I am opening up the virtual bar very early today. I’ll likewise put a real post up relatively soon after the close. See you soon!
Muddled Cocktails
Slope of Hope Blog Posts
Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.
Wirecard Tanks
The company’s auditor, Ernst & Young GmbH, reportedly informed it that there was “no sufficient audit evidence so far of cash balances on trust accounts.” According to The Wall Street Journal, the amount of cash that was missing amounts to approximately 25% of the value of Wirecard’s balance sheet.
“There are indications that spurious balance confirmations had been provided from the side of the trustee respectively of the trustee’s account holding banks to the auditor in order to deceive the auditor and create a wrong perception of such cash balances or the holding of the accounts for to the benefit of Wirecard group companies,” Wirecard said in a statement.
It also said it is working with EY to clarify the matter of the missing money. The company also said that the delay in its auditor signing off on its accounts could mean that its loans amounting to about €2 billion could be called in early.
(more…)Inner Meaty It
Most of this week has been like watching paint dry. Sure, there’s movement, but markets feel very “pinned” during the normal session. If we take a step back, however, there are two elements which I believe deserve attention: (1) the price gap still intact from last week; (2) the failure, in most cases, of the intermediate-term trendline from March 23rd. Here are some ETF examples:
Yes, Soybeans
Well, they said today’s OpEx would contain a lot of nonsense (that wasn’t the exact word; it actually rhymed with “truckery”), and they were not kidding. As of this moment, everything’s green, with equity markets up anywhere between 1% and 2%. The reason? Soybean purchases, of course!
More precisely, the China Trade Deal – – which was cited 3,398 times last year as a reason to buy stocks – – actually turned out to be totally meaningless. Indeed, only a tiny sliver of the promised purchases transpired. But now, the Chinese are promising – – honest, for realz this time – – to actually honor the meaningless agriculture agreement and buy stuff from U.S. farmers. Which explains why you should pay even higher prices to buy stock from Netflix and Amazon.
In any case, irrespective of the reason made, it worked, and the mean, green, bear-eating machine continues. Here’s what the ES looks like since late last year:
True Weakness
For your examination, I have provided some important equity markets coupled with the True Strength study. It looks to me that some important cross-unders are taking place.
