Friday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:        

• Global Property Market Faces $175 Billion Debt Spiral.
• Over Half of Britain’s Homes Tumbled in Value at the End of 2022.  
• Harvard’s Hausmann Warns Wall Street Underestimating China Risks.
• US Is Sending Ukraine Armored Vehicles in $2.5 Billion Package.
• Stocks Edge Up in Asia After US Equities Stumbles: Markets Wrap.  
• Oil Poised to Eke Out Weekly Advance on China Demand Optimism.  
• Peru Unrest Threatens to Choke Off Almost 2% of Global Copper Supply.
• Treasury Taps Retirement Funds to Avoid Breaching Debt Ceiling.
  
• McConnell Assures Against Financial Crisis With Debt-Limit Vow.  
• US Air Traffic Halt Caused by ‘Unintentionally’ Deleted Files. 
• Fed’s Brainard Favors High Rates for Some Time to Cool Inflation.  
• Fake Meat Was Supposed to Save the World. It Became Just Another Fad.
• HBO Max Introduces First Price Increase to Stem Streaming Losses.   
• US Market Watchers Are Fretting Over the Biggest January Options Expiry in a Decade.  
• Profit Pain Is About to Give Another Jolt to Teetering Stocks.

Wall Street Journal:

• FDA Seeks More Data on Lilly’s Alzheimer’s Drug Candidate
• New FTX Chief Says Crypto Exchange Could Restart
• For CEOs at Davos, Efficiency and Profitability Reign Supreme
• Treasury Begins Special Measures to Avoid Default.
• Senators Pursue Deal on Border Security, Dreamers.
• FAA Says Contractor Unintentionally Caused Outage That Disrupted Flights.
• Who Would Win a War Over Taiwan? A war-game exercise reveals holes in U.S. deterrence strategy.
• Wayfair Preparing to Lay Off More Than 1,000 Workers.
• Union Membership Rate Hits a Low.

Fox News:

• Home Depot co-founder issues warning about new ‘woke generation’ of leaders.
• Social media erupts after SCOTUS issues report on investigation into abortion decision leak.

CNBC.com:

• Jamie Dimon says rates will rise above 5% because there is still ‘a lot of underlying inflation’.
• Nordstrom shares sink after retailer posts weak holiday sales and slashes guidance.
• Google is delaying a portion of employee bonus checks.
• Orange bitcoin Mercedes owner at Davos hits back at critics, says not his car’s fault people lost money.
• Vice Media restarts sale process at lower valuation, may fetch less than $1 billion.
• Early Facebook investor says Zuckerberg isn’t cutting costs fast enough.
• Even with used car prices falling, buyers are still paying more than $7,100 above ‘normal’.

MarketWatch:             

• Opinion: More rotting assets are lurking in the shadows of the financial system.
  
• T-Mobile suffers data breach impacting 37 million customers.
  
• Intel cuts hundreds more jobs in California, and indicates more to come.
  
• Opinion: Any way you slice it, the bears control the stock market right now.

Zero Hedge:

• Hunter Biden Lived In Classified Doc House While Raking In Millions Through Chinese Intelligence Ties.
• Al Gore Attempts Own 'Greta Moment' In Unhinged Davos Rant: "Equivalent Of 600,000 Hiroshima Bombs Daily". 
• Auto Crisis Worsens As Rate Of Severely Delinquent Loans Hits 2009 Levels. 
• The Great Dropout: Why 1.4 Million Children Left Public Schools In 2020 And Where They Went. 
• Egg Seizures Skyrocket At US Border As Arbitrageurs Attempt To Capitalize On Poultry Crisis.
• The US Consumer Has Cracked: Discover Plunges After "Shocking" Charge-Off Forecast.
• ...And Now, The Facebook Files: Emails Reveal The CDC's Role In Silencing COVID-19 Dissent.
• DeSantis Seeks To Make Permanent Protections From COVID Mandates.
• Bank Of America: Brace For A "Sharp Weakening Of The Job Market".
• SHOT Show Roundup: Newest Firearms, Vehicles, Drones For Special Operations Forces.
• Major Texas University Blocks Students From Using TikTok On Network.
• BlackRock Caves To DeSantis Over ESG.
• High Profile Sound Money Bills Introduced In Mississippi.
• Netflix Surges After Sub Growth Smashes Expectations, Resumes Buybacks, Hastings Steps Down As CEO.
• SBF's Clinton Ties Helped Disgraced Crypto King Dupe Investors.
• Avian Flu Is Crushing Farmers.
• Life after the panic buying.
• Chicago Mayor Admits 'Mistake' After Student Bribery Scandal.
• US stocks declined amid headwinds from hawkish ECB rhetoric and firmer US data - Newsquawk Asia-Pac Market Open.
• California Teen Begs City Council To "Protect Women" After Encountering Naked Man In YMCA Locker-Room.
• Stocks and bonds hit after hawkish ECB Speak and hot US data - Newsquawk US Market Wrap.
• Gold Jumps, Dow Dumps YTD Gains As 'Hard Landing' & Debt-Ceiling Fears Surge.

