Friday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:            

• Panic Buying in Beijing as Covid Surge Spurs Creeping Restrictions.  
• China’s Local Governments Face Squeeze From $2 Trillion in Debt.
• Tokyo Inflation Hits Fastest Pace Since 1982 as Food Prices Soar.
• Bank of Korea Needs Strong Signs Inflation Curbed Before Pivot.
• Global Growth to Be as Weak Next Year as 2009, IIF Forecasts.  
• EU Puts Energy Crisis Steps on Hold to Address Gas Price Cap.
• Stocks Open Mixed in Asia; Dollar Edges Higher: Markets Wrap.
• FTX ‘Horror Stories’ Abound in Crypto Exchange’s Bahamas Home.
  
• JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank Sued by Epstein Accusers in New York.  
• The Robot Tractors Are Coming, Just as Soon as We Crush a Few Bugs.
  
• Amazon Faces Black Friday Protests, Strikes in 40 Countries.

Wall Street Journal:

• Biden Puts Your 401(k) to ESG Work. A new rule offers legal protection for progressive investments.
• Herschel Walker Can Become the Republicans’ Defensive MVP. A 51st Democratic Senate seat would make the party a lot more powerful than an evenly split chamber. 
• China Covid Cases Force Fresh Controls.
• Bed Bath & Beyond Struggles to Keep Stores Stocked.
• Ukraine Scrambles to Restore Power After Russian Strikes.
• Long Lines Persist at the Vet as a Stressful Profession Copes With Shortages.
• The Lipstick Index Is Back.
• $1 Trillion Climate-Change Plan Gains Momentum.

Fox News:

• Military-style machines could soon save officers' lives.

CNBC.com:

• Mainland China’s total daily Covid cases soar above Shanghai lockdown highs.
• U.S. shoppers alone in boosting Black Friday spend as cost-of-living crisis hits Europe.
  

MarketWatch:         

• ‘I think his day will come’: Novogratz questions why Sam Bankman-Fried is still a free man after massive FTX ‘fraud’.
• ‘We let FTX get too big before we started questioning.’ Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao regrets not tweeting about FTX sooner.  
• Apple interested in buying Manchester United: report.  
• Genesis meltdown: Why investors are worried about bigger problems for crypto.

Zero Hedge:

• "Little To Be Thankful For In Markets This Year": Goldman Trader Recaps The Year In 33 One-Liners.
• "They're Trying To Run Out The Clock": Kari Lake Files 1st Lawsuit After Election.
• The Ridiculous Reality Of The "Russian Oil Price Cap" Debate In One Picture.
• Thanksgiving Day News Round Up - Newsquawk Asia-Pac Market Open.
• Biden Allocates $1.1 Billion To Keep California’s Nuclear Power Plant Operating. 
• "Amnesty Begins Next Week": Musk To Reinstate Suspended Twitter Accounts En Masse.
• Fired AP Reporter Who 'Risked Triggering WWIII' Actually Did Nothing Wrong.
• Fired Twitter Moderator Reveals "Worries" Over Platform's Free Speech Future.
• Incoming GOP Congressman Fears Democrats Will Downplay FTX Scandal, Calls for 'Thorough' Investigation.
• Four Mass Shooting Truths To Shut Down Your Liberal Family Members At Thanksgiving Dinner.
• "Blueprint For Success": DeSantis Credits Florida's Red Wave To Leadership Against "Woke Mind Virus".
• "Retail Hasn't Sold": Despite Crypto Crash, Bitcoin HODLing Hits A Record.
• Turkey Shrinkflation.
• Holiday Hardship: 1 In 4 Americans Skipping Thanksgiving Entirely To Save Money.
• Housing Market Obliterated: Pending Home Sales Post Record Drop As Deal Cancelations, Price Cuts Hit Record High.
• Foxconn Offers Workers $1,400 To Leave China iPhone City After Mass Chaos.
• Anti-Twitter Advertisers Have Been Under-Performing The Market For Months: Here Is Your Chance To Short Them.
• Enjoy These Moments, Because The Outlook For After Thanksgiving Is Not Promising At All.
• Black Friday Unlikely To Lift Dark Mood For Retail.
• Most Crucial Industrial Fuel Faces Global Shortage.
• French Interior Minister Labels Italy An "Enemy" Of France After Migration Row.
• APAC sentiment underpinned post FOMC Minutes, contained trade elsewhere - Newsquawk Euro Market Open.
• Liberty Is Worth The Fight.
• JFK Assassination: 59 Years Of Lies Still Haven't Buried The Truth.
• Oregon Corrects False Information On Child COVID-19 Hospitalization Rates.
• Transgender Guaranteed Income Programs Discriminatory, Critics Say.

