Conservative Hardliner Elected President Of Costa Rica High on the minds of Costa Rican voters as they went to the polls on Sunday was undoubtedly the surge in drug-related violence across the otherwise stable Central American country, which has been a trend for the region generally. Conservative candidate Laura Fernandez by Monday morning was able to quickly declare victory in the presidential election after early results […]

What’s The Warsh That Could Happen? By Benjamin Picton, Senior Market Strategist at Rabobank The DXY is dealing firmer this morning and precious metals continue to be flogged like the family silver after Donald Trump confirmed the nomination of Kevin Warsh as incoming Fed Chair. In defiance of the President’s oft-stated preference, markets are convinced that Warsh is a hawk. Consequently, zero-yield risk is taking a beating […]

Trump Slashes India Tariffs After Modi Agrees To Drop Russian Oil, Go Full ‘BUY AMERICAN’ In a huge Monday development, President Trump has announced the US will trim its punitive 25% tariff on Indian imports to 18% after striking what he hailed as a new “trade deal” with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Crucially it hinges on New Delhi having reportedly ended its purchases of Russian crude and swapping them for massive US […]

The Market Cycles Potentially Driving 2026 Returns Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, Market cycles are once again at the center of the investment narrative as we head into 2026. The optimism is familiar as earnings held up in 2025, the economy avoided recession, and big tech lifted the indexes. However, those victories are already reflected in the price. As we head into 2026, with valuations extended, the […]

This Weeks Jobs, JOLTS Reports To Be Delayed Due To Govt Shutdown Here we go again. The government shutdown, which should be lifted in 24-48 hours once the House votes (we reported yesterday that Mike Johnson allegedly has the votes to pass the vote), is again jamming the machinery of government data reporting.  The BLS has pushed back the January 2026 jobs report, originally set for Feb 6, along with December’s Job Openings […]

World’s Nuclear Club Will Grow If US Doesn’t Act By Thursday, Medvedev Warns We reported earlier that the last major nuclear arms control treaty between superpower rivals Russia and the United States is set to expire this week. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council, has throughout the Ukraine war been the top official issuing the Kremlin’s ‘unofficial’ nuclear warnings and […]

“100% Preventable”: FAA Accepts Its Failures Led To Fatal Midair Collision Near Reagan National Airport Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Bryan Bedford said on Feb. 1 that the agency accepts the findings of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) that a series of systemic failures by the FAA led to a January 2025 midair collision, the deadliest U.S. aviation […]

ICE Drops $70 Million On Massive Arizona Warehouse To Detain And Deport Illegals Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Arizona is ground zero in the fight to reclaim U.S. borders, with ICE shelling out a whopping $70 million for a 418,000-square-foot warehouse in Surprise—the size of seven football fields—to process and detain illegal aliens targeted for deportation. The acquisition under the Trump administration marks a […]

‘Out Of Stock’: As Lunar New Year Looms, AsiaPac Dip-Buyers Emerge In Gold “I came to buy because the price of gold dropped today,” said Ng Beng Choo, a 70-something retiree who arrived early in the morning at the headquarters of Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB), the city-state’s only bank offering physical gold products to retail investors. Bloomberg reports that clients and walk-in buyers crowded into a dedicated lounge for […]

The ‘Full Of Wind’-y City: Chicago Mayor Johnson Puts “ICE On Notice”… Of Meaningless Gesture Authored by Jonathan Turley, I have long been a critic of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has been a disaster for my home city. From moronic proposed taxes to racist comments, Johnson has brought some of the greatest devastation to the city since the Great Fire. Deeply unpopular, he often uses race-baiting commentary or gimmicks […]

On-Chain Activity Soars As Crypto Crumbles, ‘Mega-Whales’ Buying The Bitcoin Dip As Retail Runs For Exits Crypto prices are rebounding this morning, after further weakness over the weekend to its lowest since Trump’s election victory.  “From a technical perspective, the recent drawdown is bringing price closer to attractive levels,” said Joel Kruger, a markets strategist at LMAX Group. Bitcoin is likely to find “strong […]

EU Faces Hard Choices After LNG ‘Wake-Up Call’ Authored by Irina Slav, via OilPrice.com, Europe is growing uneasy over its heavy reliance on U.S. LNG, with EU officials warning that energy security risks are shifting rather than disappearing. Diversification options are limited: sanctions on Russian gas and strict EU methane regulations effectively rule out major suppliers like Russia, Qatar, and much of U.S. LNG. Gas […]

Key Events This Week: Payrolls, ISMs, ADP And Many More Earnings Welcome to February with another big sell-off in Gold (-5%) and Silver (-10%) overnight, and a partial US government shutdown that isn’t as severe as the record one before Xmas, and is expected to get resolved soon. Nevertheless, as Jim Reid writes, it’s typical of the 2026 constant stream of complicated news flow. This follows a January that managed to both shock and […]