Newsmax:

• Hunter Biden 'Quarantined' at Dad's Del. Home Where Docs Were Found.
  
• Rep. Van Drew: ‘Unacceptable’ SCOTUS Can't ID Roe Leaker.
• DeSantis Admin Seeks Info From State Schools on Gender Dysphoria Services.
• Alina Habba: Panel Will Find Truth on Penn Biden Center.

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• UPDATE: Seven Antifa Militants Charged With Domestic Terrorism Following Deadly Shooting Outside Police Training Facility Near Atlanta.
• January 6 Political Prisoner Jake Lang Releases Second Documentary from Prison Cell: “Freedom Isn’t Free – The First Battle of the Second American Revolution” – WATCH IT BELOW.
• Border Czar Kamala Harris Visits Arizona To See Wind and Solar Energy Project – Will NOT Visit The Border.
• Bank of America Customers Report “Disappeared” Money From Accounts Due To Zelle Processing Issue.
• LEO HOHMANN: Pandering to the New World Order American Politicians Sell Us Out to a Global Criminal Syndicate with Blood on its Hands.
• Big Tech Strikes Again: Vimeo Cancels The Wellness Company’s Account After Episode On Ivermectin.
• WEF Speaker Pushes For Meatless Future: If a Billion People Stopped Eating Meat… It Will Inspire Innovation of Food Systems (VIDEO).
• MUST READ: Republicans On Course To Get Blown Out By Phantom Voters in 2024 But a Solution Is Available.
• Supreme Court Cannot Find Leaker of Abortion Draft Ruling, Issues Report.
• Unhinged Reporter Tells NHL Player Who Refused To Wear LGBTQ Uniform To Go Back To Russia And “Get Involved” In Ukraine War (VIDEO).
• Former UK Prime Minister Calls for “National Digital Infrastructure” to Track People’s Vaccination Status in the Event of Pandemic (VIDEO).
• RINO Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer Proposes Election Law Reforms To Extend Early Voting, Push Arizona Toward Open Primaries And Ranked-Choice Voting – County GOP Leaders Respond.
• Corrupt FBI Director Wray at World Economic Forum: Future of National Security Is Partnership Between Tech Companies and Government.

The Epoch Times:

• Virginia Gov. Youngkin Responds to Criticism Over China-Partnered Ford Plant Decision.
• Trump, DeSantis Should Ban China from Buying American Farmland, Critical Assets: Robert Spalding.

Twitter: 

• @Mayhem4Markets - Even when netting out shelter from core services, we can see that core services inflation remains far too high for the Fed. (graph) Core services inflation remains a problem for the Fed, and it makes up 58.3% of CPI. (graph) Sticky price inflation remains a concern. (graph) Food inflation remains stubbornly high.(graph) Recession is coming. (graph) EV sales may continue to rise significantly this year, further straining power grids in countries that are ill prepared for the increased demand. (graph)
  
• @EINChinaNews - Apple’s China Problem.
• @disclosetv - JUST IN - Global climate fraud: Netflix, Disney, Gucci, Shell, Bayer, SAP, and others reportedly buy worthless CO2 certificates from leading global provider Verra.

OpenVAERS:

• VAERS US COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports. 918,508 Reports(+3,097 from prior week) Through December 30th, 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 -.25% to +.5% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 105.75 +1.25 basis points. 

• China Sovereign CDS 52.5 +1.5 basis points. 
• China Iron Ore Spot 124.7 USD/Metric Tonne +.8%.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 48.4 -.07%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index  52.9 +.3%. 
• Bloomberg US Financial Conditions Index .11 -7.0 basis points.
  
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 21.6 -.7%.
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures +.34%.

• S&P 500 futures +.2%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.35%.  

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note 
Company/Estimate 

 

Before the Open: 

• (ALLY)/1.01
• (ERIC)/2.52
• (HBAN)/.40
• (RF)/.65
• (SLB)/.68
• (STT)/1.96
  

After the Close:

• None of note
  

Economic Releases

10:00 am EST

• Existing Home Sales for Dec. is estimated to fall to 3.95M versus 4.09M in Nov.
  

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Fed's Waller speaking, Bloomberg Jan. US Economic Survey and the China Industrial Production report could also impact global trading today.

US Equity Market Hours

• 9:30 am - 4:00 pm EST
  

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