One More Can-Kicking!

Crude Gets Clobbered

Bullish Bonds Spell Worry

Bonds don't rise this sharply, and interest rates plunge similarly, unless there are concerns in the financial markets. Note the last candle at the far right. That sharp buying binge for bonds is indicative of grave worry in the financial markets because investors are running for cover by buying bonds, which they consider to be the safest investment available.

End-Of-Month Rally for Corn

So is this just a temporary situation, a short-covering rally, a dead cat bounce, or has Harvey created a corn supply crisis? Stay tuned!

Cliff-Diving Corn

I'm amazed this morning that even with the plunging price of corn over the past two months, the price of corn is down sharply today also. Here is today's chart:

And here is the trend chart over the past two months:

Morose Economic Data Sends Stocks Tumbling

The Dow was down 251 points with just minutes left in the trading session today.

Sniff, Sniff! Smells Like a Bubble to Me!

This headline from Marketwatch today sure smells like a classic bubble!

War Drums? Imagine The Real Thing!

If you think today's stock market plunge was bad, imagine what would happen if war actually happened! We wiped out about a month's worth of gains today!

Sure Looks Like a BUbble

This image, from Dr. John Hussman's weekly market analysis, suggests that this stock market bubble is just getting bigger and bigger. The Dow finished up 9 days in a row today, even though it was already at record highs. Of course, the nature of a bubble is that the vast majority of market participants don't recognize it as such. If they did, extreme prices wouldn't be moving from one extreme to even greater ones.
In the image, the red line is the calculation of a log-period bubble base on the formulas of Dr. Didier Sornette. This bubble matches his calculations perfectly. It is a flawless example of a financial bubble.

Corn Prices Crushed

Corn prices today dropped below support to multi-month lows. These are the lowest prices of this year!

Both Hard and Soft Data Show Weakness!

Ouch!

Central Bankers Still Printing Money With Little Restraint

Debt Disaster Coming

Economic Data Stalls As S&P Continues Near Record Highs

How long can this continue? There seems to be a dismissiveness on Wall St of the economic data, even as the S&P 500 continues near a new record high this morning. Even the Fed's own data is showing weakness! This divergence will eventually close, and when it does, history suggests that it will be UG-LY!

Ominous Sign Stocks Have Peaked

Margin debt suggests that the stock market has topped out. It is a reliable leading indicator that points at a subsequent decline on a consistent basis.

Mark Hulbert on Marketwatch said this morning that "...margin debt typically peaks in advance of the stock market itself. In 2007, for example, margin debt peaked in July, three months before the bull market topping out in October. As Wolf Richter of the Wolf Street investment blog bluntly put it: Margin debt “has a bone-chilling habit of peaking right around the time stocks crash.”

A word to the wise is sufficient! 

Ouch! Fed's Own Labor Market Indicator Declines 7 of 8 Months!

Nevertheless, stocks are higher today1 What a bubble!

Dollar Destruction

Central Bankers Make Bubbles Much Worse

"...Recessions are a normal condition to a market economy as they are regulating any excess, bankrupting the weakest players or those with the highest leverage. However, one of the mandates of central banking is to fight a process (business cycles) that occurs "naturally". The interference of central banks such as the Federal Reserve appear to be exaggerating the amplitude of bubbles and the manias that fuel them. It could be argued that business cycles are being replaced by phases of booms and busts, which are still displaying a cyclic behavior, but subject to much more volatility. Although manias and bubbles have taken place many times before in history under very specific circumstances (Tulip Mania, South Sea Company, Mississippi Company, etc.), central banks appear to make matters worst by providing too much credit and being unable or unwilling to stop the process with things are getting out of control (massive borrowing). Instead of economic stability regulated by market forces, monetary intervention creates long term instability for the sake of short term stability."
--Professor Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Hofstra University

When Is a Bubble Not a Bubble?

Answer: When it's driven by central banker yield-seeking speculation!

Stock Valuations At Bubble Levels

The outcome of years of yield-seeking speculation induced by central banks is that investors across the globe have now locked in zero prospective total returns in virtually in every asset class for the coming decade... We actually view this period as the extended top-formation of the third speculative bubble in the past 16 years, not as a representative sample of things to come. -- Dr. John Hussman, PhD, August 15, 2016