Monday Watch

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• Release of Hamas Hostages Has Gotten Closer, Biden Aide Says. 
• Chinese Banks Maintain Lending Rates After PBOC Policy Rate Hold.
• Nikkei 225 Touches Fresh 33-Year High as Japanese Stocks Climb.
• Dollar Scarcity is Pushing More African Countries to Crisis.
• MPs Raise National Security Concerns Over UAE-Backed Telegraph Offer. 
• Asia Stocks Edge Higher on Bets Fed Hiking Is Done: Markets Wrap.
• Oil Steadies After Two-Day Swing as Countdown to OPEC+ Begins.
• Bonds’ Best Month Since March Faces ‘Sanity Check’ in Auction.
• Altman Sought Billions For AI Chip Venture Before OpenAI Ouster.
• OpenAI Board Urged by Microsoft, Investors to Restore Altman.
• Blackstone Is Lead Bidder in Signature Bank Property-Loan Sale.
• Hackers Are Exploiting a Flaw in Citrix Software Despite Fix.
• 96 Luxury Gifts Totaling More Than $1 Million in Holiday Cheer.
• Thanksgiving Week May Say a Lot About the US Consumer: Joe Weisenthal.
• Lasting Recovery in Small Caps Still Elusive as Debt Costs Bite. 
• A $1.5 Trillion Loan Market Gets Stung by Anti-ESG Movement.
• Five Key Charts to Watch in Global Commodity Markets This Week.

Zero Hedge:

• Anti-Woke Central Bank Nemesis Javier Milei Wins Argentina's Presidential Election
• Cheney, Kinzinger, And "Sham" J6 Committee Under Fire After Friday Footage Dump; GOP Senator Calls For Investigation
• Conservative Think Tank Reveals Best, Worst States For Freedom In Education.
• Dictator Xi's American Cleanup Tour.
• The Rise Of Socialists In Latin America Is Giving Terror Groups A Home.
• Morgan Stanley's 2024 Outlook: "What We Debated".
• Family Businesses Can’t Afford To Lose Access To Reliable Electricity.
• Is This Why The OpenAI Board Fired CEO/Co-Founder Altman?
• How Important Is The Holiday Season For US Retailers?
• Weekend News Round Up - Newsquawk Asia-Pac Market Open.
• Turley: Don't Count On A Trump Conviction - None Of These Cases Are Slam-Dunks.
• "He's Going To Lose": Bill Maher And Donna Brazile Slam Biden As Democrats Recoil Over Age, Handling Of Israel War.
• Elon Musk's X Intervenes For Student In Trouble With College Over Social Media Posts.
• As Mega-Cap Tech Broke Out To New Highs Last Week, Goldman Saw Biggest De-Grossing In 9 Months.
• Recycling Eco-Myths Is The Existential Threat.
• Yet Another Leftist Journalist Arrested On Child Pornography Charges.
• Rally On, Wayne! Rally On, Garth!
• Let The Donor Revolution Begin.
• Rep. Jordan Subpoenas Bank Of America Over Allegedly Sharing Jan. 6 Info With FBI.
• Reports Say Israeli Ship "Galaxy Leader" Hijacked By Houthi Terrorists.
• 18 Reasons Why You Really Need An Electric Car.
• "Reduce Your Emissions Within Two Months Or Face The Consequences", Brussels Tells 12 Member States.
• Bayer's Monsanto Hit With $1.5 Billion Verdict in Latest Roundup Cancer Case.
• New J6 Footage Shows Capitol Police May Have Incited Riot By Firing Munitions Into Peaceful Crowd.
• ASU Pulls Plug On Tlaib's Speech In Wake Of House Censure. 
• Millions Of Americans Are Walking Into A Chinese-Made Trap.

Wall Street Journal:

• OpenAI Investors Try to Get Sam Altman Back.
• They Believe Pesticides Caused Their Cancers. Proving It Is Almost Impossible.
• Wall Street Has a Plan for a Soft Landing: Buy More Stocks.
• Hamas’s Barbarity Heightens the Crisis in Higher Education. Jewish students bear the brunt of colleges’ culture of intolerance, conformity and ‘safe spaces.’
• This Coal Giant Now Wants to Get Out of Coal.
• The Coming Deluge for Small Business. The feds and business aren’t ready for new reporting rules on Jan. 1.
• For Families of Some Maui Fire Victims, $1 Million Payments Are Too Little, Too Soon.
• The ESG Craze Is Fading.
• The Estate Taxes Catching Americans by Surprise.
• China’s Problem With Unfinished Homes Keeps Getting Bigger.
• The Hack That Shook Wall Street’s Multitrillion-Dollar Foundations.
• How Starbucks Lost the Top Spot in China’s Coffee Race.
• U.S. Subsidies Fuel Boom in Global Auto Trade.

