Distressed Volatility | Financial Markets, Technical Analysis, Economy

India's Energy Ties with Iran Unsettle Washington - Guest Post

2013-06-17T15:32:00.001-05:00

Source: Wikimedia Commons Guest post submitted by Oilprice.com India's Energy Ties with Iran Unsettle Washington India's relentless search for hydrocarbons to fuel its booming economy has managed the rather neat diplomatic trick of annoying...

Walter Zimmermann: If the S&P Breaks This Level, a Crisis is Coming (Video), $SPX Chart Watch

2013-06-14T15:48:00.004-05:00

On May 31, 2013, Walter Zimmermann, senior technical analyst at United-ICAP, told CNBC that a break below 1,555 on the S&P would signal that a crisis is coming. "The S&P below 1,555 - that breaks our bearish model. And when a bubble bursts,...

Real House Prices vs. Inverse Dependency Ratios for the UK, Australia, US, Spain, Japan, and Ireland (The Most Important Set of Charts via Citi's Matt King)

2013-06-13T11:06:00.002-05:00

At the end of 2012, Matt King, Citi's Global Head of Credit Strategy, released an important set of charts to Business Insider which showed 'real house price indices' versus 'inverse dependency ratios' ("the proportion of population of working age...

"Average Percentage of Cash Used in Large Leverage Buyouts Approaching Precrisis Levels" (WSJ)

2013-06-13T09:44:00.001-05:00

Debt Makes Comeback in Buyouts (Wall Street Journal, 6/13/2013) chart source: WSJ.com

Auto Energy Revolution 2.0: Reviews of the Tesla Model S, Supercharger Station Announcement (Concluding Previous $TSLA Post)

2013-06-13T08:52:00.001-05:00

Continue from my previous post: Elon Musk: $35,000 Tesla Coming and Hyperloop Transport (D11 Conference, Tesla Shareholder Meeting) $TSLA Bring on the solar canopies! Source: Consumer Reports Source: Motor Trend Source: Tesla...

Deflationary Forces are Picking Up Again in the U.S. Economy, Look at the PCE, CPI, Money Velocity, ISM Manufacturing PMI, 5-Year Breakeven Rate [CHARTS]

2013-06-12T14:51:00.001-05:00

It's interesting that Treasury yields are rising on the belief that the Fed will taper off QE later this year, because it appears that deflationary forces are picking up again in the U.S economy. The velocity of money (M2 velocity), year-over-year CPI...

Elon Musk: $35,000 Tesla Coming and Hyperloop Transport (D11 Conference, Tesla Shareholder Meeting) $TSLA

2013-06-11T19:59:00.001-05:00

Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla Motors, founder of SpaceX, and chairman of Solar City, had a very interesting conversation with AllThingsD's Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg at the D11 conference a few weeks ago (watch below). He talked about...

Video: Japan's Debt Problem Visualized, When Will Japan's Interest Expense Rise Above Its Tax Revenue?

2013-06-10T13:14:00.000-05:00

Source: Addogram on Youtube But the question is when will JGB rates spike and what will be the official catalyst if "Abenomics" fails to spark inflation. If the catalyst ends up being supply/demand for JGBs because of Japan's deteriorating savings...

China's Economic Data Misses Estimates, Will the PBOC Increase the Money Supply to Stimulate Growth?

2013-06-10T10:49:00.002-05:00

Bloomberg TV's David Ingles broke down China's economic and credit data for May this morning. Here's a quick summary from the video (watch below). Exports +1.0% (Est. 7.4%) Imports -0.3% (Est. 6.6%) Producer prices -2.9% (Est. -2.5%) Inflation...

S&P: Illinois is Approaching a Precipice From a Credit Standpoint (BBB Rating Coming?)

2013-06-09T16:45:00.002-05:00

Here's what S&P had to say about Illinois' credit rating after Illinois' House failed to pass the Senate's pension reform bill on May 31. Moody's and Fitch both downgraded Illinois' general obligation bond rating last week. S&P still has...

Now Moody's Downgrades Illinois' GO Bonds Because of Its $100B Unfunded Pension Liability (Downgrades the City of Chicago's Motor Fuel Debt as Well)

2013-06-08T23:25:00.001-05:00

Source: @Dvolatility on the Amtrak On June 6, Moody's downgraded the State of Illinois' GO bond rating to A3 from A2 because of its inability to tackle its unfunded pension crisis. Fitch downgraded Illinois to 'A-' on June 3. The state now has a $100...

$178 Billion in S&P Rated U.S. Speculative-Grade Nonfinancial Corporate Debt Matures in 2014 (S&P Video, $HYG Chart)

2013-06-08T15:58:00.001-05:00

According to S&P's Global Fixed Income Research team, $8.3 trillion in S&P rated global corporate debt matures through year-end 2017, with $1.9 trillion maturing in 2014. Of this $1.9 trillion, $178 billion is U.S. nonfinancial speculative debt...

