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A Result Of Sellers Coming Down From The Moon To The Earth Where The Buyers Are

A report from the Sacramento Bee in California. “The Sacramento region’s housing affordability crisis has eased. Very, very slightly. Placer, El Dorado and Yolo counties also saw affordability numbers increase slightly. Median prices have been steadily falling in recent weeks. Sacramento appraiser and real estate market analyst Ryan Lundquist reported last week that the median price in the region “is officially below last year.” According to Lundquist’s analysis, ‘40% of pandemic price gains have been wiped away over the past six months.'”

From Money.com. “Redfin’s experts attribute the spike in delistings to a sharp drop in demand. ‘Some sellers are having a hard time grasping that we’re not in a housing-market frenzy anymore — it’s tough for them to swallow that they missed the boat on getting a high price,’ said Jacksonville, Florida, Redfin agent Heather Kruayai.”

The Seattle Times in Washington. “The three-bedroom home on a cul-de-sac in Kirkland hit the market in September at nearly $1.1 million. A few weeks later, the sellers dropped the price, then dropped it again — and again. In early December, the home was still for sale, an illustration of the region’s cooling housing market. ‘Just several months ago, that would have been off the market in five days,’ said Jen Cameron, the listing agent.”

“It’s not just this one house in Kirkland. Home sales have slowed and prices have plateaued all over the Seattle area, particularly on the Eastside, where the pandemic-fueled housing frenzy once pushed prices up 30% in a year. After that kind of runaway growth, ‘the correction was inevitable,’ said Windermere broker Max Rombakh, who less than a year ago sold a home in Bellevue for nearly $1 million over its asking price. ‘At some point, it had to slow down.'”

“Jennifer German, the seller of the Kirkland home, watched a similar house down the street sell this spring for $1.6 million, $325,000 above its asking price. By the time she and her husband listed for $1.095 million in hopes of moving to Palm Springs, California, ‘we thought we were pretty competitively priced, back down to pre-COVID prices in the neighborhood,’ she said. Potential buyers passed through open houses, but the house sat unsold. One offer fell through.”

“‘The market has changed so quickly up here,’ German said. ‘It seemed like things were selling in three days and then just all of a sudden, they just stopped.’ A notable dip is taking place east of Lake Washington. At this time last year, Eastside home prices were up nearly 35% from the year before. This year, they’re down nearly 8%.”

The Mountaineer in North Carolina. “The housing market continued to slow in Haywood County in October compared to last year’s unprecedented home sales. The average sale price was $356,000 compared to $376,000 last October. The median sale price fell to $305,500, a 5% decline from $323,000 last October. Sellers are fetching less compared to their asking price as the control sellers had over the market continues to slip. Sale prices compared to listing prices dipped 2%, with sellers getting 93.4% of their listing price. Haywood was not alone in the trends. The greater Asheville region — including Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson and Madison counties — saw a similar decline in home sales and new listings.”

WESA in Pennsylvania. “More people have returned to Downtown Pittsburgh for work, but the number of employees reporting to offices in the Golden Triangle each day remains far below pre-pandemic levels. While there’s still a market for top-tier office space, working from home is ‘reducing the pool of tenants that are looking for lower-tier space and maybe less desirable locations,’ said Jessica Morin, who leads U.S. research for real estate firm CBRE. ‘That’s going to really increase that supply of undesirable office [space].’ That’s left a lot of empty rooms Downtown – more than 11 million square feet of it as of this time last year, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority. That’s still as if 95 football fields were stacked into buildings all over the Central Business District, with nobody on them.”

“In July, city, county, and state officials announced a $9 million pilot to convert Downtown office spaces into homes. There’s an oversupply of offices and a need for housing, ‘so it seems like a perfect solution to start converting’ the former into the latter, said Morin. ‘However, conversions are challenging.'”

Axios on Arizona. “Home values dropped across the Valley from July to October as the red hot housing market continues to cool, according to Zillow. We’ve put the stats into an interactive map. Typical home prices, based on the Zillow Home Value Index fell most sharply on the west side, particularly around Glendale, west Phoenix and Tolleson. The two biggest decreases, both of 8.2%, were in neighboring ZIP codes — 85031 and 85035. The drops reduced the typical home price from $297,000 to $273,000 in 85031 and from $290,000 to $266,000 in 85035.”

“Tolleson, the western part of Phoenix’s Estrella Village area and Glendale between 67th and 83rd avenues notched 7.5% decreases. No part of the Valley has been spared. Every ZIP code in the Phoenix metro area experienced price decreases during this period. The smallest decreases we saw were in the Apache Junction and Gold Canyon area, where prices only dropped by 2.2%. The 85006 ZIP code only saw a 2.5% drop, from about $443,000 to $432,000. Phoenix Realtors president Andrea Crouch tells Axios that the decrease in values and prices was a change that needed to happen. ‘It is a result of sellers coming down from the moon on where they wanted their price to be, down to the Earth where the buyers are,’ she said.”

From Reuters. “Home prices in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) fell in November. The average price of a GTA home fell to C$1.08 million ($794,527) in November, down 1% from October and down 7.2% from a year ago. Prices were about 19% below February’s peak. Sales nearly halved from a year ago. ‘Increased borrowing costs represent a short-term shock to the housing market,’ TRREB President Kevin Crigger said in a statement.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “Home inspections are making a comeback as buyers take advantage of a slow real estate market to make sure their dream home isn’t a disaster in disguise. Nasma Ali, founder of One Group Toronto Real Estate, says the vast majority of buyers she works with are including inspection conditions to take advantage of the slow market, which has been sluggish in the face of multiple interest-rate hikes. ‘Buyers have this mentality that they’re doing you a favour by giving you this offer, so they’re going to include every possible condition,’ said Ms. Ali. ‘It’s a buyer’s market, there’s no doubt about it.'”

