Notes today:

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has Personal income increasing  10.0 percent (monthly rate) while consumer spending increased 2.4 percent in January as provisions of the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act enacted on December 27, 2020, began to take effect. 

Bloomberg: SEC Suspends Trading in 15 Stocks That Got Hyped on Social Media:

The SEC’s order noted that while the company hadn’t filed reports in years and its phone number doesn’t work, “social media accounts may be engaged in coordinated attempt to artificially influence” its share price. SpectraScience volume surpassed 3.5 billion shares on a single day in late January as the stock surged 167%.

Game Stop (GME) last at $108 has Mar.19  $800 call options that are bid $6.85 with open interest of 18289. Crazy, fing nuts - but what do I know.

REALLY!😖

Notes today: 

• Rates are getting interesting. An unsuccessful auction of seven-year Treasuries didn’t help.

• Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020 

• U.S. employment grew by 11.8 million from December 2000 to December 2020. The gain was due to increased employment of people age 60 and older. 

• Costco, ahead of Sanders: the US second-largest retailer is adopting a $16 minimum wage for its 180,000 employees next week.
• In the coming days, I will be working with my colleagues in the Senate to move forward with an amendment to take tax deductions away from large, profitable corporations that don’t pay workers at least $15 an hour and to provide small businesses with the incentives they need to raise wages,” Sanders said in a statement.

 

 Quick Overview is up to date

Rats are getting interesting:

 Notes today:

• Goldman Sachs thinks the US is about to grow at around 7%, which would be the fastest pace in years - and Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the Fed is nowhere near pulling back its economic support. 

• Newhome sales rose at an annual rate of 923,000 in January  - up 19% YoY That was 4.3% above the upwardly revised pace of 885,000 in December.

 

Charlie Munger on Learning etc..

" Without the method of learning, you're like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest."

Until the Fed’s Powell reassured markets there was a bit of concern about rising rates. Look at a long term chart of long-term bonds – concerning?

Notes today:

• The Case-Shiller index rose 10.4% in December - the biggest surge since 2014.Phoenix, San Diego and Seattle are leading gains. 

• Conference board Consumer Confidence Index rose to 91.3 from 88.9 in January. 

• The MyPillow libertarian dude Mike Lindell’s complaining he is losing money ($65M) amid Dominion lawsuits. 

• Some air is coming out of Tesla, now below the price when it was included in the S&P.  

 Twitter without Trump is surging to a record - remarkable.

 BP.  Looks as if Brexit hasn’t diminished the pound badly – so far..

 Dow Theory

 SOX Semiconductor Index

 Biotech ETF (BTK)

 Shipping: Breakwave Dry Bulk Shipping ETF (BDRY.K)

 BDI Baltic Exchange Dry Index

 Nikkei P&F

S&P Vix Ratio ROC - back in range..

 DJIA P&F

 Canadian $ P&F