French Unemployment Rate Hits 10.8%, a 14-year High (Chart via Reuters)

2013-06-06T12:51:00.001-05:00

Read more at Reuters UK. Here's the chart courtesy of Pedro da Costa (@pdacosta) on Twitter. French jobless rate hits 14-year high of 10.8% reut.rs/15M8gpt twitter.com/pdacosta/statu… — Pedro da Costa (@pdacosta) June 6,...

North Dakota is Making a Killing on Oil, Bakken Shale (Historical Oil Production Charts)

2013-06-06T11:20:00.002-05:00

(This post is related to my previous guest post/interview on the Bakken Shale formation in North Dakota.) First, check out this chart of North Dakota's monthly oil production since 1951 via...

Will Saudi Arabia Allow the U.S. Oil Boom? Interview with Chris Faulkner - Guest Post

2013-06-06T00:41:00.001-05:00

Bakken Shale in North Dakota (EIA/Wikipedia) Guest post submitted by Oilprice.com Will Saudi Arabia Allow the U.S. Oil Boom? Interview with Chris Faulkner Technology, technology, and more technology—this is what has driven the American oil and gas...

DistressedVolatility.com Now Runs on a Samsung Chromebook in Google's Cloud (Video and Vine)

2013-06-05T22:30:00.001-05:00

Announcement: DistressedVolatility.com now officially lives in Google's cloud. I bought a Samsung Chromebook for $250. It uses a mobile chip (ARM processor) and it works great. The Chrome web store still needs some work, but I really only use web based...

Bad News For Delivery Drivers, Domino's Introduces the DomiCopter ($DPZ)

2013-06-05T19:17:00.000-05:00

Remember the TacoCopter idea? It now looks like the quadrocopter delivery method could soon become reality after watching this video of Domino's Pizza's new DomiCopter (via DominosPizza UKandROI on Youtube). This is bad news for delivery drivers...

Fitch Downgrades Illinois' GO Bond Rating to A-; IL's Unfunded Pension Liability is Approaching $100 Billion

2013-06-04T19:02:00.001-05:00

Source: Ken Lund on Flickr Illinois' $94.6 billion unfunded pension liability (now probably at $100 billion), growing annual pension expenses, $5 billion in unpaid bills, and its inability to pass pension reform on May 31 forced Fitch to...

The Sunspot Cycle Is Peaking

2013-06-03T22:42:00.003-05:00

We need sunspot cycle hedges asap. Chart source: NASA (http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/images/ssn_predict_l.gif) Here's why I follow the sunspot cycle. *Charles Nenner: Next Crisis Hits in 2013 When Sunspot Cycle Peaks, Predicts Dow 5,000...

Youth Unemployment Continues to Rise in Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal (Eurostat)

2013-06-03T11:50:00.001-05:00

Will youth unemployment in Europe cause some serious social unrest here (eurozone riots 2.0), or have we seen the worst of it? Some youth unemployment rates are actually down from March, but mainly in the smaller eurozone countries. I embedded tweets...

Marc Andreessen: "Category Specific Retail Chains Are Much Closer To Going Under Than You Think", Will Regret Internet Sales Tax (Video)

2013-06-01T17:31:00.001-05:00

If the internet sales tax bill gets signed into law, web pioneer Marc Andreessen (co-founder of Netscape) thinks brick and mortar retailers will end up regretting it if e-commerce 2.0 companies "push distribution closer to the customer." Here's what he...

$SPY Ratio Watch For June 2013 ($SPY/$GDX, $GLD/SPY, $GDX, $GLD, $SPY)

2013-05-31T14:55:00.001-05:00

After reading my post on SPY/$XAX (or $SPX/$XAX), SPY/GDX is the other SPY ratio that has gone vertical recently. GDX is the gold miners ETF and SPY is the S&P 500 ETF. Technically, $GLD (the Gold ETF) and $GDX look very weak here and $SPY looks...

The Nikkei's Volatility Index Hit a 4-year High

2013-05-31T11:31:00.000-05:00

The Nikkei 225's volatility index pierced through 40 on May 23, a new four year high (h/t), right before the Nikkei 225 crashed 15% peak to trough (15,942 to 13,555) in seven trading days. Even after the correction, the Nikkei 225 is still up about 50%...

Fitch: Low Default Rate, Growing Risk Receptivity (Covenant-Lite Loan Volume is Growing)

2013-05-29T22:23:00.003-05:00

After seeing charts of loan delinquency and charge-off rate trends, here are Fitch's views on the credit market (emphasis mine). "Fitch: Low Default Rate, Growing Risk Receptivity 29 May 2013 8:00 AM (EDT) Fitch Ratings-New York-29 May 2013: The...

CME Group Announces Treasury Futures Trading Volume Record

2013-05-29T14:12:00.001-05:00

Interesting. "CME Group Announces Treasury Futures Trading Volume Record Interest Rate Complex Experienced Second Highest Volume Day Overall CHICAGO, May 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives...