Record-Long Gov’t Shutdown Forces Southwest To Cut Guidance As Airline Warnings Pile Up First, Delta Air Lines warned that the record 43-day government shutdown last month, which throttled air traffic at 40 major airports, would slash its fourth-quarter profit by about $200 million. Now Southwest Airlines is following suit, cutting its full-year profit guidance as the shutdown’s ripple effects continue to weigh on major carriers. […]

‘Uninterrupted Oil Shipments’: Putin Questions US Punishing India During Red-Carpet Welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin is in India for a two-day official visit, greeted by New Delhi city streets decked out in “Welcome to India” posters, celebratory images of Putin’s portrait, and alternating Russian and Indian flags. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was actually present at the airport in Delhi to receive Putin Thursday night, […]

Noem Says US Travel Ban To Expand To Over 30 Countries Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Dec. 4 that the Trump administration is looking to increase the number of countries subject to the U.S. travel ban to more than 30. The United States currently imposes full or partial suspensions of entry on nationals from 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Haiti, Iran, Cuba, […]

US Businesses Are Going Bankrupt At An Absolutely Blistering Pace Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com, Why is the number of business bankruptcies in the United States rising so rapidly?  It isn’t because the economy is doing well.  Every day there are more news stories about businesses that have failed, and this is clearly reflected in the numbers that I am about to share with you.  We haven’t seen […]

FBI Pipe Bomber Breakthrough Exposes Biden Era Failures After Four Years More than four years after pipe bombs appeared outside the RNC and DNC headquarters on January 5, 2021, and less than a month after The Blaze fingered a former Capitol Police officer in a now-retracted report (that their sources still stand by), the Trump administration announced the arrest of Brian Cole Jr., 30, of Woodbridge, Virginia, on Thursday. Cole has […]

AT&T Scraps DEI Amid Broader Corporate Shift Toward Merit-Based Policies Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), AT&T told federal regulators this week that it has eliminated all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and programs across its business, becoming the latest major corporation to unwind such initiatives amid a broader shift toward merit-based employment practices and heightened […]

Why Netflix Buying Warner Bros Would Be A Disaster For America As we detailed earlier, Netflix and Warner Bros Discovery announced today a $72 billion merger, in a deal intended to consolidate Hollywood into the hands of a streaming giant. “Our mission has always been to entertain the world,” said Ted Sarandos, co-chief executive of Netflix. He added that the combination of the two entertainment giants together “can […]

“No Longer Gold’s Quiet Sidecar”: Silver Surges To Record High As China Demand Exacerbates Squeeze As we have detailed extensively recently (here, here, and here), silver’s latest breakneck surge to record highs was in large part due to collapsing inventories of the precious metal in Chinese warehouses linked to the Shanghai Futures Exchange, which just hit the lowest level since 2015.  The squeeze continues to accelerate and this […]

Jobs Data From Alternative Sources May Drive Feds Next Move Authored by Lance Roberts via Real Investment Advice, With the federal government shutdown delaying critical economic reports, the official jobs data remains incomplete. Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the September jobs report. However, the October report, originally expected earlier this month, remains in limbo, potentially permanently. The […]

Iran Launches Live Fire Drills In Gulf, Flexing Reconstituted Missile Arsenal  Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Navy launched ballistic and cruise missiles at mock targets in the Persian Gulf on Friday as part of an announced two-day military drill designed to demonstrate its readiness against external threats, state media indicates, at a time the region is still on edge following the last June 12-day war involving Iran, […]

Supreme Court Allows Texas To Use A Congressional Map Favorable To Republicans In 2026 Via Headline USA, A divided Supreme Court on Thursday came to the rescue of Texas Republicans, allowing next year’s elections to be held under the state’s congressional redistricting plan favorable to the GOP and pushed by President Donald Trump.  With conservative justices in the majority, the court acted on an emergency request […]

According To Democrats, Current Economic Conditions Have Never (Ever) Been Worse Consumer confidence data from the University of Michigan showed an impressive (and surprising) rebound in preliminary December data with the headline print rising from near record lows at 51.0 to 53.3 (well above the 52.0 exp)… Source: Bloomberg This month’s increase was concentrated primarily among younger consumers. Overall, while views of […]

Peace In Our Time? Don’t Count On It By Benjamin Picton, Senior Market Strategist at Rabobank US equities closed mixed on Thursday, despite solid leads from European markets where all of the major indices closed higher. Bond yields were mostly higher with US 10s pushing up 3.5bps to 4.09% and the 2-year yield lifting by almost 4bps to 3.52%. There was notable price action in the Aussie market where 2-year yields rose by 7.5bps to […]

