Free Republic

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is illegally collecting data of every citizen who invests in the stock market, according to a new lawsuit. The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) filed the suit Tuesday against the SEC claiming that the agency, through its “Consolidated Audit Trail,” or “CAT,” program, is collecting mass amounts of personally identifiable data by forcing brokers, exchanges, clearing agencies and alternative trading systems to capture and send detailed information on every investor’s trades in U.S. markets to a centralized database. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is illegally collecting data of every citizen who invests in...

Canada's largest pension fund sold a stake in a New York building for $1. Crashing office values have led investors to turn cautious on the sector. Office buildings have suffered from the pandemic's work-from-home boom. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the biggest pension in Canada, has completed a string of recent deals at discounted prices, including a sale of its stake in a New York building for $1, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.Commercial real estate concerns have escalated thanks to the pandemic's work-from-home boom and high interest rates in the wake of the Federal Reserve's inflation fight, and the gravest fears...

State’s licensing process has created too much product and not enough places to sell it, a consultant and retail-store applicant sayNew York state has only opened about 50 legal stores, yet state-legal cannabis farmers grew enough product this past summer and fall to supply up to 1,500 stores, a consultant who works in the industry said. [Snip] Meanwhile, the illicit market continues to thrive, with thousands of unlicensed shops. While the state has issued 460 retail licenses to nonprofits and people displaced by the war on drugs under its CAURD program, it’s been difficult for most licensees to find real...

In a startling turn of events, China's stock market faces unprecedented turmoil as nearly 30% of all stocks come to a grinding halt, with small caps limited down in an alarming 8% freefall within a matter of hours. This financial upheaval sparks concerns, hinting at an impending storm in the Chinese market. The tumultuous scene unfolds with Chinese stock market indices experiencing significant disruptions: CSI 1000: -8% Star 50: -5% Beijing 50: -4% Shenzhen: -4% Shanghai Composite: -3% However, amidst the chaos, the CSI 100 and Hong Kong 50 indices, representing Chinese large caps, oddly remain in positive territory. The...

In the ever-evolving landscape of financial markets, a red flag is waving high as market concentration risk reaches an unprecedented peak. The Top 10 stocks in the Russell 1000 now hold a staggering 31.3% of the index, marking a historic high and raising questions about the sustainability of the current market euphoria. The earnings gap between Mega Cap Tech Stocks and Small Caps has widened to an all-time high, creating a stark dichotomy in the performance of different segments of the market. As history unfolds, it’s vital to pay heed to the lessons of the past, where the most significant...

Signs of a potential market peak are emerging as the technology sector, which peaked in July, shows renewed vulnerability. This week, marked by the largest shooting star for Tech since July, is seen as a significant indicator. JPMorgan Chase & Co. quant strategists are raising concerns about the concentration of the market, drawing parallels with the dot-com bubble and emphasizing the risk of a substantial selloff. The dominance of the 10 largest stocks in U.S. equity markets is a focal point of concern. The strategists note that highly concentrated markets pose a clear and present risk to equity markets in...

Sweet home ANYWHERE is getting more difficult under Biden’s vision for the economy. On the heels of the worst year ever for existing home sales, new home sales were expected to rebound 10.0% MoM in December after plunging back to reality in November (-12.2%) as mortgage rates tumbled. New home sales disappointed in December, rising just 8% MoM (vs 10% exp) but that is still the biggest MoM jump since last December. Source: Bloomberg Of course, having pointed out the dramatic series of downward revisions to this data series this year, November’s 12.2% plunge was revised up to a 8.0%...

Stock markets in China and Hong Kong are witnessing a severe downturn, reaching multi-year lows, as confidence in the world’s second-largest economy dissipates. The alarming situation has prompted Beijing to consider an ambitious multi-trillion market rescue package. This unprecedented decline in Chinese markets has captured global attention, raising questions about the effectiveness of intervention measures. The recent plunge in Chinese stocks has been described as a multi-year low, with foreign investors withdrawing their money amid growing concerns about sputtering economic growth and a deepening real estate crisis. Despite various attempts, including short selling bans and interventions by China’s Plunge Protection...

In a week marked by the S&P500 witnessing its largest-ever inflow at a staggering $21 billion, there’s an unsettling undercurrent in the financial landscape that demands attention. Bankruptcy filings are surging ominously, casting a shadow on the euphoria of market inflows. Additionally, the U.S. Corporate Default Rate, a key indicator of anticipated defaults among corporations with speculative-grade credit ratings, has witnessed a notable spike. The paradox between record-breaking market inflows and rising defaults raises questions about the Federal Reserve’s seemingly dovish stance. Is the Fed preemptively responding to an imminent storm on the financial horizon?

