Judge Says ‘Government Misconduct’ By DOJ Prosecutor May Have Tainted Comey Case A federal magistrate judge on Monday said that “government misconduct” may have tainted the DOJ’s case against former FBI Director James Comey, and has ordered prosecutors to turn over records of secret grand jury proceedings to Comey’s defense counsel as they seek to dismiss the false-statement and obstruction-of-Congress charges pending against him in […]

“People Love It”: Trump Talking To Dems About ‘Direct Payment’ Health Care Plans President Donald Trump on Sunday said that he’s spoken with congressional Democrats about a plan to hand people cash that they can use to purchase their own health insurance.  President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media aboard Air Force One as he departs for Florida from Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Oct. 31, 2025. Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters […]

EBITDA And The Warnings Of Charlie Munger Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, This past week, Greg Feirman wrote an interesting article about “The Perils Of Adjusted EBITDA.” Before we get into his discussion, let’s discuss what EBITDA is. EBITDA is an acronym that stands for “Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.” Over the years, EBITDA has become a go-to metric […]

Still No Deal: Rare Earth Talks Between China And U.S. Drag On With Little Tangible Progress So Far The US and China are still hashing out the details of how Beijing will loosen rare-earth export restrictions, weeks after a trade truce that Washington said would boost shipments, according to Bloomberg.  In other words, there’s still no rare earth mineral trade deal, despite the “truce” between the two countries.  Negotiators […]

Cooling Labor Market Drives Uptick In Gig-Platform Hours We haven’t heard much in corporate media about short-term, flexible, on-demand work, otherwise known as the gig economy, but a new Goldman note offers color into what’s happening with these part-time jobs as the labor market cools. Let’s take a look at the news cycle for mentions of “gig economy.” Notice how the topic surged in the early days of the Covid pandemic, when it […]

Trump Offers Lifeline To UK ‘Thought Criminals’ Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, The Trump White House is mulling political asylum for British free speech activists branded “thought criminals” under Keir Starmer’s regime, in one example offering refugee status to those prosecuted for silent protests outside abortion clinics as well as expressing online dissent. The transatlantic intervention, said to be […]

Stocks Slide After Amazon Shocks With Another Massive Bond Offering, But Rebound On News Boaz Weinsten Selling Hyperscaler CDS Just when it seemed that risk was about to stabilize, this morning Amazon decided to add more supply to the biggest trade of 2026 – which, as BofA’s Michael Hartnett, laid out over the weekend is shorting hyperscaler bonds – when it announced that it was planning to raise about $12 billion through a bond […]

Duffy Averts Nationwide Airport Crisis As “Normal Flight Operations Resume”  The 43-day federal government shutdown that plunged major US airports into chaos is finally easing, with operations normalizing just in time for the year’s busiest holiday travel period. “The FAA has determined that normal flight operations can resume after multiple days of positive staffing with air traffic controllers in our towers,” Transportation […]

150 Years Of Data Destroy Democrat Dogma On Tariffs: Fed Study Finds They Lower, Not Raise, Inflation A new historical analysis is challenging the central premise that has guided trade policy, inflation forecasting, and Federal Reserve decision-making for decades. According to the study from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco spanning 150 years of tariff changes across three major Western economies, higher tariffs […]

Key Events This Week: Macro Returns With Payrolls Thursday, FOMC Minutes And Speakers Galore, But Nvidia Earnings Matters Most After the resolution of the US government shutdown, markets face a packed calendar of delayed and scheduled releases this week, although maybe the most important event will be Nvidia’s earnings after the closing bell on Wednesday. According to DB’s Jim Reid, one of the most interesting developments last […]

Novo Undercuts Lilly’s Obesity Drug Price, Now Cheaper Than Car Payment  Just before the US cash session, Novo Nordisk A/S announced it will slash prices on Wegovy and Ozempic in a direct challenge to Eli Lilly’s obesity drug, aiming to regain market share. The announcement comes just weeks after President Trump finalized a deal with Novo and Lilly to reduce costs as part of the administration’s affordability push ahead of next […]

Lower The Steaks, Raise The Stakes By Benjamin Picton, Senior Market Strategist at Rabobank US stocks closed mixed on Friday to cap off a week where concerns over valuations caused substantial wobbles. The NASDAQ was in the red for the week while the Dow Jones and S&P500 managed to eke out minor gains. Markets have seemingly begun to pay attention to the heroic P/E multiples that many AI-adjacent names are trading on, with more […]

USPS Reports 5.7% Decline In Parcel Volumes, $9BN Loss Submitted by Eric Kulisch of FreightWaves, The U.S. Postal Service lost $9 billion in fiscal year 2025, a $500 million improvement from the prior year that officials attributed to greater revenue intake and reduction in transportation and workers compensation costs. But controllable loss, essentially adjusted operating income that excludes expenses such as workers compensation […]