The Helsinki Times. “House prices in Finland will stay on a downward path in 2023, forecasts Nordea. The Helsinki-based financial services group reported last week that it expects house prices to fall by an average of five per cent next year. The fall could be even steeper in the capital region because of an oversupply of small houses and bigger housing loans and interest costs compared to other parts of the country. Nordea pointed especially to the slowdown witnessed in October. The Federation of Real Estate Agency, it noted, has reported that the number of property sales fell 23 per cent short of the monthly average from the past decades.”

From CNBC. “The German housing market has been remarkably strong for decades, but it faces a serious fall in prices over the next couple of years, according to some analysts. House prices have already declined around 5% since March, according to Deutsche Bank data, and they will drop between 20% and 25% in total from peak to trough, forecasts Jochen Moebert, a macroeconomic analyst at the German lender. The Association of German Pfandbrief Banks (VDP) anticipates we have already seen the peak in Germany property prices ‘for the time being’ but the fundamentals of the market are still working well, according to VDP CEO Jens Tolckmitt.”

“The scarcity of housing, increasing rental prices and a strong labor market will continue to support the market, Tolckmitt said, and even if house prices dropped, it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. ‘If house prices reduced by 20%, which we do not expect at the moment, then we would be on the price level of 2020. Is this a problem? Maybe not,’ Tolckmitt said.”

News Talk New Zealand. “House prices have fallen by an average of $90,000 in parts of New Zealand. That meant homeowners who bought at the height of the property boom in late 2021 could find themselves with mortgages larger than the value of their home, especially in Auckland and Wellington. The housing market went from ‘fear of missing out’ to ‘fear of overpaying,’ Oneroof editor Owen Vaughan said, as a boom which started during Covid gave way to falling prices, tighter lending and uncertainty about the year ahead.”

“The average property value fell 17.7 per cent ($201,818) in the Greater Wellington region since prices peaked in March, with some central suburbs taking a price hit of more than $400,000. This was largely because of the withdrawal of Auckland investors who had driven much of the inflation since the Covid-19 pandemic. In Auckland, average property values fell 12 per cent (more than $180,000) since the peak.”

“‘Inflation is the elephant in the room and won’t disappear overnight. But while cost of living pressures are reaching across nearly all parts of our daily lives, we’re actually not seeing a significant drop in spending and that’s probably because a lot of people still haven’t had to fix their mortgage at a higher rate,’ said James Wilson, head of valuations at Valocity. ‘When that happens and those mortgage rates begin to really bite, then spending is likely to dry up. Obviously, that has bigger economic impacts but the key question is: will inflation be tamed by traditional policy or will a hard, economic landing do the job? At this point, a lot of signs point to a harder landing than would be ideal.'”

The South China Morning Post. “Homeowners in Hong Kong looking to sell have missed the window for striking a favourable deal, analysts said, as they expect propery prices to continue to slump after touching the lowest level in five years. The Centa-City Leading Index, which has already lost 16.8 per cent since the peak in August 2021, is expected to decline further to nearly 25 per cent by late January. The decline for some estates has exceeded that level, with Telford Gardens in Kowloon Bay witnessing a slump of 30 per cent.”

“‘The decline in home prices has not stopped,’ said Wong Leung-sing, senior associate director of research at Centaline. ‘If there is no good news in the market that can cause fluctuations, the CCL will test the 144 level around Chinese New Year.'”

“Many homeowners who are about to emigrate and in a rush to sell are also willing to accept lower prices. At Heng Fa Chuen, a homeowner about to leave the city sold a 658 sq ft flat for HK$8.93 million in mid-November, HK$1.8 million, or 17 per cent, less than the price paid three years ago, according to Centaline. Agents desperate to attract potential homebuyers’ eyeballs and drum up sales are resorting to creative catchphrases to promote listings in the streets and branches. These usually feature reasons for heavy price cuts, such as emigration and stock market losses.”

From Reuters. “‘I’m nearly bankrupt,’ says Jad Fawaz, a crypto trader in Abu Dhabi. ‘I’m laughing because there’s no point in exerting more depression and more frustration about it.’ The 45-year-old, who quit his real-estate job a year ago to focus on trading, has seen his holdings evaporate in recent months. He hasn’t slept in a week because of the stress. ‘I had about 40 coins and then I came down to 20 coins then I came down to 10 coins, came down to five coins and now I’m down to the last two coins, and it’s bitcoin and ripple XRP,’ he says. ‘So these are the last two coins and I will die before selling them.'”

“‘This is not the winter season anymore, this is a bloodbath, because the FTX crisis was like a domino that toppled so many companies,’ said Linda Obi, a crypto investor in the Nigerian city of Lagos who works at blockchain firm Zenith Chain.The 38-year-old said she was a ‘long-haul’ investor with an investment horizon of five years and traded ‘a bit of everything,’ including altcoins and memecoins. ‘I’m gonna be very honest, I do think there’s a whole lot of hype around crypto, with influencer marketing and your favorite celebrities talking about crypto,’ she added.”

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This Post Has 112 Comments

  1. Lundquist reported last week that the median price in the region “is officially below last year.” According to Lundquist’s analysis, ‘40% of pandemic price gains have been wiped away over the past six months.

    Another cluster of sh$tholes rolls over YOY.

    2. “40% of pandemic price gains have been wiped away over the past six months”

      Ca$$ $hiller will acknowledge this after 6 years.

    3. I can’t wait for it to get to 2020 pre-pandemic levels and then go lower due to interest rates. That will be the real shit storm.

  2. ‘He hasn’t slept in a week because of the stress. ‘I had about 40 coins and then I came down to 20 coins then I came down to 10 coins, came down to five coins and now I’m down to the last two coins, and it’s bitcoin and ripple XRP,’ he says. ‘So these are the last two coins and I will die before selling them’

    You may be right about that Jad.

