PPI Surprise: Is Deflation the Next Big Threat to Markets?

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PPI Surprise: Is Deflation the Next Big Threat to Markets?

The  numbers rolled out this morning, and in a massive divergence from expectations, not only is there no , but the numbers were deeply negative. I suppose the mainstream media, which can spin any data into good news, will celebrate this, although last time I checked with Ben Bernanke, having persistent deflation enter into our economy would be really, really bad.

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One asset whose deflation I am cheerful to see is . I’ve been fixated on energy as the best bastion for bearishness, which is why I’m short and in size as well as some individual items like and . A couple of days ago, oil looked like it was going to launch into full bull mode with a breakout, but it stalled out and began slip-sliding away, particularly with chatter about – gasp – no war with Iran. Good!

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Speaking of falling assets, I direct your attention to Unitedhealth (NYSE:), which must be one of the most despised organizations in America (although I’ve learned to be cautious about a certain young man who decided to firmly express his feelings on that matter, since apparently some Slopers aren’t fans).

This stock, which I hasten to remind you is in the esteemed company of the , has fallen 55%, since evidently a lot of their money was made through outright fraud. Anyone want to bet how deeply their ex-CEO was involved in these fraudulent activities? I’ll wait!

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Here, let me close by snarking directly at a former hero of mine, Zerohedge. That website, which used to be the kingpin among bearish thinkers, is now nothing more than a radical right-wing shill for Goldman Sachs. They did a premium post this morning urging their readers to dive feet-first into  equities, whose index looks like this:

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Now, to someone like me, if I look at a chart like that, I’ll rush over to the nearest keyboard and short it, which is precisely what I did moments ago. I am thus cheerfully short symbol , which I wouldn’t have bothered doing were it not for this annoying ZH article, which began in this fashion:

Heating up again. Well, yeah, there’s no debating that. A 44% rise in a matter of days is definitely heating up. Yet using that as a basis to buy AFTER the aforementioned rise seems wrong-headed to me.

But it gets worse deeper down the article…………

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So what they are saying here is that the P/E fell to 19.8, then it recovered to 26, mysteriously prompting ZH to ask us, “why not take out previous recent highs of mid-30s?”

Do you realize how imbecilic such a query is? Here, I can play that game too:

The bottomed at 666 in March 2009. When the bear market really gets going, why not fall to 333? Answer me!

Yeah, why not. Such a rhetorical question doesn’t merit an answer. Sheesh. Maybe I should make my short position even larger, based on this blinkered, Philistine pig-ignorance.

In any case, as I pledged on Wednesday, I have amped up my positions. Instead of quivering and quaking in the corner of the room (whose climax was that horrible post-surrender Monday I had to endure), I have ramped up positions from 13 to 21 and am back to a 120% commitment level. I’m ready to get even more aggressive, too.

Let’s go get ’em!

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#PPI #Surprise #Deflation #Big #Threat #Markets

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