Fed’s Favorite Inflation Indicator Continues To Show No Signs Of Runaway Tariff Costs First things first, this is September data… so horribly lagged/stale… but, it’s all we have, so let’s dive in. The Fed’s favorite inflation indicator – Core PCE – rose 0.2% MoM (as expected), which leave it up 2.8% YoY (as expected), slightly lower than August +2.9%… Source: Bloomberg On an annual basis, the headline PCE rose 2.8%, up […]

Court Eases Sentence For Afghan Who ‘Showed Restraint’ After ‘Only’ Stabbing Teacher Six Times Via Remix News, A 29-year-old Afghan migrant has been sentenced to six years in prison for stabbing a 27-year-old teacher at random on the street, in the middle of the day, in the German city of Kirchheim unter Teck. However, despite stabbing his victim four times in the back and twice in the thigh, the fact that the Afghan stopped […]

5x Leverage Is Too Much Says The SEC Wall Street’s financial engineers thought they had found yet another way to turn financial markets into casinos. The gimmick this time is with 3x, 4x, and even 5x leveraged ETFs tied to individual stocks and cryptocurrencies. But, as RealInvestmentAdvice.com reports, the SEC just ruled against these new proposals, apparently drawing the line at 2x leverage as the rules state. “We write […]

Border Encounters Drop To Record Low In November: CBP Authored by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported another drop in border encounters for November, extending a streak of dips under President Donald Trump’s administration, according to preliminary data released in a statement Thursday. The agency recorded 30,367 total encounters nationwide last month, down from October’s […]

S&P Futures Rise, On Pace For 9th Gain In 10 Days Stock futures rise as investors look ahead to Friday’s release of the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the core PCE, a reading that may help shape next week’s rate outlook as the BoJ charts its own divergent policy course. As of *;15am ET, S&P 500 futures were 0.2% higher and on pace for the 9th gain in 10 days; Nasdaq 100 futures are +0.3% as Mag 7 names are mostly […]

Economic Confidence Slips To 17-Month Low, Holiday Spending Plans Weaken Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times, A new Gallup poll shows that U.S. consumer confidence deteriorated sharply in November, falling to its weakest level in 17 months as households contended with a protracted federal government shutdown, volatile financial markets, cooling job prospects, and renewed inflation anxiety. The gloomier mood—reflected in […]

Netflix To Buy Warner Bros In $72 Billion Deal; Hollywood Goes Into Panic Mode Netflix will acquire Warner Bros., including its film and TV studios, HBO, and HBO Max, in a cash-and-stock transaction valuing WBD at an enterprise value of $82.7 billion (equity value $72 billion), or $27.75 per share. The deal is expected to close in 3Q26, following WBD’s planned spinoff of its Global Networks division into a separate public company […]

“Instinctually Programmed To Lie”: CNN’s Jake Tapper Mislabels D.C. Pipe-Bomb Suspect As “White Man” Leftist CNN anchor Jake Tapper was blasted online as “an NPC programmed to lie” after he falsely identified the accused D.C. pipe-bomber Brian Cole Jr. as “a white man.” “Brian Cole Jr., a 30-year-old white man from the D.C. suburbs, is charged with transporting an explosive device in interstate commerce and with malicious […]

As AI Booms, US Ignores One Threat That Could Turn Off Everything Authored by Richard Porter via RealClearPolitics.com, We are now well past dawn in the age of artificial intelligence: According to a recent survey by Pew Research Center 62% of respondents say they interact with AI a least several times a week. Nearly every company in the U.S. is now urgently evaluating the ways in which AI can be deployed to lower costs, improve […]

Suspected Pirates Swarm Bulk Carrier In Critical Red Sea Maritime Chokepoint This week’s maritime focus, mostly centered on Ukraine’s drone strikes against Russia’s shadow-fleet tankers, has shifted to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the critical chokepoint linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, where reports now indicate a bulk carrier has come under attack. UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it received a report that a bulk […]

6 Reasons Jack Dorsey Is Definitely Satoshi… And 5 Reasons He’s Not Authored by Felix Ng via CoinTelegraph.com, Over the years, we’ve explored some intriguing theories about who (or what) created Bitcoin, ranging from the top government spy agency in America to a time-traveling AI and even the lizard people.  (StarPlatinum) However, some are adamant that the creator of Bitcoin is much more human and has been under our […]

“We Must Protect Volodymyr”: Leaked Call Shows European Leaders Conspiring Against Trump Peace Plan In a development that is not entirely surprising, European leaders are claiming that Washington is looking to “betray” Ukraine and President Zelensky during potential formal peace negotiations with Russia. “There is a possibility that the United States will abandon Ukraine on territorial questions without providing clarity on security […]