    3. Linda Obi, a crypto investor in the Nigerian city of Lagos

      I’m pretty sure I’ve seen glowing testimonials about Miss Linda in some YouTube comments. Indeed, since people have starting investing with her, they have made $12000 every ten days for the past six months. Contacting her should be on the to-do list of every wise investor.

  3. ‘Buyers have this mentality that they’re doing you a favour by giving you this offer’

    That’s the spirit!

    1. ‘The average price of a GTA home fell to C$1.08 million ($794,527) in November’

      Dang, that K-dn peso is taking an a$$pounding.

  4. ‘Jennifer German, the seller of the Kirkland home, watched a similar house down the street sell this spring for $1.6 million, $325,000 above its asking price. By the time she and her husband listed for $1.095 million in hopes of moving to Palm Springs, California, ‘we thought we were pretty competitively priced, back down to pre-COVID prices in the neighborhood’

    So the whole CCP virus cray cray is gone! Fer Jen at least.

    ‘The market has changed so quickly up here,’ German said. ‘It seemed like things were selling in three days and then just all of a sudden, they just stopped’

    Like somebody flipped a switch?

    1. ‘It seemed like things were selling in three days and then just all of a sudden, they just stopped’

      Funny, what doubling interest rates can do.

    2. I feel like I’m reading the same articles over and over again.

      Real estate sales come to a screeching halt/prices decrease yoy; sellers can’t get wishing prices and have a sad; realtors bemoan “unexpected” price drops.
      Previous buyers either are surprised that things break and express regret, or they try to just roll with it.
      Canuck/Aussies/Brits realize that “fixed” only means 3 years and now they’re getting schlonged on the adjustment.
      Developer buys land too high, can’t compete with slightly older new builds, can’t pay back loans, cascading defaults.
      Commercial RE built on ZIRP funny munny, but at 5IRP they can’t roll over the debt anymore, cascading defaults. W@H making it all worse.
      Chinese guy invests in apartment, Evergrande builds either crumbling apartment or nothing at all.
      crater crater crater

  5. ‘Inflation is the elephant in the room and won’t disappear overnight’

    I love a good elephant in the room in the mornin’.

    ‘we’re actually not seeing a significant drop in spending and that’s probably because a lot of people still haven’t had to fix their mortgage at a higher rate…When that happens and those mortgage rates begin to really bite, then spending is likely to dry up. Obviously, that has bigger economic impacts but the key question is: will inflation be tamed by traditional policy or will a hard, economic landing do the job? At this point, a lot of signs point to a harder landing than would be ideal’

    But central banker save us?

    1. a lot of people still haven’t had to fix their mortgage at a higher rate

      And it never occured to those Kiwi FB’s that mortgage rates could go up on their variable rate loans (the only kind hey have).

      You’d think that they would be ready to fire their leadership, but I’ll bet Ardern will still be running New Zealand into the ground four years from now.

  7. From the comments on yesterdays thread:

    ‘“People were literally lining up around the corner with bags of cash at Genesis Block, sometimes they shut the door saying they were out of bitcoin,” a former employee said.’

    ‘But last month, Bankman-Fried’s $32bn FTX filed for bankruptcy in a rapid fall from grace even by the standards of the freewheeling crypto industry. Days later, Genesis Block announced it too was shutting down its trading portal and would stop accepting deposits.’

    ‘The collapse has left a mark on local investors. “I have lost generational wealth, my children’s children will never forgive me,” said one. “I’ve got friends who are declaring personal bankruptcy.”

    ‘People were literally lining up around the corner with bags of cash at Genesis Block, sometimes they shut the door saying they were out of bitcoin’

    First rule of ponzi: make sure you have plenty of imaginary coins!

    1. Your children’s children are just gonna call grandpa a crazy delusional old man who should have invested in COAL.

  8. “At this time last year, Eastside home prices were up nearly 35% from the year before. This year, they’re down nearly 8%.”

    In other words, only another 25% to go to get to late 2020 numbers, plus another 10% to get to pre-COVID numbers, plus another 10-15% for a recession, plus another 10% because Seattle is turning into a cesspool.

  10. As promised on a discussion of Gibon’s “…Fall of the Roman Empire” here is what I consider to be one of the best papers on that subject. It’s the epilogue of Will Durant’s “Cezar and Christ”.

    https://erenow.net/ancient/durantromecaesar/200.php

    I’ll let you read it and decide if it’s still applicable today.
    Some of the highlights:

    “…was not an event but a process spread over 300 years. Some nations have not lasted as long as Rome fell.”

    “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within. The essential causes of Rome’s decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars.”

    “The cause, however, was no inherent exhaustion of the soil, no change in climate, but the negligence and sterility of harassed and discouraged men.”

    “Moral decay contributed to the dissolution”

    “the destructive war between rich and poor; the rising cost of armies, doles, public works, an expanding bureaucracy, and a parasitic court; the depreciation of the currency; the discouragement of ability, and the absorption of investment capital, by confiscatory taxation”

    “that increasing despotism destroyed the citizen’s civic sense and dried up statesmanship at its source. Powerless to express his political will except by violence, the Roman lost interest in government and became absorbed in his business, his amusements, his legion, or his individual salvation”

    ” Local governments,…, no longer attracted first-rate men”

    “In this awful drama of a great state breaking into pieces, the internal causes were the unseen protagonists; the invading barbarians merely entered where weakness had opened the door, and where the failure of biological, moral, economic, and political statesmanship had left the stage to chaos, despondency, and decay.”

    3. “I’ll let you read it and decide if it’s still applicable today.”

      – Only if bears do that thing in the woods. 😉

      – History rhymes and empires rise and fall.

