Monday Watch

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• U.K. Minister Urges Cut in Isolation Times Amid Staff Shortages.  
• Hong Kong Economy to be Hit by Omicron Wave, Finance Chief Says.    
• Europe Fears Economic Hit If Russia Is Sanctioned Heavily.  
• Stocks Seen Steady With Bond Volatility in Focus: Markets Wrap.
  
• Surging Competition Forces Asia Plastics Makers to Stifle Output.  
• Facebook’s Meta Expands in Texas With Major Office Lease.
• Bond Rout That Kicked Off 2022 Lights Fuse for Europe Volatility.
• Fed Unites Left and Right in Warning It’s Behind Inflation Curve.  
• Omicron Absenteeism Poses Fresh Test to U.S. Economic Strength.  
• Trump Ally Johnson Seeks Wisconsin Re-Election as GOP Aims for Majority.  
• Oil Rides Into 2022 on Bullish Wave as Demand Fears Fade.  
• Robot Trucks Get U.S. Tests, Raising Self-Driving Safety Stakes.
• Apple Could Reinvent Money Management, Take on PayPal and Robinhood.

Wall Street Journal:

• Stocks Face Next Test as Earnings Season Approaches.
• Bond Selloff Rattles Markets.
• Omicron Makes Biden’s Vaccine Mandates Obsolete. There is no evidence so far that vaccines are reducing infections from the fast-spreading variant.
• Labs Limit Covid-19 Test Access as Demand Soars.
• Supply-Chain Issues Leave New Homes Unfinished.
• Detroit Makes Its Move in Electric-Vehicle Race.
• In the Race for Batteries, One Scientist Has Seen It All.
• Meatpackers Are Biden’s Latest Inflation Scapegoat. He cries ‘gouging’ as they face higher costs for labor, fuel and feed.
• U.S. to Spend $10 Billion to Boost Small Businesses.
• PC Slowdown Sets a New Battleground for Chip Makers.
• Taliban Detain Prominent Critic, Intensifying Crackdown on Dissent. 
• Europe Energy Crisis Goes Global. To see climate politics turn really crazy, add fuel shortages and high prices.

Fox News:     

• Termination of unvaccinated health care workers backfires as Biden pledges help amid COVID surge
• Blue state allows hospitals to force COVID-positive employees to work amid brutal staffing shortage
• Weeks after Minnesota nurses warn of staffing crisis, Mayo Clinic fires 700 unvaccinated workers.
  
• Unvaccinated Rhode Island nurses slam new hospital policy: ‘We’ve abandoned common sense’.
• Ohio governor mobilizes 1,050 National Guard troops to ease hospital staff shortages amid COVID-19 surge.
• 'Squad' member tests positive days after partying it up MASKLESS in Florida while omicron soared.

CNBC:

• Wall Street’s top analysts like these stocks for the long term as a new year begins. 
• 19 dead, including 9 children, in devastating New York City apartment fire.

Zero Hedge: 

• The Hunter Connection? Kazakh Security Chief Arrested For Treason Was "Close Friends" With Bidens.
• Almost Half Of New York COVID-19 Hospitalizations Not Due To COVID-19.
• Beijing Steps Up Efforts To Contain Housing Risks.
• Morgan Stanley: Central Banks Are Increasingly Comfortable Pushing A More Hawkish Line... Until Something Pushes Back.
• DOJ Refuses To Withdraw Memo Activating FBI Counterterrorism Division Against School Parents.
• Hedge Fund CIO: We Are Headed Toward A Catastrophic Political Collision - It's So Obvious But Few People Want To Admit It.
• CDC Director Sheepishly Admits Justice Sotomayor Issued COVID Misinformation On Hospitalized Kids.
• Is Going Green Really Worth It?
• Biden Admin Cuts Florida's Weekly Monoclonal Shipment In Half.
• Are We Really Expected To Believe This China COVID Data?
• Taliban Threatened US With 2,000 Suicide Bombers In Washington D.C.
• "I Do Not Want To Have A Vaccination": NHS Doctor Tells UK Health Secretary On Camera.
• Why The Kazakhstan Crisis Is A Much Bigger Deal Than Western Media Is Letting On.
• Dems Panic Over Teachers' Union Push For Remote Learning As Yet Another Study Shows Academic Suffering.
• Sunday Collum: 2021 Year In Review, Part 2 - Heart Of Darkness & The Rise Of Centralized Healthcare.
• The Economic Winners And Losers Of The Pandemic.
• Edible Oil Prices Hit Record High As Food Inflation Worries Persist.
• UK Scientist Says Omicron Is "Ray Of Light" That Could Help Transform COVID Into Common Cold.
• Kazakh Chaos On Cue Ahead Of Crunch US-Russia Security Negotiations.
• Despotism Is The New Normal: Looming Threats To Freedom In 2022.
• Iowa Nursing Home Operator Forced Into Bankruptcy By "Crippling" Staff Shortages.

