we will cease to permit money transfers to Mexico. Trump’s argument is they have a lot more to lose than we do, since the trade deficit is sharply in their corner. Nevertheless, both the left and the right will oppose any plan to get the wall built, for a number of reasons–most being political.