Tuesday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:            

• Chinese City Put in Partial Lockdown; HK Cluster: Virus Update.
• China’s $708 Billion Race for Cash Adds Pressure on PBOC to Ease.   
• Star China Stock Fund Manager Suffers a Disastrous 2021.  
• Australia Housing Boom Fades as Melbourne Falls, Sydney Slows.
• Coal Prices Forecast to Surge Again if Indonesia Halts Exports.  
• Venezuela Doubles Crude Oil Exports Defying U.S. Sanctions.
  
• Asia Stocks Track U.S. Gains; Treasuries Hold Drop: Markets Wrap.  
• Oil Steadies Near $76 Ahead of OPEC+ Meeting on Supply Policy.
• Omicron Cases Are Hitting Highs, But New Data Puts End in Sight.
• Elizabeth Holmes Found Guilty in Theranos Fraud Trial.  
• Elon Musk’s Fortune Climbs $30 Billion on Tesla’s Record Quarter for Deliveries.  
• No End in Sight for Auto Sales Slump on Chip-Constrained Output.   
• Jeffrey Epstein Paid Prince Andrew Accuser $500,000 in 2009 Settlement.

Wall Street Journal:

• Zuckerbucks Shouldn’t Pay for Elections. It fans mistrust to let private donors fund official voting duties.
• China Is Haunted by Its One-Child Policy.
• Covid Brings America’s Beer-vs.-Liquor Rivalry to a Head.
• Andrew Cuomo Nursing-Home Probe Ends.
• Tesla Opens Showroom in China’s Xinjiang.
• GM, VW Build Up Battery Supply Chains Amid EV Push.
• Steelmakers Dive Into Junk Business to Feed New Mills.

Fox News:

• DeSantis gets last laugh with joke about liberals from strict states flocking to vacation maskless in Florida.
• Masks and vaccines aren't saving Dem cities from COVID - here's proof.
  

CNBC.com:

• Jury finds Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes guilty on multiple charges in criminal fraud trial.
• Tesla stock closes up 13% after reporting record vehicle deliveries for 2021.
• Apple’s rise to $3 trillion market cap shows the value of its massive share buybacks.
• Markets and the economy brace as the Federal Reserve’s first rate hike could come in two months. 
  
• Airline stocks surge as investors shrug off more than 3,000 new flight cancellations.

Zero Hedge:

• Life Insurance CEO Says Deaths Up 40% Among Those Aged 18-64.
• Iran Demands Trump Be Put On Trial For Soleimani Killing: "Muslims Will Take Revenge". 
• "Year Of The Super Billionaire" - World's Richest Earned More Than $1 Trillion In 2021. 
• Johnstone: Those Who Support Internet Censorship Lack Psychological Maturity.
• Jury Finds Theranos' Founder Elizabeth Holmes Guilty Of Fraud And Conspiracy.
• The Truths We Dared Not Speak In 2021.
• Byron Wien Releases 10 Surprises For 2022: Stocks Slump, Gold Jumps, 'Green New Deal' Goes Nowhere.
• Twitter Suspends Grabien Media For Quoting Congressman.
• LA County Teachers Now Have To Wear 'High-Quality' Masks: Health Department.
• What If The Largest Experiment On Human Beings In History Is A Failure?
• The Mainstream Media Is Losing The Fight Of Its Life...All Thanks To Joe Rogan.
• Biden Gives Ukraine's President 'Assurances' Of What US Will Do To Russia.
• Woman Arrested After Allegedly Injecting Teen With Vaccine On New Year's Eve.
• Bonds & Bullion Battered As Big-Tech Takes Off To Start The New Year.

Newsmax:

• Rep. Gohmert: Marjorie Taylor Greene's Ban on Twitter Orwellian.
• Many Schools Delaying Openings Over Omicron, Even as Others Regard It as Low-Risk Variant.  
• Rep. Perez: AOC's Fla. Jaunt Exposed Her 'Hypocrisy'.

TheGatewayPundit.com:  

• UPDATE: Stalinist Censorship of Gateway Pundit by T-Mobile Makes It on their Members Board — Users Urge Calls to State Attorneys General.
• Schumer Says Senate will Vote to Ditch Filibuster to Advance ‘Voting Rights’ Bill – Making it Easier for Democrats to Steal Elections.
• White House Releases Creepy Video Pushing Vaccines on Kids Who Have 99.995% Chance of Surviving COVID.
• Collusion: Facebook Suspends Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene For ‘Misinformation’ One Day After Twitter Ban.
• Biden Shocked to Learn the Price of Beef Has Skyrocketed (VIDEO).
• “Couldn’t be Bothered to Vote”: MTG RIPS RINO Dan Crenshaw For Refusing to Show Up When It Counts – Often Allowing Radical Dem Proposals to Pass By Just ONE Vote.
• BREAKING: Feds Finally Admit to Running Secretive DOJ “Commandos” at Jan. 6 Trump Protests.
• ‘Will be Used Whether We Like it or Not’ – Developer of Covid Microchip Says There’s No Stopping Roll-Out.
• WATCH: Fauci Caught Lying AGAIN, Claims Non-mRNA Vaccines Like “Covaxin” Have Not Been Approved In the US Because “They Have Not Applied” – Turns Out, They HAVE.
• AOC Exposed Again at Drag Queen Event with No Mask In Miami – While Her Home State New York Crumbles Under COVID Tyranny and Socialist Policies.

The Epoch Times:  

• Third Independent Media Shuts in Wake of Hong Kong Police’s Arrest and Raid of Another Publication.

Twitter:

• @Krommsan - Love or hate #Fauci , in March of 2020, he explains how they rushed the #vaccine 1/2 way through the video is where we are now. 
• @21stCenturyWire - WATCH as this #CVS pharmacist in America, after a concerned citizen confronts him on the #Covid shot ingredients, has a mental episode and possibly an epiphany in the process. Incredible! (video)
  

OpenVAERS:

• VAERS US COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports. 691,883 Reports(+9,243 from prior week) 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 equity indices are +.5% to +1.0% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 76.75 -1.25 basis points. 

• China Sovereign CDS 39.25 -.75 basis point.
  

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 54.11 +.1%. 
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 3,347.0 +28.0 points.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 21.5 +.4%.
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures -.02%.

• S&P 500 futures -.02%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.04%. 

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note 
Company/Estimate 

 

Before the Open: 

• None of note
  

After the Close:

• (JEF)/1.31
• (SGH)/2.00
  

Economic Releases

10:00 am EST

• ISM Manufacturing for Dec. is estimated to fall to 60.0 versus 61.1 in Nov.
• ISM Prices Paid for Dec. is estimated to fall to 79.3 versus 82.4 in Nov.
• JOLTS Job Openings for Nov. is estimated to rise to 11057K versus 11033K in Oct.

Afternoon:

• Wards Total Vehicle Sales for Dec. is estimated to rise to 13.1M versus 12.86M in Nov.

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The OPEC meeting, Eurozone Retail Sales report, weekly US retail sales reports, (AMD) product premiere, (INTC) CES news conference and the (AMBA) investor event could also impact global trading today.

US Equity Market Hours

• 9:30 am - 1:00 pm EST
  

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