WELCOME TO LEIBOVIT VR NEWSLETTERS – ‘TURNAROUND TUESDAY’ – DECEMBER 12, 2023

 

GENERAL NEWS:

Stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Monday but managed to end the day moderately higher. With the upward move, the major averages once again finished the session at their best closing level in well over two years.

The major averages closed just off their highs of the session. The Dow climbed 157.06 points or 0.4 percent to 36,404.93, the Nasdaq edged up 28.51 points or 0.2 percent to 14,432.49 and the S&P 500 rose 18.07 points or 0.4 percent to 4,622.44.

Overall trading activity was somewhat subdued ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement on Wednesday, although stocks continued to benefit from the optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

With the Fed widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders are likely to focus more closely on the central bank’s accompanying statement and projections.

Reports on consumer and producer price inflation are also likely to attract attention in the coming days along with reports on retail sales and industrial production.

Optimism the Fed could pivot to cutting interest rates as soon as March 2024 has contributed to recent strength on Wall Street, although last Friday’s strong than expected jobs data has led to speculation the Fed could wait until May to begin lowering rates.

“Markets are very bullish in pricing in four interest rate cuts next year, the first likely coming in May, something the FOMC is unlikely to line up behind,” said Craig Erlam, OANDA Senior Market Analyst, UK & EMEA.

He added, “The question is how much of a change we’ll see from the September projections and to what extent the committee will push back against the markets.”

Among individual stocks, chares of Macy’s (M) moved sharply higher following reports an investor group consisting of Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital has offered to acquire the department store chain for $5.8 billion.

Health insurer Cigna (CI) also surged after reportedly abandoning efforts to acquire rival Humana (HUM) and announcing a $10 billion increase in its share repurchase authorization.

Sector News

Semiconductor stocks moved sharply higher on the day, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 3.4 percent to its best closing level in almost two years.

Considerable strength was also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 2.5 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Networking Index.

Transportation stocks also showed a strong move to the upside over the course of the session, with the Dow Jones Transportation Average climbing by 1.2 percent.

Meanwhile, gold stocks moved lower along with the price of the precious metal, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 1.1 percent.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Monday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index jumped by 1.5 percent and China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbed by 0.7 percent, although Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index bucked the uptrend and slid by 0.8 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index crept up by 0.2 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries regained ground after coming under pressure in early trading, ending the day roughly flat. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 4.251 percent after reaching a high of 4.301 percent.

Looking Ahead

Trading on Tuesday is likely to be driven by reaction to a report on consumer price inflation in the month of November, which could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates.

 

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THE FED ISN’T AS POWERFUL AS MANY THINK IT IS

https://www.howestreet.com/2023/12/the-fed-isnt-as-powerful-as-many-think-it-is-mark-leibovit/

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Janet Yellen Fiddles While America’s Economy Burns – heritage.org

by EJ Antoni

YellenAmerica’s ruling class lives in a fantasy world. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently said the United States economy is not only “doing very well,” but that the nation can “certainly afford” to pay for two wars at the same time: Ukraine and Israel. It’s distressing to realize that the woman ostensibly in charge of the nation’s finances knows nothing about them—and the Treasury’s data prove it.

First, the idea that the economy is doing well is laughable. Inflation has become embedded and is running about twice the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, as well as two and a half times the rate it was when President Joe Biden took office. Last year, inflation reached 40-year highs as prices throughout the economy set record after record.

Under the leadership of Mr. Biden and Ms. Yellen, prices have risen more than 17%, and they continue rising. Inflation has outpaced earnings growth so rapidly that the average worker has lost the equivalent of about 5% of his annual income from the dollar’s reduced purchasing power.

The persistent inflation has now led to higher interest rates, which have raised borrowing costs on everything from mortgages to credit cards—and those cards currently have record-high interest rates. An American family trying to buy a median price home today will pay about $13,800 more per year—for the same house—compared to January 2021 because of inflated home prices and higher interest rates.

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CENTRAL BANK ‘HANKY PANKY’

In a 35-minute video, Peak Prosperity’s Chris Martenson explains how central banks can manipulate the prices of all futures contracts in the United States — commodity, financial, and agricultural — through the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s “Central Bank Incentive Program,” which provides central banks and related institutions with volume trading discounts for trading futures secretly. The CME operates all major futures markets in the United States.