  11. A reader sent these in:

    Possibly the greatest video ever.

    https://twitter.com/RudyHavenstein/status/751465948415160320

    “I can count on the fingers of one hand the members of Congress who actually understand finance and real estate, and even monetary policy, well enough that you could talk to them on camera. The rest of them, forget about it.” – Chris Whalen

    https://twitter.com/RudyHavenstein/status/1382826994572857350

    The grift is real, people! This is pure bullsh$t

    https://twitter.com/BenRabidoux/status/1598138894071267328

    It has been one of those years … 😰

    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1599690042745708544

    This is their strategy so that we don’t focus on the root cause of our problems. Their strategy is to avoid a redo of the French Revolution guillotine.

    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1599934431602827264

    JUST IN: Chinese government is still welding apartment building gates to lock citizens inside. This was in Yushan city, Jiangxi province last night ⚠️⚠️⚠️

    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1599963886366560256

    Comparing the S&P 500 rallies in 2022 to rallies during the 2007-09 and 2000-02 bear markets…

    https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1599857583741100032

    Lyn Alden

    30-year mortgages are trading at a near 3% spread over Treasuries of the same duration, which is the widest spread since the 1980s.

    https://twitter.com/LynAldenContact/status/1599795633212125186

    Danielle DiMartino Booth

    Sad. But not true
    Remember when WFH DEMANDED they work from ANYWHERE?
    It didn’t take long for their message to resonate w/C-Suite occupants
    Anywhere became ANYWHERE
    Paralegals, Treasury Department, accountants, architects, coders…
    WFH lit flame under white collar offshoring

    https://twitter.com/DiMartinoBooth/status/1599950223065092096

    Lance Lambert

    #NEW 8% of 2022 mortgage borrowers are underwater, finds Black Knight. In Colorado Springs, that figure is +30%.

    https://twitter.com/NewsLambert/status/1599773661338415104

    Lumber prices are at their lowest levels since June 2020, down 78% from the peak in May 2021.

    https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1599955737463386113

    Inflation reduction measures are like antibiotics.
    If you don’t take the full course of meds, the infection just comes back, and this time with greater resistance to those measures. I’m old enough to remember the 70s.

    https://twitter.com/spiralcal/status/1599887254947713025

    Market is massively under-pricing risk of inflation stickiness, past the first leg of leveling off

    https://twitter.com/INArteCarloDoss/status/1599880496649207808

    House near me has been listed at $3600/mo for 3 months. Person has lost $10,000 trying to hold their $1000/mo overpriced place at a fictitious amount

    https://twitter.com/GRomePow/status/1599914725135241216

    “cooling fastest”, you mean collapsing, just say it

    https://twitter.com/GRomePow/status/1599947695229374465

    Yield Curve now at -0.81 👀

    https://twitter.com/AyeshaTariq/status/1599872527571906560

    Bloomberg Wealth

    The US housing market pulled back even more in September, with prices slipping 1.2% from a month earlier

    https://twitter.com/wealth/status/1599957823869403136

    The Kobeissi Letter

    Recent Events:
    1. Blackstone limits withdraws from real estate fund
    2. FTX bankruptcy marks $30B+ collapse
    3. M&A volumes now down 35% this year
    4. U.S. manufacturing orders in China down 40%
    5. Target reports $400M in theft this year
    Institutions are feeling the downturn.

    https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1599852500521451520

    Danielle DiMartino Booth

    White-collar recession marches on
    @Quillintel clients know top 20% of income earners=>50% US spending…trickle down hurts
    “Cuts affect company’s NA beverage business, based in Purchase, NY & NA snacks & packaged-foods business, HQd in Chicago & Plano.”

    https://twitter.com/DiMartinoBooth/status/1599896396030627841

    How the gates closed on Blackstone’s runaway real estate vehicle ⁦@FT
    ⁩ #CMBS

    https://twitter.com/danjmcnamara/status/1599884042593247236

    HoUSehOld BalAncE SheEtS R StroNg

    https://twitter.com/DonMiami3/status/1599876013386657792

    Where have home prices declined the most?
    San Francisco.
    Runners-up: Seattle, San Diego & Los Angeles
    West Coast home prices are getting crushed.

    https://twitter.com/EPBResearch/status/1599871411941564416

    The Kobeissi Letter

    JUST IN: Pepsi to lay off hundreds of workers in an effort to reduce costs. The layoffs began in tech and are now spending to retail and beyond.

    https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1599881393286545408

    Ryan Lundquist

    About half of sales in Sacramento County last month had some sort of concession (credit for repairs, credit for closings costs, rate buydown). This shows buyers are getting some help from sellers, and sellers are starting to listen more to buyers.

    https://twitter.com/SacAppraiser/status/1599883485971644417

    Pierre Poilievre

    1 in 5 Canadians are skipping meals. Food banks experience record 1.5 million visits in one month. And food prices are set to rise another 7% next year. Everything feels broken.

    https://twitter.com/PierrePoilievre/status/1599860367567380480

    It’s pretty impressive when someone owns $50 million worth of commercial real estate. Until you realize that it WAS worth $75 million and they owe $55 million on it.

    https://twitter.com/SimpleCRE/status/1599793067409960960

    Home sales have never dropped so fast and so hard like in this Fed hiking cycle. The housing market is effectively frozen, and the illiquidity is popping up in real-estate linked products too (e.g. Blackstone BREIT story).

    https://twitter.com/MacroAlf/status/1599829928999931905

    The rise of Airbnb and short-term holiday lets is devastating communities – as they replace long term homes, forcing local people to move. Tag your MP and ask them to back the Short-Term Licensing Bill on December 9th.

    https://twitter.com/emptyhomes/status/1599771524080099329

    … topped only by November 2021. But the issue is at the front door. Leasing traffic (among prospective renters) has plummeted throughout 2022, and November 2022 ranked as the weakest for any November in eight years…

    https://twitter.com/jayparsons/status/1599777764219187203

    Realtor dot com Updated the color of their arrows from red to green to show prices collapsing LOL

    https://twitter.com/GRomePow/status/1599852005727809536

    The US residential real estate market is much much worse than most people realize right now. There are no buyers. None. The market is dead and appears to be getting worse. The bear case is not priced in.

    https://twitter.com/mikealfred/status/1599168258909011968

    Best friend who is a successful realtor in PA says zero buyers right now. Can’t get anyone through a door right now.

    https://twitter.com/tomharari/status/1599221571633434626

    1. ‘8% of 2022 mortgage borrowers are underwater, finds Black Knight. In Colorado Springs, that figure is +30%’

      Cash out refi I bet.

