We Now Have 536 Million Barrels of Oil in Storage

Crude inventories just came out and showed a build of 6.6 mill barrels, up from the estimate of only 1.4 mill.

On this news, crude is slightly lower, just a smidge.

No worries, however, since our pals in the House of Saud, in conjunction with the Russians, are going to freeze production at record, all time high, jaw leveling levels.

As you were.

Today’s rally is being led by steel, aluminum and copper stocks. This is an affirmation that all is well and good in the great dog eating walled nation of China.

FCX has catapulted above $11, more than tripling from the February lows.

Spearheaded by the price of iron ore, X, has done nothing but outperform.

There is literally nothing that can stop this pornographic train of profit from stopping now. We have the oil, the resources and the debt to pull it off.

NASDAQ 5000 baby, here we come!

Note: I shorted more XLE because it’s fucking retarded.

Early this morning, JPM announced they set aside another $529 million to cover bad energy bets–bringing their total energy fuckery to $1.3 billion. That number was merely $500 million more than expected, from their gargantuan $44 billion portfolio.

As an aside, they also ‘set aside’ $162 million for fucked up metals and mining losses–which came in 62% higher than previously forecasted.

Italian banks are recovering from yesterday’s pullback. Apparently, the bad bank idea, the $5.7 billion fund to buy up Italy’s toxic assets, is holding a little more heft with investors today, as Unicredit surges by 9% and the overall Italian market is up nearly 4%.

Bailouts are terrific. Banca Monte del Paschi leads the way higher. Those fuckers have been around since the Christoper Columbus days.

Futures haven’t budged on this news, likely because no one really cares if the economy is doing well. All that matters is the Fed and their speeches and what they had for breakfast this morning.

For the month of March, retail sales surprised to the downside, coming in at -0.3%. The market was expecting a gain of 0.1%.

The decrease was led by the biggest drop in demand for autos in a year, and cutbacks at clothing stores, internet merchants and restaurants. Sustained gains in consumer spending, the biggest part of the economy, are needed at a time exports are still depressed by cooling global markets and U.S. manufacturing is barely emerging from a slump.

“I don’t think the consumer will spend beyond his or her means,” Gregory Daco, head of U.S. macroeconomics at Oxford Economics Ltd. in New York, said before the report. “A sustained acceleration in wages is still the missing piece.”

Estimates in the Bloomberg survey for total retail sales ranged from declines of 0.8 percent to a gain of 0.4 percent. The February tally was previously reported as a 0.1 percent drop.

While nine of 13 major categories showed gains last month, those increases weren’t large enough to offset the drop in autos, clothing and restaurants.

Retail sales plunged 0.9% at clothing shoppes and 0.8% at eateries and pubs. These numbers truly suck and demonstrate that consumer is opting to save, rather than spend, in light of the decline in gasoline.

Peabody Energy joins its fellow competitors Arch Coal and Alpha Resources in bankruptcy today. This is a huge win for the Obama administration and the EPA, who’ve been interested in this delightful eventuality ever since his administration began. In spite of the fact that 40% of the energy produced at power plants derives from the filth mined at these horrible coal mines, the Obama administration has made it all but impossible to make a profit in the coal industry.

As such, it has been bankrupted.

“This was a difficult decision, but it is the right path forward for Peabody. We begin today to build a highly successful global leader for tomorrow,” Glenn Kellow, president and CEO, said in a statement. The company cited the drop in the price of metallurgical coal, weakness in the Chinese economy, overproduction of domestic shale gas and ongoing regulatory challenges as factors contributing to the bankruptcy.

In connection with the bankruptcy process, Peabody has obtained $800 million in debtor-in-possession financing from a lender group led by Citigroup. The facilities include a $500 million term loan, a $200 million bonding accommodation facility and a $100 million letter of credit facility. With that financing, Peabody believes it has sufficient liquidity to continue to operate its business worldwide, according to a statement from the company.

Congratulations are in order for Barack Obama. God willing, the entirety of the coal industry will be shuddered and in its place will be an endless sea of windmills–briskly decapitating the heads of bald eagles and other endangered species, in order to save the planet from its ultimate and indelible melting popsicle demise.

They were supposed to report crummy earnings. After all, we’ve been led to believe the banks were toast and that earnings were going to be the worst since 2009. Jamie Dimon is built from a different cloth.

JPM crushed it by nine cents and beat on the top line as well. The stock is ripping higher in the pre-market, higher by 3.1%.