Newsmax:    

• $237.91 Thanksgiving Dinner a 'Bargain,' N.Y. Rep.-Elect Santos Laments.
• Rep. Van Drew: Biden Must Reinstate Unvaccinated Military.

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• EXCLUSIVE: Archbishop Vigano Shares His Message with Medical Doctors for COVID Ethics International. 
• Man Who Helped Pass DC’s Soft-on-Crime Bill Fatally Shot and Killed on the Same Day it Passes.
• FTX Former CEO “SBF” CONFIRMS He Will Still Speak at New York Times Summit On November 30th.
• More Arizona 2022 Election Anomalies – GOP State Mine Instructor Received More Votes than Either Biden or President Trump in 2020.
• New Video of Ray Epps on Jan 6 Uncovered by Jason Goodman at “Crowdsource the Truth” – Epps Brushes Past Another Man Making Hand Signals
• Poll: 62% Of Republicans Want Mitch McConnell Replaced As Senate GOP Leader.
• What a Turkey! Hateful MSNBC Anchor Joy Reid Trashes Thanksgiving as a “Simplistic Fairytale” and Says America Was “Founded on Violence”.
• Communist Judge Refuses to Examine Brazilian Election Fraud, Wants to Fine Bolonaro’s Party and Freeze Funds.
• Outrageous! NYC Housing Authority to Spend $596 Million on Illegals While New York’s Citizens Suffer.
• Ice Cube Turned Down $9 Million to Star in Sony Movie Over Forced Jab (VIDEO).
• Here We Go: WHO to Rename ‘Monkeypox’ Virus to ‘MPOX’ as Pressure Mounts from the Biden Regime.
• Woke German Soccer Team Focused on Politics Instead of the Game, Delivered Shock Loss By Japan.
• ‘SMART CITIES’ Worldwide Being Converted Into ‘Open Concentration Camps,’ Says Ex-Silicon Valley Engineer Turned Whistleblower.
• RINO Gov. Doug Ducey Ignores Voter Disenfranchisement, Congratulates Katie Hobbs On “Victory In A Hard-Fought Race”.

The Epoch Times:

• Largest Apple iPhone Factory in China Rocked by Protests Over COVID Curbs.
• Only Five Years Left to Prevent War With Beijing: Former Australian PM.

Twitter: 

• @crushthemarket - This might explain why SBF isnt in jail & most likely wont see any consequences.
• @bennyjohnson - Would-be 'Disinformation Czar' Nina Jankowicz Now a Registered Foreign Agent.
• @charliebilello - The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve moved down for the 63rd consecutive week to its lowest level since 1984. The 34% decline in reserves this year is the largest on record by a wide margin. (graph)
• @disclosetv - San Francisco Police Department proposes a new policy that would give robots the license to kill humans.
• @theinformanctofc - The gigantic concentration camps keep increasing in #China, the next pandemic promises. (video) Chinese workers smash the world's largest #iPhone factory. Protests broke out at Foxconn's iPhone factory in #Zhengzhou, #China. Is @Apple in danger? (video)
  

OpenVAERS:

• VAERS US COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports. 898,029 Reports(+3,179 from prior week) Through November 11th, 2022.

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 unch. on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 140.75 -1.25 basis points. 

• China Sovereign CDS 75.25 -1.75 basis points. 
• China Iron Ore Spot 96.20 USD/Metric Tonne +.5%

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 47.54 +.01%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index  47.0 -.5%. 
• Bloomberg US Financial Conditions Index -.64 -1.0 basis point.
  
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 22.7 +1.3%.
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures -.03%.

• S&P 500 futures +.26%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.44%  

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note 
Company/Estimate 

 

Before the Open: 

• None of note
  

After the Close:

• None of note
  

Economic Releases

• None of note

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The German GDP report could also impact global trading today.

US Equity Market Hours

• 9:30 am - 1:00 pm EST
  

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