      1. Cash out refi *IS* the Colorado economy.

        “This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush

        1. I guess you’re seeing a lot of home renovations done with the cashout monies?? I’m hoping to put off a couple things until next spring/summer. Prices might not be rock bottom but they won’t be to high either, and maybe they won’t be booked up for weeks.

    2. “a successful realtor in PA says zero buyers right now. ”

      Is he still successful? Reminded me of my own realtor during 08/09, telling me he had the best month every time I asked him how things are going…..

    3. 1 in 5 Canadians are skipping meals.

      That’s what I do when I want to lose weight. I guess the silver lining to their cloud is that they’re gonna be thinner.

      1. I recall reading that Venezuelans on average, lost 28* pounds in 2018. 😮

        Not sure it will be the same in the US. People will cut out the healthy food and stick to beans and rice and rice and beans and soybean oil on high-carb ramen and high-fɥctose corn syrup. They’re going to stay fat and have malnutrition to boot.

        ———-
        *Hmm… a quick google reports numbers from 18-24 pounds lost. One article says the average for adults from 43 pounds, but that seems like an outlier.

    4. “Yea no one wants to buy because interest rates are so high but what happens when no one can afford rent anymore?”
      Then children move into their parent’s basements, parents move into their children’s basements, siblings rent a home together, friends team up and help each other, etc.
      They pay rent high rent when they have the money. when they don’t they find solutions. They live a m ore simple and affordable life. Nobody needs all those 2000sf a person. Nobody lived like that in the past. People will learn how to live good lives with a lot less.

    1. Cryptocurrency
      Published December 5, 2022 10:58am EST
      Stuart Varney: Sam Bankman-Fried’s ‘apology tour’ is not stopping the implosion of crypto infrastructure
      Sam Bankman-Fried to testify before Congress regarding FTX collapse
      By FOX Business staff FOX
      Business
      Stuart Varney: Bankman-Fried’s ‘apology tour’ is not stopping the implosion of crypto infrastructure

      FOX Business host Stuart Varney argues Sam Bankman-Fried’s media tour is ‘undermining confidence’ in the cryptocurrency business.

      During his latest “My Take,” “Varney & Co.” host Stuart Varney discusses the fallout for FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried as he scrambles to “explain away the juvenile lunacy,” arguing the founder’s “apology tour is not stopping the implosion of crypto infrastructure.”
      …
      https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/stuart-varney-sam-bankman-fried-apology-tour-not-stopping-implosion-crypto-infrastructure

    2. Interesting detail: The cryptoverse is imploding so rapidly, it may be too late for Congress to save the day by the time the hearings begin.

      1. California
        Disgraced crypto exec Sam Bankman-Fried spent big in two SoCal Congress races
        Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, speaks in Washington in October.
        (Ting Shen / Getty Images)
        By Laura J. NelsonStaff Writer 
        Dec. 5, 2022 5 AM PT

        During her campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives this spring, then-state Sen. Sydney Kamlager was endorsed by a little-known nonprofit called Guarding Against Pandemics.

        A few weeks later, a group called Protect Our Future began to spend heavily to support Kamlager in her primary election in South Los Angeles, dropping $500,000 in less than a month on mailers, television ads and radio spots, federal records show.

        The two events had one connecting thread: San Francisco Bay Area native Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, the co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

        Before his business empire imploded, Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and the second-biggest donor to Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections. He gave $27 million to the Protect Our Future political action committee and also contributed to the Guarding Against Pandemics group, run by his younger brother.

        In more than a dozen congressional elections, including two in California, the two groups seemed to have overlapping interests: Guarding Against Pandemics endorsed a House candidate, and Protect Our Future spent heavily to support the political hopeful.

        In addition to Kamlager’s bid for the 37th Congressional District, Protect Our Future spent more than $1 million to support Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia in the 42nd District in southeastern L.A. County.

        Kamlager and Garcia both won election by a wide margin.

        Groups connected to Bankman-Fried spent about $2.4 million in the two races, raising questions about how the Bahamas-based billionaire zeroed in on Kamlager and Garcia, and whether he wanted them to support his plan for crypto regulation in Washington.

        The vast majority of Bankman-Fried’s contributions were funneled through political action committees, which are barred under federal law from coordinating with candidates. Still, some Democrats have tried to distance themselves from Bankman-Fried, wary of the optics of being backed by a mega-donor whose FTX customers may have lost everything.

        “I was definitely surprised by the amount of spending,” Kamlager said in an interview. She said she didn’t know why Bankman-Fried’s group had backed her, or whether a crypto bill she introduced in Sacramento in February had been a factor.
        …
        https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-05/sam-bankman-fried-sbf-crypto-ftx-robert-garcia-sydney-kamlager-congress

      2. Cryptocurrencies
        Sam Bankman-Fried says he wants to testify before Congress on FTX collapse

        Cryptocurrency exchange founder pledges to testify ‘once I have finished learning and reviewing what happened’
        Sam Bankman-Fried in New York in August.
        Ramon Antonio Vargas
        Mon 5 Dec 2022 09.19 EST

        The disgraced billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried has said he wants to testify before Congress about what caused the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange he founded – but first he wants to fully understand the chain of events and isn’t sure how long that might take.

        Bankman-Fried’s pledge, made Sunday on Twitter, came after the US House financial services committee scheduled a 13 December hearing about the failure of FTX and invited him to participate.