NewsMax:

• Graham: US Under Democrats Facing 'Most Dangerous Times Since the Late '30s'. 
• NY Post: Pelosi Made Up to $30 Million on Insider Stock Trades.  
• Attorney Lou Gelormino: Vax Mandates Will Be Exposed 'as an Overreach' .

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• REPORT: People Are Dying In the Hallways and Waiting Room At St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tucson, AZ Due To Staffing Shortages Caused By COVID Restrictions (AUDIO).
• Boston Marathon Terrorist Received $1,400 Covid Check While Incarcerated Thanks to Biden’s Stimulus Bill – Media Fact Checkers Forced to Eat Their Words. 
• WATCH: CNN Hosts Blitzer, Tapper, and Cooper Run Away When Confronted by Project Veritas Over Producers Accused of Child Sex Crimes (VIDEO). 
• CDC Website Reveals Police Power Will be Used at Quarantine Stations for the “Benefit of Society”. 
• Michelle Obama Fires Off Urgent Message About This Year’s Midterm Elections, Vows to Deploy Thousands of Lawyers to ‘Protect American Voters’.
• Bill Filed In Washington Would Authorize ‘Strike Force’ To ‘Involuntarily Detain’ Unvaccinated Families: ‘They Have Already Set Up The Internment Camps’.
• Appalling… Joe Biden on Rising Car Prices: “You Reduce the Demand for Cars by Making Americans Poorer” (VIDEO).
• LOUDER: El Salvador Launches New Ad Campaign Promoting Healthy Lifestyle to Prevent COVID-19 Deaths and Hospitalizations.
• TRAGIC: New Pentagon Data Reveals The Number of Military Members Who Committed Suicide From Just July-September Soared.
• Wisconsin State Senator Who Criticized Constituents Wanting Election Audit in State Won’t Seek Reelection …(She Knows She’d Be Primaried Out).
• Young Adults Are Being Lied to by Groups Like Antifa Who Are Using Them for Radical Anti-American Efforts. 
• “Every Shot, I Can’t Breathe” – Fully Vaccinated Tennis Star Nikoloz Basilashivili Drops Out of Sydney Cup Due to Breathing Difficulties (MUST-SEE VIDEO).
• James O’Keefe: Explosive Never Before Seen Whistleblower Documents Coming Next Week on Dr. Fauci – STAY TUNED.

The Epoch Times:

• Chinese State Media Uses Times Square Screen to Play Xinjiang Propaganda.
• China Perfecting Its Social Media Disinformation Operations to Influence Americans: Analyst.
  

Twitter:

• @f_philippot -  At least 100,000 people take to the streets of #France in #protest against #VaccinePassports and restrictions. (video)
  

GETTR: 

• @DiscloseTV - JUST IN - Qatar, host country of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, reported 3,487 new "COVID-19 cases," outpacing a previous high of 2,355 seen in May 2020. 86.5% of the 2.8M population is fully vaccinated.

OpenVAERS:

• VAERS US COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports. 715,856 Reports(+6,773 from prior week) Through December 31, 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 -1.0% to unch. on average.
• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 80.0 +.75 basis point.
• China Sovereign CDS 42.5 -.25 basis point.
• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 53.71 +.07%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 3,437.0 -1.0 point.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 22.4 +1.5%. 
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures +.07%.
• S&P 500 futures -.22%.
• NASDAQ 100 futures -.08%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note

Company/Estimate

Before the Open:

• (AZZ)/.82
• (CMC)/1.19
• (TLRY)/-.07
  

After the Close:

• (ACCD)/-.64
  

Economic Releases

10:00 am EST

• Wholesale Trade Sales MoM for Nov.

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The China Inflation Data report, Needham Growth Conference, Jefferies Software Summit and the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference could also impact trading today.

US Equity Market Hours

• 9:30 am - 4:00 pm EST

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by consumer and technology shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing modestly lower.  The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the week.