CNBC:

• Cut back on alcohol with tips from a bartender who no longer drinks.
• Musk threatens ‘thermonuclear lawsuit’ against media watchdog, calls advertisers ‘oppressors’. 
• Poll: Biden’s standing hits new lows amid Israel-Hamas war.

Reuters:

• Ousted OpenAI CEO Altman discusses possible return, mulls new AI venture-source.
• Exclusive-Germany, France and Italy reach agreement on future AI regulation.

MarketWatch.com:

• Stock market surges toward 2023 high. Will holiday shoppers put it over the top?
• Nvidia is expected to be the biggest contributor to Q3 corporate profits. ‘The bar is very high,’ analyst says

NewsMax:

• Trump Returning to Texas Border for Major Immigration Speech.
• Report: Americans Very Gloomy About the Biden Economy.
• Rep. Biggs: Vehicle Kill Switch Mandate About Control.
• Rep. Van Duyne: Biden Policies Seem to Put China First.

Fox News:

• Critics slam silence from UN over horrifying, graphic evidence of Hamas' gender-based atrocities
• LIVE UPDATES: IDF reveals footage of Hamas tunnel underneath Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital
• The sneaky scams criminals are using to access your bank account.

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• Chicago Crime Rate Hits Post-Covid Record-Up Almost 60 Percent in 2023.
• 300 Pounds of Fentanyl Seized at US-Mexico Border in Tucson Last Week.
• Judge Suspends Enforcement of Community College Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Rules in California.
• Denver Spending Millions to Ship Migrants All Over the Country.
• BREAKING: “We Need a President Who’s Going to Secure The Border!” – Governor Greg Abbott Endorses Donald Trump for President (VIDEO).
• MUST SEE: President Trump Serves Thanksgiving Dinner to Border Patrol Agents in Texas (VIDEO).
• Blue State Cuts ‘So Help Me God’ from Oath Requirement Following Atheist Group’s Federal Lawsuit.
• WATCH: Unseen Footage of Doctors Who Treated JFK Destroys ANOTHER Key Government Narrative Regarding His Assassination. 
• Corrupt Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo Used Encrypted Messaging Apps to Communicate with Indicted Staffer About $11 Million No-Bid ‘Vaccine Outreach’ Contract.
• Biden’s Pompous Jet-Setting ‘Climate Envoy’ John Kerry Attacks Farmers…AGAIN (VIDEO).
• Bombshell: Biden Pentagon Exposed for Buying Russian Fuel Oil, Evading Wartime Sanctions – Report.
• MTG Demands Speaker Johnson to Form a New January 6th Select Committee: “There Needs to Be Investigations and Accountability for All of the Lies, Deceit, and Lives Ruined”.
• Sick People: SNL Crowd Laughs and Cheers Hearing US Men Die Six Years Before Women (VIDEO).
• It Was a Set-Up: Recent J6 Footage Shows Capitol Police May Have Incited Riot – Fired on Massive Trump Crowd Without Warning.
• Guess Who Just Made the Final 20 in the Miss Universe Pageant?… A Trans and the Plus-Size Girl.
• Liberal Media Desperately Trying to Spin Idiot Leftist TikTokers Who Defended Osama bin Laden.
• Top Biden Admin Official Invites CCP and Russian Officials to Tour Sensitive US Nuclear Testing Sites.
• Survivor of Mao’s China Tells Glenn Beck That a ‘Woke’ Cultural Revolution is Happening in America RIGHT NOW (VIDEO).
• Biden White House Denies Report of Israel, Hamas 5-Day Fighting Pause and Release of Dozens of Hostages.

The Epoch Times:

• CCP Cuts Police Force, Experts Point to Economic Crisis and Past Collapses of Former Communist Regimes.

OpenVAERS:

• VAERS US COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports. 988,705 Reports(+5,406 from prior week) Through October 27th, 2023.

SKirsch.com:

• Using the MGH numbers with our own VAERS queries, we have 247 cases per million doses from the MGH study divided by 5.97 cases per million doses from VAERS. 247/5.97 = 41. This suggests that the VAERS under-reporting factor (URF) is 41X.

Night Trading

• Asian indices are -.25% to +.50% on average.
• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 106.0 -.75 basis point.
  
• China Sovereign CDS 63.75 -1.5 basis points.
• China Iron Ore Spot 130.20 USD/Metric Tonne +1.32%.
  
• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 41.8 +.05%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 67.0 +2.0%.
• Bloomberg US Financial Conditions Index .28 -1.0 basis point. 
  
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 15.0 +.3%. 
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures +.12%.
• S&P 500 futures -.08%.
• NASDAQ 100 futures -.23%.

Morning Preview Links

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by technology and industrial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to rally into the afternoon, finishing modestly higher.  The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the week.