Turkish LPG Tanker Ablaze After Russian Drone Strike On Ukrainian Port Another Russian overnight massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine has had some serious spillover effects, as the Turkish flagged LPG tanker “Orinda” carrying thousands of metric tons of liquefied petroleum gas was reportedly struck at the port of Izmail in Odesa. The Turkish vessel was reportedly struck directly by a Russian drone, prompting the immediate […]

‘Goldilocks’ Empire Fed Manufacturing Survey Surges To One Year High Amid the last month’s absence of hard economic data, investors have had to rely on soft survey data (and alternative providers) and that has been somewhat optimistic… Today, we saw yet another soft survey data point beat expectations as the NY Fed’s ‘Empire State Manufacturing Survey’ surged to +18.7 from +10.7 and smashing expectations of a +5.8 print… […]

A Very Important Week For Consumer Stocks  Goldman’s top sector specialist, Scott Feiler, offers four thoughts on the consumer ahead of what he calls a “very important week” for the space. Feiler said that consumer stocks finally showed signs of life last week, helped by a few solid earnings beats, but the improvement was mostly based on market rotation as AI names dumped for three consecutive days. He said the next round […]

US Home Builders Offer ‘Elevated’ Incentives Amid Affordability Challenges Authored by Mary Prenon via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Faced with affordability constraints and cautious demand, and with abundant land in states such as Arizona, Utah, Texas, and Florida, many developers are offering enticing incentives to potential homebuyers. A model of a new single-family home at The Ridge at Stone Butte in Phoenix, Arizona. […]

US Equity Futures Fade Overnight Gains As Global Selloff Deepens US equity futures are slightly higher led by Tech, but well off overnight highs, while stocks around global markets slide. As of 8:00am ET, S&P and Nasdaq futures are up 0.1%, having previously been as much as 0.6% higher, after both gauges closed above their 50-day moving averages on Friday, a key support level. In premarket trading, Mag7 names are mostly lower […]

In Surprise Reversal, Trump Now Supports GOP Release Of Epstein Files Less than 24 hours Days after President Donald Trump called Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene a traitor and mocked Thomas Massie’s dead wife – because they were among four Republicans pushing for a House floor vote to force the DOJ to release the Epstein files, Trump – likely sensing he dun goofed, big time, reversed course Sunday night and now supports their […]

Brent Initially Slides After Russia Restarts Key Novorossiysk Port After Drone Attack  Brent crude prices were initially lower, and are now flat, after operations resumed at Russia’s key Black Sea export hub, Novorossiysk. This follows last Friday’s Ukrainian drone strike on the export hub, which had sent prices soaring. Satellite images confirm major damage to the Sheskharis oil terminal in Novorossiysk after a combined […]

Container Imports Drop 17.6% In October At Busiest US Port By Stuart Chrils of FreightWaves. The Port of Long Beach is moving containerized cargo ahead of the cumulative record-setting pace achieved in 2024 despite weaker demand that saw October volumes drop by nearly 20% from a year ago. The hub, which along with the Port of Los Angeles forms the San Pedro port complex, the nation’s busiest, moved a total 839,671 twenty foot […]

“I Feel Safer Holding Gold”: Vietnamese Govt Cracks Down On Hoarding In the sweltering chaos of Hanoi, 67-year-old Le Thi Minh Tam is waging a desperate guerrilla war against vanishing stockpiles – scrambling from one gold shop to the next, only to find Soviet-style queues where the shiny salvation sells out faster than a central banker’s excuses. “I’m getting worried, as I still don’t have enough,” she tells Bloomberg, the weight […]

“Catholic Church Is Wrong” On Illegal Immigration, Homan Says Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times, The Catholic Church’s criticism of the Trump administration’s policies regarding illegal immigration is “wrong,” border czar Tom Homan told reporters on Nov. 14. “Secure border saves lives. I wish the Catholic Church would understand that. We have the right to secure our borders like they have the right to […]

Visualizing The World’s $111 Trillion In Government Debt In One Giant Chart While global public debt is lower than pandemic highs in real terms, it remains stubbornly elevated at $111 trillion. This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows world debt by country in 2025, based on data from the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook. A Closer Look at World Debt by Country Below, we break down government debt around […]

Taiwan’s Central Bank To Explore Bitcoin Reserves, Pilot BTC Holdings Authored by Micah Zimmerman via BitcoinMagazine.com, Taiwan’s Premier and Central Bank have reportedly agreed to study Bitcoin as a strategic reserve, draft pro-Bitcoin regulations, and pilot Bitcoin treasury holdings, starting with seized Bitcoin that is ‘awaiting auction.’   The initiative is led by legislator Dr. Ju-chun Ko and supported by Samson […]