Monday Watch

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:                 

• China’s Xi Urges Stabilizing Agriculture, Rural Development: TV.
  
• Trudeau Says China ‘Playing’ Western States Against Each Other.  
• Walmart Blasted by Chinese Consumers Over Missing Xinjiang Items.
• China Reports Most Daily Local Infection Cases Since January.
• World Economy Now Set to Surpass $100 Trillion in 2022.  
• Saudi Arabia’s Exports Surge in October on Higher Oil Prices. 
• U.S. Futures Rise as Traders Mull Virus, China Vow: Markets Wrap.
• The Most All-Time Highs in 26 Years: 2021's Wild Year for Stocks.
• Wall Street Ends Crazy Year With Existential Angst and Big Bonuses.  
• Holiday Sales Jump 8.5% as U.S. Consumers Return to Retailers.  
• Charting the Global Economy: Inflation Steadies in Latin America. 
• Holiday Sales Jump 8.5% as U.S. Consumers Return to Retailers.
• Meme Madness, 68 New Highs: Superlatives Abound in 26% S&P Rally. 
• New York State Reports Record New Covid-19 Cases on Dec. 24.   
• Airlines’ U.S. Holiday Flight Cuts Top 2,800 on Crew Shortages.  
• Major Storm Dumps Snow, Closes Mountain Routes in California.  
• Apple’s Next Step in Services Could Be New Bundles, Deeper Integration.

Wall Street Journal:

• Wall Street Bets S&P 500 Is Due for a Slowdown in 2022.
• White-Collar Employee Salaries Start to Swell.
• What It Means to Be Fully Vaccinated Is Changing.
• Lawmakers Want Biden to Play Bigger Role Pushing Tech Laws.
• Early Holiday Shopping Helps Offset Omicron Damper.
• TikTok Diagnosis Videos Leave Some Teens Thinking They Have Rare Mental Disorders.
• Some Job Seekers Get Loud About Their Availability. 
• How Fauci and Collins Shut Down Covid Debate. They worked with the media to trash the Great Barrington Declaration.
• When Populism Turns to Tyranny. Latin America has reversed its turn to democracy. Could the U.S. do the same?

Barron's:

• Had bullish commentary on (WMT), (COST), (TGT), (BJ), (M), (KSS), (UAL), (HLT), (LYV) and (CNK).
• Had bearish commentary on (AAPL), (MSFT) and (GOOGL).

Fox News:    

• Cities around the world shelve, restrict New Year's celebrations as omicron surges.
• Dad who said ‘Let’s go, Brandon’ on Biden call says he's getting threats. 
• US Navy locks down ship after COVID cases emerge among fully vaxxed crew.

CNBC:

• Here’s where four-legged robot dogs are finding work in a tight labor market.
• Omicron drives Christmas weekend flight cancellations above 1,500.

Zero Hedge: 

• UK Mulls Door-To-Door Vaccination Squads.  
• A Colossal Theft In Pain Sight.
• Inflation In 2021 Far Different From What We Had In 1979.
• USA Swimming Official Quits Over Trans Swimmer Competing Against Women.
• "Outpacing 2019 Levels": All Of A Sudden, There Is A Rental Car Supply Crisis.
• Canada Admits To Secretly Tracking 33 Million Phones During Covid-19 Lockdown.
• 2,400 Flights Canceled Since Christmas Eve On Crew Shortage.
• Russia Withdraws 10,000 Troops From "Drills" Near Ukraine In Christmas De-escalation.
• "Incredibly Strong" Demand For RVs Leads To Another Month Of Blowout Shipments.
• Macleod: Gold And Silver Prospects For 2022.
• Anti-Apartheid Leader Desmond Tutu Dies At 90.
• Who Got It Right? A Look Back At Expert Predictions For 2021. 
• Stockman: 'Patriotic Duty' My Eye. 
• Marines Have Now Booted 169 For Vaccine Refusal - All Religious Exemptions Denied.
• Belgium Man Arrested While Attempting To Get 9th COVID-19 Vaccine On Behalf Of Others.
• NFL's Chief Medical Officer Warns There's Almost No Indication Of Asymptomatic Spread.
• COVID-19 Restrictions Questioned As Omicron-Related Hospitalizations Remain Low.
• "Alexa, You're Fired" - A Quarter Of Users Abandon Spying Devices Within 2 Weeks.
• Inflation Is A Policy That Cannot Last.
• US Warship Stuck In Port After COVID-19 Outbreak Among "100 Percent Immunized" Crew.
• Biden Admin Rejected October Proposal For "Free Rapid Tests For The Holidays".
• 'Biden Seems Confused': CNN Openly Questions President's Cognitive Health After Yet Another Slip Up.

NewsMax:

• Stephen Miller: No President Lost Public's Confidence Faster Than Biden. 
• Experts Warn Pfizer Antiviral Pills May Pose Risks With Other Medications.