The stock market is currently experiencing its most overbought conditions since the early days of the pandemic, with traders displaying a fervent appetite for bullish options contracts. This surge in bullish sentiment is reminiscent of the situation leading up to the 2008-09 recession, raising concerns among seasoned analysts. A striking comparison can be drawn between the current market state and the situation in December 2021, particularly in the context of "Min vol." Despite a similar move, this time it took half the duration as volatility rapidly collapsed. The prevailing sentiment suggests that, post-options expiration (OpEx), markets are poised to surge...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell urged the central bank’s forecasters on Wednesday to remain flexible and “think outside” traditional economic models, as they continue to offer projections for a post-pandemic economy that has repeatedly confounded expectations. Powell touted the Division of Research & Statistics, which provides the Fed with economic data and analysis ahead of its interest rate decisions, at a conference celebrating the division’s 100th anniversary.

Michael Pento discussed the current state of the bond market and warned of the potential collapse of the US dollar due to the erosion of faith in the world’s reserve currency. He advised investors to sell long duration bond exposure and invest in short term US government debt. Pento also discussed the inflation and GDP acceleration, as well as China and Japan’s selling of US treasuries. He warned of the massive issuance and supply of US debt and questioned who will buy it, as the Federal Reserve is no longer buying and is instead selling their balance sheet, adding to...

Everyone knows buying a house in Los Angeles is expensive, but the numbers just released Zillow are likely still jaw-dropping to many. In a report released Tuesday, Zillow estimated the total value of the housing market in the L.A. metro area — the sum of Zillow’s estimates for every home — is up $202 billion in the last year alone. The area’s total value, $3.7 trillion, has seen a rapid increase since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, rising 38% over the past three years, Zillow said. In August 2023 alone, the median price in Los Angeles County...

The Russian missile that struck Wednesday in eastern Ukraine turned an outdoor market into a fiery, blackened ruin where weeping civilians looked for loved ones among the mangled, burned bodies scattered across the ground. The blast in the town of Kostiantynivka killed 17 people and wounded at least 32 in one of Russia’s deadliest strikes on civilians in months, Ukrainian officials said. “There was no military target here. This is a peaceful neighborhood in the city center,” Stefan Slovak, who lives in Kostiantynivka, said in a trembling voice. Behind him were the remnants of the market, where charred bodies could...

New York City’s legal marijuana market could generate $1.2 billion in sales and $47 million in tax revenue for city coffers when fully operational — but the high times might not happen until after 2030. The long wait for the bud bucks to finally bloom is due to the current slow rollout of the opening of pot stores, of which only a handful of legal shops have opened, a new analysis released Thursday reveals. “The rollout of the legal cannabis market has been slowed, however, by several challenges: illicit sales by unlicensed businesses, siting and funding issues for dispensary owners,...

TOKYO -- China is emerging as a dominant player in global wind power generation, with the country's manufacturers supplying nearly 60% of installed capacity worldwide in 2022. The figures, compiled by the Brussels-based Global Wind Energy Council, signal that China is claiming a commanding share in both the wind power and solar panel markets. China's Goldwind, the leader in the domestic market, ranked second in the world market with a 13% share, behind Denmark's Vestas with 14%. Of the top 15 companies worldwide, 10 were Chinese, including fifth-place Envision with a 9% share and sixth-place Mingyang Smart Energy with 7%....

Mayor Eric Adams vowed Monday to deal with the illicit sex market that’s been thriving in Queens for months — even as the open-air red-light district continued unabated two days after being exposed in an exclusive report by The Post. Adams said he took a wee-hours tour of the seedy strip to see for himself, and was shocked by what he witnessed, telling reporters: “It was filthy.” “There was just a state of disorder,” the mayor said at an unrelated press conference. “I was out there about 1 a.m., 2 in the morning because I wanted to get an observation...

PublicSq., a marketplace touted as a pro-life, pro-family, and pro-freedom "patriotic parallel economy," is set to go public. This initiative is the latest effort by conservatives to divest from a liberal marketplace that appears increasingly antipathetic to their traditional values and hell-bent on their subordination. Michael Seifert, the company's founder and CEO, announced in a webinar Monday that PublicSq. was going public through the SPAC Colombier Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: $CLBR) on July 20. Businesswire previously reported that following the business combination, the combined company will be renamed "PSQ Holdings, Inc." and will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under...

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports” that President Joe Biden should use the 14th Amendment to address the debt ceiling if Republicans are not reasonable. Markey said, “I would ask when you put up that poll that you also put up the identical poll on tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires and trillions of dollars that have been given to them over the last five years.”

Americans’ views of the housing market hit an all-time low this year with more than three-quarters saying it’s a bad time to buy a home, according to a new poll. Gallup’s annual Economy and Personal Finance poll found that just 21 percent of U.S. adults believe it’s a good time to buy a home – marking only the second time since the poll’s inception in 1978 that fewer than half of survey respondents believed it was a good time to buy. The highest confidence level in the poll’s history was recorded in 2003 before falling off in the run-up to...