weekend notes

See you Sept 2nd with full wknd notes. Week-in-Review: Mon: Russia ret sales 18m low, German fin min denies rumors ECB to cap peripheral yields, S&P flat; Tue: China injects 220B CNY to easy money mkts, HK CPI 24m low, smooth Spanish bill auction, S&P -0.3%; Wed: Dovish FOMC mins foreshadow QE3 (USD drops), Norway unemp 3%, Brazil infl as exp, Canada ret sales soft, S&P flat; Thur: Chi

See you Sept 2nd with full wknd notes. Week-in-Review: Mon: Japan GDP slips, Mex IP stable, VIX 5yr low, new lawsuit filed against ESM in German court, S&P -0.1%; Tue: Sweden IP 5m high, Germ ZEW 8m low, EU GDP continues drift lower, EU IP stable, UK CPI 2.6%, US NFIB 9m low, retail sales solid, S&P unch; Wed: Turkey unemp new lows – 8.2%, Greece seeks 2yr austerity extension, BoE mins tad

See you again with full wknd notes on Sept 2nd. Week-in-Review: Mon: Curiosity on Mars, S&P + 0.3%;  Tue: RBA unch’d (exp), Hungary IP, Italy IP and German Factory orders (-) surprise, Canada PMI and UK IP (+) surprise, S&P 0.5%;  Wed: German IP, India IP, China IP and Japan machine orders disappoint, Aussie jobs stronger (14k vs 10k exp), Greece outlook neg (S&P), NZ’s Key

See you Sept 2nd with full wknd notes. Week-in-Review: Mon: Japan IP 6m low, Sweden GDP solid, Spain CPI 7m high (2Q GDP -0.4%), EU cons conf 35m low, Brazil infl pops, S&P -0.1%; Tue: S.Korea IP soft, Japan PMI 15m low, Taiwan 2Q GDP negative, Italy unemp 10.8%, Germ unemp stable,  EU unemp 11.2%, US savings rate bounces, US C/S home-price fall slowing, Chicago PMI 53.7, cons conf solid, S&am

Hope all goes well. Mara despises cowardly villains. So within hours of the massacre, she whisked me off, to The Dark Night Rises. Brilliant flick. Fusing the obscene, the real, into something surreal. Which perfectly captures our time. Just look at our tabloids, we now got our very own Joker, orange hair, a wild-eyed grimace. Politics/economics are equally surreal. So where’s Batman? Don’t be foo

Hope all goes well. Dallas was hot. Conference was cool. Yeah, UBS puts on a good show. You know, figured I’d find a steer or two in Texas. You see, those boys been making serious frackin’ money. And if there’s one breed unafraid to take risk, leverage up gains, put it all on the line, well, it’s the Texan wildcat. But alas, their pastures are barren. Parched. And my take is it’ll take one helluva

Hope all goes well. And that your Summer ain’t too relaxing. Mine certainly isn’t. You see, I’ve long since ceded control to two women. Who own me. Ida packed my week with curious adults, who flew in, from all over the world. Mara packed my weekend with curious kids, 8 in all, sleeping over, who insist no game is possible unless I’m playing. And of course, mkts remain relentless. So I

Hope all goes well. Osama bin Charlie infiltrated our bed. Pre-dawn raid. Crept between us, dragging his blanket. Growling, “I’m gonna be a tiger when I grow up, a big fat tiger.” Which is cool with me, though Mara prefers the doctor route. So I asked our cub how we’ll know when he’s finally grown up, we can hardly wait. “When I can swim,” whispered the 3y

Hope all goes well. Summertime in Santa Barbara. Not a cloud in the sky. Creeks run dry. And we’re not alone. Midwestern farmers are baking. Crops withering. And even on Wall Street they’re doing the rain dance, an awkward white-guy shuffle. Praying for liquidity. You see, there’s very little now. And in all this heat, illusions arise, mirages, whipping markets around wildly. Ove