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• HORROR: Four Young Soccer Stars from Four Different Countries Die This Week After Suffering Sudden Heart Attacks.
• 49-Year-Old New York Times Editor Dies of Heart Attack One Day After Boasting About Getting Covid Booster Shot. 
• Investigation Has Launched After Three-Year-Old Girl Dies From Cardiac Arrest One Day After Receiving COVID-19 Vaccine in Argentina.
• Nearly Every Election Activity in Fulton County, Georgia, Was Outsourced on Election Day to Groups and Individuals Other than the County.
• Elon Musk: “I’m Not Perverted Enough” To Do And Interview On CNN (VIDEO).
• USS Milwaukee Warship Confined in Cuba After COVID Outbreak Hits Fully Vaccinated Crew.
• Video: Drone Has Ability to Take Down Illegal Aliens Crossing Border by Shooting Taser Out of It. 
• UPDATE: COVID Mask Karen in FBI Custody After Attacking Man on Plane for Eating Unmasked.
• Maskless COVID Cultist Oprah Winfrey and Family Celebrate Christmas Feast In Mansion Alongside Masked Servants.
• If Republican Leaders Will Not Speak Out Against Election Officials Removing GOP Observers from Room, Pulling Out Hidden Suitcases of Votes and Shoving Stacks of Ballots Thru Machines 3 Times, Then the Grand Old Party’s Days Are Over.
• Democrats ‘Make History’ by Electing Convicted Killer as Nominee for Key Position.
• The Biden Effect – Saudi Arabia Begins Building Its Own Ballistic Missiles with Help from China.
• Well, This Does Not Look Good… GA Election Official Gabe Sterling Gets Caught After He Claimed There Were No Duplicate Ballots in 2020 election.
• Dem Rep Calls Out Kamala Over Border Crisis–“Doesn’t Look Like She’s Very Interested”.
• Georgia Voter Files from 2020 and Even 2016 Are Changing – Why Are These Likely Illegal Actions Secretly Happening?
• With Thousands of Americans Reportedly Stranded in Country — The Taliban Halts All Evacuee Flights Out of Afghanistan.
• COVID Crazy: Unmasked Mask Karen Attacks Passenger on Plane; Punches, Scratches and Spits on Man for Taking Mask Off to Eat (Video).

The Epoch Times:

• 13 Million People Under Lockdown in City in Northwest China Due to Spread of COVID-19, Struggling for Food and Supplies.

Twitter:

• @DiscloseTV - NOW - Austria: Protest in #Vienna for peace and freedom, and against Covid restrictions and compulsory vaccinations. (video) 
• @DiscloseTV - NEW - Chinese app TikTok signed a partnership with Stonewall, "the controversial lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights charity," to promote "trans" and "transitioning" material.
• @ProtestNews_EN - Germany Demonstration on Christmas Eve in Regensburg against corona tyranny! (video)
• @ProtestNews_EN - Israel rising! Last night in Ra’anana, thousands marching for freedom. people chanting: ENOUGH with coercion! Enough vaxxed turned into 4-times-a-year jabbed humans, Enough with hurting our kids’ mental & physical state, & enough w radicalizing restrictions on unvaxxed.

OpenVAERS:

• VAERS US COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports. 701,126 Reports(+9,243 from prior report) Through December 17, 2021. 

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.

Covid-19(Data, Maps, Graphs):

• Our World in Data:  New Global Covid-19 Cases(7-day rolling average graphs). New US Covid Hospital Admissions/ICU Admissions/Deaths
  
• FT.com:  Fully Vaccinated by Country(graph). Global Lockdown Stringency Index(map).
• Bloomberg.com:  International Travel Restrictions.  Case Graphs by State.
  
• NYTimes.com:  County Trends and Clusters. Local ICU Occupancy.
  
• Brown School of Public Health:  Covid Severity by State/County(map).  US Hospital Capacity(region).
  
• CovidActNow:  Covid Severity/Infection Rate by Metro Area.
  
• KFF:  US Vaccinations by Race/Ethnicity.
  
• Carnegie Mellon: Covid-Like Symptoms in Community. Covid Symptom Searches on Google. Covid-Related Dr.Visits.  Restaurant Visits. Wearing Masks. (graphs)
  
• Safegraph.com:  Commerce Patterns(graphs).

Night Trading

• Asian indices are -.25% to unch. on average.
• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 80.0 -2.0 basis points.
• China Sovereign CDS 41.5 -.5 basis point.
• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 55.9 -.43%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 2,996.0 -8.0 points.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 21.7 +.4%. 
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures -.08%.
• S&P 500 futures +.11%.
• NASDAQ 100 futures +.26%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note

Company/Estimate

Before the Open:

• None of note
  

After the Close:

• None of note
  

Economic Releases

10:30 am EST

• The Dallas Fed Manufacturing Activity for Dec. is estimated to rise to 14.0 versus 11.8 in Nov.

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Japan Unemployment report, 2Y T-Note auction and the Metaverse Conference 2021 could also impact trading today.

US Equity Market Hours

• 9:30 am - 4:00 pm EST

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are slightly lower, weighed down by financial and consumer shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to rally into the afternoon, finishing modestly higher.  The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the week.