        “Once I have finished learning and reviewing what happened, I would feel like it was my duty to appear before the committee and explain,” Bankman-Fried tweeted. “I’m not sure that will happen by the 13th. But when it does, I will testify.”
        …
        https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/05/sam-bankman-fried-testify-congress-ftx-collapse

        3. Do most people asked to testify to Congress get to postpone their visits until they are ready?

      3. The cryptoverse is imploding so rapidly

        Buttcoin is still $16,900. I’m scratching my head on this one. I would think that there would be a rush to the exits. Is there a Crypto Plunge Protection Team?

        2. Last I checked Shiba had a marketcap of 5BN and DOGE 11BN.

          99% haircut in cryptos &
          at least 50% in stonks/real estate has to happen.

        3. “is there a Crypto Plunge Protection Team?”

          IMO yeah. It’s called Tether. But once people figure out that Tether is just another unaudited fairydust coin that buys BTC solely to keep the price up, Bitcoin will drop to below the price of its mining electricity. ISTM there are a couple whales (Saylor?) trying to salvage Bitcoin as the last bastion of crypto, but that will likely fail too. Bitcoin as a currency has failed adoption and bitcoin as an asset is a tulip bulb smeared with a Tide Pod.

          1. CryptoPotato
            Home » Crypto News » Tether Responds to Media FUD Regarding Rising Loan Risk
            Author: Martin Young
            Last Updated Dec 2, 2022 @ 07:24

            The world’s largest stablecoin issuer, Tether, has responded to the latest round of mainstream media FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt).

            On Dec. 1, the Wall Street Journal published another attack on the crypto industry, targeting Tether this time.

            The outlet claims that the company has “increasingly been lending its own coins to customers rather than selling them for hard currency upfront.”

            It added that these loans add risk that the “company may not have enough liquid assets to pay redemptions in a crisis.”

            The WSJ claims to have examined Tether’s financial reports, which evidence these loans. The most recent report suggests they reached $6.1 billion as of Sept. 30, which equates to 9% of the company’s total assets.

            Tether hit back with a blog post titled “WSJ & CO: The Hypocrisy of Mainstream Media, Asleep at the Wheel of Information.”
            …
            https://cryptopotato.com/tether-responds-to-media-fud-regarding-rising-loan-risk/

          2. Bitcoin will drop to below the price of its mining electricity

            In a logical world, the “mining cost” would be irrelevant. Even in the crazy world of speculation on imaginary things, it won’t be any sort of price floor. No matter what kind of smoke the vendors blow at you.

          3. If Tether is so damn sure of themselves, then they can release the results of the audit that they’ve been promising since 2018. From a reputable audit firm, thankyouverymuch, not some Pirate of the Caribbean.

      4. The Financial Times
        Cryptofinance FTX Trading Ltd
        Cryptofinance: Bitcoin meets mainstream rejection
        Plus, updates on one embarrassed FTX bull
        Sam Bankman-Fried against a backdrop of the European Central Bank
        Crypto is facing harsh criticism
        Scott Chipolina in London
        December 2 2022

        Welcome to this week’s FT’s Cryptofinance newsletter. Still reeling from FTX’s collapse, bitcoiners battle familiar foes.

        Crypto is living through a golden age for kickings.

        It’s been a tough year for crypto advocates as their brave new world manifesto has been repeatedly undermined by tumbling coin prices and failures like the TerraUSD stablecoin, hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and lenders Voyager, BlockFi and Celsius.

        But the collapse of poster child FTX has really cut to the core. Every revelation over the laxity that pervaded the exchange has deepened the suspicion that crypto is fundamentally rotten. Sceptics and those that are outright hostile are in the ascendancy. For weeks friends have been asking me if FTX is the final nail in the crypto coffin.

        Questions are now being asked about whether crypto should be regulated as finance since it would give it a legitimacy sceptics say it doesn’t deserve. Formal rules would open crypto’s door to traditional institutions, potentially infecting financial markets in a way it has not so far.

        Academics Stephen Cecchetti and Kim Schoenholtz say it’s time to “let crypto burn”. During this week’s FT crypto summit in London, renowned sceptic Stephen Diehl told a panel of industry members their businesses were based on economic and technological absurdity.

        At the FT’s adjacent banking summit this week, I asked bankers including from JPMorgan and Société Générale whether reputations were at risk when serious firms flirted with blockchain tech. There was an awkward 10-second silence before discussing long-term aims.

        And if you ask the European Central Bank, it’s finally time to stop waiting for the no-longer-nascent (it’s been more than a decade, folks) industry to find a purpose.

        “The belief that space must be given to innovation at all costs stubbornly persists,” the ECB’s Ulrich Bindseil and Jürgen Schaaf said in a blog post on Wednesday. Bitcoin stubbornly clinging to around $20,000 is, in their eyes, nothing more than “an artificially induced last gasp before the road to irrelevance”.
        …

    3. It seems like systemic risk is rampant in the cryptoverse, thanks to incestuous relationships between the big players.

      Luckily the situation is pretty much contained to the cryptoverse.

    4. The Economist
      Leaders | Crypto’s downfall
      Is this the end of crypto?
      The collapse of FTX has dealt a catastrophic blow to crypto’s reputation and aspirations
      Nov 17th 2022

      The fall from grace was hard and fast. Only a fortnight ago Sam Bankman-Fried was in the stratosphere. ftx, his cryptocurrency exchange, then the third-largest, was valued at $32bn; his own wealth was estimated at $16bn. To the gushing venture capitalists (vcs) of Silicon Valley he was the financial genius who could wow investors while playing video games, destined, perhaps, to become the world’s first trillionaire. In Washington he was the acceptable face of crypto, communing with lawmakers and bankrolling efforts to influence its regulation.

