European Indices Comfortably Higher; U.S. Markets Set to Move Higher

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.’

I created the Bubble Basket in 2014 after the tech wreck that harangued markets from February through April. Truth be told, I got the idea from David Einhorn’s basket. I did my best to model after it and have updated it with fresh picks every 6 months.

The basket is designed to represent the riskiest stocks in the market. These aren’t penny stocks, but instead liquid high valuation growth and biotech names that people love to blow themselves up in.

I’ve found it to be an excellent harbinger of doom and risk acceptance. People sell these stocks when the horizon is bleak. They buy them with the fever of rabid dogs when decadence and splendor rules investor sentiment.

Bear in mind, this is a portfolio of 35 stocks. Year to date, it’s down 23% on a median basis. Moreover, it’s down 2.5% today and -10% over the past month.

The market isn’t as genteel as the catamites on the teevee would lead you to believe. More importantly, the market is screaming SELL, something that is also not being reported by the catamites on the teevee.

Lucky for you, yours truly is on the ark, always on the lookout for a storm.

I am 75% cash, 25% ark aka TLT.

NOTE: The components of the Bubble Basket, as well as other portfolios that I maintain, can be found in Exodus. We’re running free trials now through Sunday, so go check it out.

Most of you are too busy idling on porn sites to know the history of Zimbabwe and how this country managed to fuck itself.

Back in 2009, they were so fucked via inflation, they printed 100 trillion notes. Since then, they switched to the U.S. Dollar and South African rand and everything was going swimmingly until trade deficits and wanton savagery began to take its toll.

Now the country is completely fucked, out of cash again.

The only thing left to do, naturally, is TO RESUME THE PRODUCTION OF THE “U.S. DOLLAR”, so that people can buy groceries and pay rent.

A recent shortage of foreign notes led Reserve Bank Governor John Mangudya to unveil a raft of radical measures on Wednesday, including limiting withdrawals to $1,000 or 20,000 South African rand per day.

Mangudya said that the central bank would also print its own dollar-equivalent bond notes – “which are currently at the design stage” – to ease the cash crunch.

Mangudya denied the new banknotes were a step towards re-introducing the tarnished Zimbabwe dollar, but the plan was still criticised by some experts.

“This is extremely damaging to the interests of everyone and very dangerous to the economy,” independent economist John Robertson said in Harare.

“It won’t be long before this becomes another inflation story. People will refuse to be paid their wages in bond notes.

“Shops will not accept them as they cannot be used to restock [from abroad]. I am hoping that the government can be talked out of it.”

Bond coins were introduced in Zimbabwe in 2014 to tackle the problem of small change.

The new notes in denominations of $2, $5, $10 and $20 will play a similar role, acting as tokens.

All men were created equal, some more equal than others.