Martenson notes that while the program nominally excludes the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, this exclusion is essentially meaningless, insofar as the Federal Reserve commonly has currency swap lines with other central banks, which presumably can use the “Cent ral Bank Incentive Program” to execute trades for the Fed with the Fed’s money.

As a result, Martenson notes, world markets are hardly markets at all.

This is another issue ripe for investigation by financial journalism should it ever reappear on Earth.

Martenson’s analysis is headlined “Central Bank Hanky Panky” and can be viewed at Peak Prosperity here:

https://tinyurl.com/4ff3pd4m

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Is the banking crisis in America really that bad? Bad enough that four of the major banks have paid billions in fines since the year 2000. In the wake of this, banks are actively pursuing the transition into the world of digital currency which Jamie Dimon warns is a currency for criminals.

$181,034,960,000 in Fines Paid by Big Four US Banks As JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Says Crypto’s for ‘Criminals’ -Daily Hodl
by Mehron Rokhy

bankHundreds of billions of dollars worth of fines have been paid by the four biggest banks in the US as JPMorgan’s chief executive sounds off against digital assets, saying they are for criminals.

According to corporate misconduct data aggregator Violation Tracker, the big four banks of the US – Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and JPMorgan – have paid a staggering $181 billion worth of fines since the year 2000.

The data unveils that Bank of America has paid a total of 324 fines worth $87.2 billion since the start of the millennium while Wells Fargo has been fined 261 times for a total of $27.5 billion.

Violation Tracker also reveals that Citigroup was found to be in violation 181 times, paying $26.9 billion worth of fines while JPMorgan has been hit with a total of 272 fines worth $39.3 billion.

The Violation Tracker covers a range of civil and criminal banking offenses including foreign bribery, money laundering, corporate tax evasion, securities violations, accounting fraud, price-fixing, employment discrimination and more.

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16th AMENDMENT QUESTION BEFORE SUPREME COURT

Imagine receiving a tax bill for the appreciation on your investments, including the equity in your home, before you’ve even sold them. It could happen if the government has its way at the Supreme Court… the justices focused on the question of whether the 16th Amendment’s authorization of “income” taxes allows for the taxing of unrealized gains. It has long been understood that income taxes apply only to realized gains. Ilya Shapiro, “The Wealth Tax You May Already Owe,” Wall Street Journal, December 6, 2023.

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U.S. DOLLAR

CANADIAN DOLLAR

URANIUM  – REPORTS ONLY ISSUED WEEKLY

METALS

COMMODITIES

CRYPTO UPDATE AS OF DECEMBER 11. 2023

 

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OPPORTUNITY TO ACCESS MARK LEIBOVIT’S PROPRIETARY VOLUME REVERSAL INDICATOR – THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE TO DO IT!

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When Is Chanukah?
Chanukah begins on the eve of Kislev 25 and continues for eight days. On the civil calendar, it generally coincides with the month of December. Chanukah 2023 runs from Dec. 7-Dec. 15.

Editor: Jews have joined the ranks of the Maccabees.

Hanukkah (Chanukah) is the Jewish eight-day, wintertime “festival of lights,” celebrated with a nightly menorah lighting, special prayers and fried foods.

The Hebrew word Chanukah means “dedication,” and is thus named because it celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple (as you’ll read below). Also spelled Hanukkah (or variations of that spelling), the Hebrew word is actually pronounced with a guttural, “kh” sound, kha-nu-kah, not tcha-new-kah.

In the second century BCE, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who tried to force the people of Israel to accept Greek culture and beliefs instead of mitzvah observance and belief in G‑d. Against all odds, a small band of faithful but poorly armed Jews, led by Judah the Maccabee, defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to the service of G‑d.

When they sought to light the Temple’s Menorah (the seven-branched candelabrum), they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks. Miraculously, they lit the menorah and the one-day supply of oil lasted for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity.

To commemorate and publicize these miracles, the sages instituted the festival of Chanukah.

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COME ON, DAD. IT’S TIME TO EAT

DISCLAIMER:

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