      Today there is nothing left but 1m furious creditors, dozens of shaky crypto firms and a proliferation of regulatory and criminal probes. The high-speed implosion of ftx has dealt a catastrophic blow to an industry with a history of failure and scandals. Never before has crypto looked so criminal, wasteful and useless.
      …

    5. CNBC
      Markets
      Sam Bankman-Fried’s Robinhood stake is tied up in FTX bankruptcy proceedings, CEO Tenev says
      Published Tue, Dec 6 2022 9:29 AM EST
      Updated 6 Hours Ago
      Yun Li
      – Robinhood Markets CEO Vlad Tenev said Tuesday he’s unclear what Sam Bankman-Fried is going to do with his stake in his trading app.
      – “We’re just watching this unfold and … it’s going to be locked up in bankruptcy proceedings, most likely for some time,” Tenev said.
      – In May, Bankman-Fried took a 7.6% stake in Robinhood worth $648 million.

      Robinhood Markets, Inc. CEO and co-founder Vlad Tenev and co-founder Baiju Bhatt pose with Robinhood signage on Wall Street after the company’s IPO in New York City, U.S., July 29, 2021.
      Andrew Kelly | Reuters

      Robinhood Markets CEO Vlad Tenev said Tuesday he’s unclear what Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former CEO of FTX, is going to do with his 7.6% stake in his trading app.

      “I’m not surprised that it’s one of the more valuable assets they have on their balance sheet because it is public company’s stock,” Tenev said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We don’t have a lot of information that you guys don’t have. We’re just watching this unfold and … it’s going to be locked up in bankruptcy proceedings, most likely for some time. And so we’re just kind of seeing how that plays out.”

      In May, Bankman-Fried took a 7.6% stake in Robinhood worth $648 million in the belief that the shares “represent an attractive investment.” As FTX spiraled into bankruptcy, Bankman-Fried’s Robinhood stake became the biggest liquid line item on his balance sheet that he could potentially sell.

      Shares of Robinhood have fallen more than 45% this year to under $10 apiece amid shrinking revenue and declining user numbers.
      …

    6. Chinese FTX investors scramble to recoup losses, but Beijing’s anti-cryptocurrency stance leaves little hope

      – Crypto investors with thousands of dollars stuck in FTX are left with little chance for remedy in a country that has banned the digital assets

      – China was the third-largest market for FTX, which continued accepting Chinese passports for verification after Beijing suggested serving citizens was illegal

      Coco Feng in Beijing
      Published: 6:30pm, 6 Dec, 2022

      Mainland Chinese FTX customers are seeking remedy to lost funds after losing thousands of dollars in unprotected investments on the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, which had 8 per cent of its users in the country despite local laws banning the trade.

      One investor, who declined to be named, said he joined three WeChat groups last month, each consisting of more than 400 Chinese victims desperately in search of possible remedies, but all the groups were dissolved within days, as discussions of cryptocurrency-related topics are strictly censored on Chinese social media platform.

      Another FTX user turned to uncensored platforms like Telegram, which is blocked in China, but he found only one group with just eight members, and the conversation was inactive. He currently has US$15,000 stuck in FTX, he said, and he does not expect to see his money again.

      Both investors have long engaged in cryptocurrency trades on their own because letting others know could result in legal investigations or even charges under Chinese regulations. For these reasons, they asked for anonymity.
      …
      https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3202265/chinese-ftx-investors-scramble-recoup-losses-beijings-anti-cryptocurrency-stance-leaves-little-hope

  15. “‘The market has changed so quickly up here,’ German said. ‘It seemed like things were selling in three days and then just all of a sudden, they just stopped.’”

    It’s not just up there in Seattle, Jennifer. As anyone following this blog knows, the housing bust is hitting every corner of the developed world at the same time.

    All real estate isn’t local anymore.

  16. Ok, so Florida Governor has announced intent to make Pharmacy Companies liable for the Covid vaccine based on a different angle.
    DeSantis is looking into liabilty based on ” false advertising.”
    We all know that they obstructed and censored free speech and said the shots were safe and effective and you wouldn’t get Covid if you took the fake vaccine.

    They provided blank information inserts on the products to avert informed consent…
    They obstructed and censored dispute
    to the expierment vaccines, and labeled
    thousands of Drs and Scientists ” disinformation”.”
    They claimed to have the right to prevent ” vaccine hesitancy “by this false
    vaccIne campaign..
    They lied and said that Covid was a unvaccinated disease ,
    whereby the CEO of Pizler said the unvaxxed should be taken to camps.

    They caused mandates on vaccines causing millions to lose their job, when they knew they never tested for the vaccines stopping transmission. They told women the shot was safe and effective when they knew they never tested for safety in pregnancy.

    They are guilty of false advertising for sure of this dangerous product that they relied on their immunity on vaccines to defraud the globe.
    The President of US repeated their falsehoods and mandated the poison.
    They are still covering up the extensive damage the fake vaccine is causing and millions are still under mandate to take the fake vaccine.
    They also falsely changed the definition of a vaccine to a injection you have to take up to 6 times a year, booster after booster.
    They had no right to throw this unfit for human consumption vaccine technology on the world, that they knew was not perfected to be safe or effective, and prior studies resulted in the animals dying.

    The trials they did perform registered numerous deaths and injurious that was unacceptable , and certainly not safe and effective, or stopping transmission as advertised.
    Also, they didn’t have consistently in vaccine viles, which is a manufacturing defect they should be liable for.
    Rand Paul has stated recently that Dr Fauci caused 7 million people to die from Covid, by funding this bio-weapon in a foreign lab , that strangely got released by China that this evil was outsourced to, when it was illegal in US.
    This Covid Story is about criminals that acted in collusion to bring about crimes against humanity of epic evil that had nothing to do with health.

    1. I feel that nearly three years into all of this, the alleged “virus” is only incidental to all of the government and media “response” to it and narrative framing of it.

      See also: the PATRIOT Act, which was already written well before 9/11 and when it was “introduced” in October 2001.