Huge Surge In New Orders Sends US Manufacturing Activity Near 4 Year Highs With ‘hard’ data sustaining signs of solid growth (e.g. factory orders and jobless claims), ‘soft’ survey data has been bouncing back since the start of the year This morning we get the final Manufacturing PMI data from S&P Global and ISM for January. A solid and stronger improvement in US manufacturing sector operating conditions (52.4 vs 52.0 exp) […]

Peak OnlyFans? Platform In Talks To Sell 60% Stake Following the Wall Street Journal’s reporting last week, Bloomberg has provided additional color on OnlyFans’ plan to sell a 60% stake in a deal valued at about $3.5 billion. The report is based on people familiar with the matter and has not been confirmed by the company. OnlyFans owner Fenix International Ltd. is in “early talks” with San Francisco-based Architect Capital to sell […]

Throwback Waste Of The Day: Monkeys Throw Poop, And $600K Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations (emphasis ours), Topline: In 2012, a study published by Agnes Scott College and Emory University concluded that chimpanzees that know how to throw their own feces have stronger communication skills than those that do not. The National Institutes of Health must have used similarly primitive communication skills when […]

Trump Launches $12 Billion Strategic Mineral Stockpile To Counter China; Rare Earth Stocks Jump The Trump administration is preparing to launch a major initiative aimed at protecting US manufacturers from disruptions in the supply of critical minerals, committing about $12 billion in initial funding to build a strategic stockpile of essential materials, according to Bloomberg. The project, known as Project Vault, is designed to […]

Bill Maher Torches Virtue-Signaling Lefty Celebs For Ditching Causes Once They’re Not The ‘Current Thing’ After another awards show shitshow of anti-Trump-ism at The Grammy’s, Bill Maher has had it with Hollywood’s relentless virtue signaling, and during his latest monologue on his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher. And he really let the glitterati have it.  Maher, a leftist liberal himself, began with mock enthusiasm for […]

Futures Tumble As Plunging Metals And Bitcoin Spark Global Selloff, Margin Calls Stock futures slide extending Friday’s rout, although are well off session lows, with aggressive unwinds across commodities and a crypto rout adding to the risk-off mood and sparking cross-asset margin calls. As of 8:00am ET, S&P 500 futures are down 0.4%, rebounding from a drop of as much as 1% earlier; Nasdaq futures drop 0.8%, also trimming the […]

Oil Prices Tumble 5% Amid Signs Of US-Iran De-escalation Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com, Oil prices dropped by more than 5% on hopes that U.S.–Iran tensions may be easing. President Trump suggested Iran is engaged in serious talks, dampening fears of military escalation. Analysts said broader market weakness and election-year politics added to the downward pressure on crude. Oil prices slumped by 5% […]

SpaceX In Advanced Talks To Combine With xAI: Report First Reuters and Bloomberg last week, and now Bloomberg reports again early Monday that Elon Musk’s SpaceX is in advanced talks to combine with his artificial intelligence firm xAI. The move appears to be a consolidation, positioning Musk’s empire for the “data centers in space” theme as Starship approaches commercialization. The financial media outlet says the potential […]

FAA To Allow 44 SpaceX Starship Launches From Kennedy Space Center Per Year Authored by T.J. Muscaro via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will allow SpaceX to launch its behemoth Starship from Kennedy Space Center in Florida 44 times per year. SpaceX’s mega rocket Starship is prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, on May 26, 2025. AP Photo/Eric Gay That decision was released on […]

Light At The End Of The Tunnel Emerges For US East After Weeks Of Winter Madness A sharp reversal in US natural gas futures was seen early Monday after skyrocketing prices in the second half of January, when dangerously cold air and a major winter storm triggered freeze-offs across critical NatGas infrastructure. The weather-driven supply disruptions coincided with a spike in heating demand, unleashing stress on power grids across […]

Waste Of The Day: NYC Healthcare Fund Is Out Of Cash Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations, Topline: Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander claims one of the city’s health insurance funds has “no path to solvency” after labor unions used it to cover pay raises, Weight Watchers and more. Key facts: New York’s taxpayer-funded Health Insurance Stabilization Fund owes $3.1 billion to outside vendors […]

“Never Seen Risk Like This Before In My Career”, Ed Dowd Warns Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com, Former Wall Street money manager and financial analyst Ed Dowd of PhinanceTechnologies.com warned in December we were “At the Beginning of Credit Destruction Cycle.”  Renowned hedge fund BlackRock was the latest victim of credit destruction with this week’s headline that said, “BlackRock cuts value of private debt fund […]