Via Briefing.com

• Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $1.35 per share, $0.09 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $1.26; revenues fell 3.7% year/year to $23.2 bln vs the $22.87 bln Capital IQ Consensus.
  • Tangible book value per share of $48.96, up 8%.
  • Average core loans up 17% YoY and 3% QoQ.
  • Net interest income was $11.7 billion, up $723 million, primarily driven by loan growth and the impact of higher rates on cash, partially offset by lower investment securities.
  • Provision for credit losses was $1.8 billion, compared with $959 million in the prior-year quarter, predominantly due to reserve increases in the current quarter versus reserve releases in the prior-year quarter. The reserve increases in the current quarter reflected an increase in wholesale reserves of $713 million, primarily driven by downgrades, including $529 million in Oil & Gas and Natural Gas Pipelines, and $162 million in Metals & Mining (Guidance was for approx $500 mln in Oil and $100 mln in Gas).
• C & IB Unit
  • Banking revenue was $2.4 billion, down 19%.
  • Investment Banking revenue was $1.2 billion, down 24%, on lower debt and equity underwriting fees, partially offset by higher advisory fees.
  • Lending revenue was $302 million, down 31%, reflecting mark-to-market losses on hedges of accrual loans and lower gains on securities received from restructurings.
  • Markets & Investor Services revenue was $5.7 billion, down 13%, driven by lower Markets revenue, down 11%.
  • Fixed Income Markets revenue was down 13%, reflecting an increase in the Rates business which was more than offset by lower performance across other asset classes.
  • Equity Markets revenue was down 5%, reflecting weaker results in Americas derivatives, partially offset by strong results in Asia derivatives.
• JPM plans to increase capital return in the first half of 2016 as the board approved an incremental $1.9 billion in share buybacks.

All of the broader global indices have erected themselves upon the temple of greed. Wanton depravity is currently ongoing, with the NIKKEI leading the way in a most heinous of fashions.

Right behind them, in second place, is the Ted Cruz of this party–the burgeoning nazis out of Germany.

Last but not least is our futures, vibrantly lit. They’re fucking glowing Waldo. Watch us shine.

Before I enter my coffin and sleep for the next 3 hours, I wanted to bring attention to iBankCoin’s Peanut Gallery. I started this project, bringing on writers to the site, many years ago, only to suspend it due to grave errors and syntax malfeasance taking place within its boundaries. A few month’s ago, I resurrected it; and to my delight, I was quite pleased with the results. However, as time waned on and the novelty of the PG wore off, many of the newly fashioned writers resumed their lives as alcoholic vagrant panhandlers. Ergo, I’ve been forced to cull it, out of respect for the dignity of these halls.

As you could understand, my hands were tied in this regard.

The writers billeted at iBankCoin are honored by the standards set forth within these halls, which, hitherto, have gone unmatched by any finance site in its station. This is the paragon of financial news and information.

Therefore, for the last time ever, I am opening the doors of the Peanut Gallery to a fresh stock of eager and aggressive writers. Do not waste my time if you do not have a passion for this. I am not here to fulfill a bucket list wish of yours. I would fucking kill you for much less.

All those comfortable with these terms and have an interest, email me at Flybroker at Gmail.com

nite, nite.

I like this trade a lot. J. Gundlach, bond King, Doubline, is suggesting to blow out of your corporate bonds, especially junk, that were purchased at the height of panic when everyone thought the Fed was crazy enough to hike rates four times this year.

Wait, aren’t they still saying that?

“The junk market was scared to death that the Fed was actually going to go forward with their suicide mission to raise rates four times this year, four times next year and four times the year after,” Gundlach said. “It’s not surprising that the same burst of enthusiasm for Treasury bonds, once the Fed seemed to abort their suicide mission, it also helped junk bonds. I don’t think that can continue any longer.”

All true.

At any rate, he thinks MBS are cheap relative to treasuries here. Naturally, this valuation call is predicated upon the notion that treasuries will remain all all-time highs. When you play the game of ‘this is cheap relative to that’, you sometimes get lost in the sauce and often times can drown in it.

Nevertheless, I am a fan of treasuries and agree with Gundlach that MBS are preferable to corporate bonds–whose balance sheets are vulnerable to the caprices of crude oil traders.

The best way to play Gundlach’s idea is via MBB.

Government-backed Ginnie Mae mortgage-related securities “are cheap relative to Treasuries,” the fund manager said. “That’s been a good buy point for the past six years.”

The wonders of deficit spending and a globalized economy has produced a record budget deficit for March of $108 billion, twice the amount from last year.

What’s important to note is that we’re running hot at $461 billion year to date.

If a corporation was run in such a manner, the c-level suite would be wiped out clean. Instead, like lemmings, we elect the same assclowns into office, who are literally using America’s tax dollars and borrowing power as their personal piggy banks.

The land of the free and the brave are now slaves to debt and an overwhelmingly bleak future.