      2. Basically war was declared by CCP, WEF, United Nations, Biden and the other culprits in collusion again humanity.
        But this is a different type of war in which they defraud you in order to destroy current systems so they can bankrupt you,
        poison you, and deprive you of energy and food, and force compliance to their One World Order Dictorship.

        Its going viral that China never used the Western fake vaccines on their population.
        Yet, China is held out as the model for lockdowns were people are treated liked caged animals, and they are building a bunch of camps for something.
        No other choice but for people to defeat this attack , because rigged elections are stopping the will of the Citizens.
        If this group of Entities get their way, you will own nothing, eat bugs, hacked and injected, enslaved with no freedoms,,. and
        mass murder or de- population is a major part of their evil agenda.
        They give you this BS about saving the planet ,or saving lives by the fake vaccines. while they are spreading toxins all over the
        Earth..
        They are a dangerous,,reckless, Cult of
        killer psychopaths that have declared war on human race and animals and plants.
        While its hard to believe that something this sinister could be playing out, they reveal their plans as if they are entitled Gods.
        Shocking but true, and we have to stop them to save the planet, because they are nuts.

          1. Yes, all civilization need to be saved from these monsters and we need to unite in numbers to do that.

        2. Its going viral that China never used the Western fake vaccines on their population.

          It was known from the get go that the ChiComs had their own vaccines, which are also protein spike based, meaning they are neither safe nor effective. The ChiComs exported their version of the jab to third world countries.

          1. Ok, from what I have read China used the old tech vaccine , that they produced themselves. . Can’t trust anything they say
            in the final analysis.

          2. Jabs don’t have to be mRNA to be spike protein based. The Johnson and Johnson jab is not mRNA, but is still spike protein based.

        3. They believe the planet is theirs. We are excess, beyond what ever numbers are needed to serve or be served 🍽 Can’t wait until the guillotines become operational 🧶 Have to learn to knit.

  18. Those 1,500 sq. ft. houses are still flying off the shelves around here- especially if they’re priced between $290k and $300k.

  20. I just bought the last available dozen eggs (store brand, not the $7 eggs) on the shelf.

    It’s not avian flu. It’s the Joe Biden economy.

    1. Don’t know if it’s a front range thing or not, but this egg shortage has become very noticeable to me.

  22. Zelensky Tapped Top Balenciaga Designer to Oversee Charity For Ukraine Refugees

    by Jamie White
    December 6th 2022, 3:04 pm

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the summer had recruited fashion brand Balenciaga’s creative director to oversee a charity supporting Ukrainian refugees.

    United24, which bills itself as a charity aimed at rebuilding Ukraine and helping refugees, claimed in July that Balenciaga’s artistic director Denma, who only goes by his first name, would become the organization’s “ambassador.”

    “Demna, artistic director of @BALENCIAGA, is selected as ambassador for #united24. He will be exclusively dedicated to the Rebuild Ukraine direction for helping refugees,” the charity tweeted, which included a link to its website.

    “The humanitarian Rebuild Ukraine Direction focuses exclusively on the renovation of critical infrastructure facilities such as roads, bridges, hospitals and schools to enable refugees to come back to their homes and restart their lives,” the website states.

    This came before Balenciaga was recently embroiled in scandal over its disturbing ad campaigns overseen by Denma featuring children holding teddy bears in BDSM outfits and a hidden Supreme Court document overturning a child pornography law.

    https://www.infowars.com/

    1. What a cluster. So the ambulance chaser assigned to vette the release of the twitter files is the very shitbag that censored it and everything else at twitter during the presidential election?

      amrite?

      1. The FBI, DOJ and CIA all need to be splintered into a thousand pieces and scattered to the wind.

  24. Does the Plunge Protection Team somehow contain daily losses on the NASDAQ to a 2% stop loss limit?

    1. Updated Tue, Dec 6 20225:22 PM EST
      S&P 500 closes lower for a fourth straight day as recession worries jolt markets
      Samantha Subin
      Alex Harring

      Stocks tumbled Tuesday, building on the previous session’s losses, as fears of a recession gripped Wall Street.

      The S&P 500 shed 1.44% to close at 3,941.26, while the Nasdaq Composite sank 2% to finish at 11,014.89. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 350.76 points, or 1.03%, to settle at 33,596.34.

      Stocks added to Monday’s declines, with the S&P falling for a fourth straight day and its seventh negative session in eight. Tuesday’s moves bring the Dow’s two-day losses to more than 830 points.

      Media and bank stocks, which tend to suffer during recessions, led the losses. Paramount Global’s CEO warned of lower fourth-quarter advertising revenue, sending shares down nearly 7%. Morgan Stanley’s stock slumped amid news it’s planning to cut 2% of its workforce, continuing the recent layoff trend in the sector. Growth-focused technology names like Nvidia, Amazon and Meta Platforms also weighed on the market.

      “Fundamentally, we are seeing another round of major layoffs this week and that only increases the odds that we have a hard landing in 2023 and enter a deeper recession than was initially expected,” said Adam Sarhan, CEO of 50 Park Investments.

      JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon echoed concerns of a downturn ahead, saying during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Tuesday that inflation would push the economy into a recession.

      Inflation and its impact on the consumer “may very well derail the economy and cause a mild or hard recession that people worry about,” he said.

      With Tuesday’s losses, the S&P is already down 3.2% this week and the Nasdaq is off by 3.9%.
      …
      https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/05/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html

    2. Jamie Dimon
      Published December 6, 2022 11:11am EST
      Jamie Dimon warns inflation could drag US into recession next year: ‘It could be a hurricane’
      JPMorgan CEO warns inflation ‘eroding’ Americans’ savings, likely to cause downturn
      By Megan Henney FOXBusiness
      Recession is inevitable, S&P could plunge 200 points in December: Michael Lee

      JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Tuesday warned that stubbornly high inflation could trigger a U.S. economic recession next year as steep prices cause consumer spending to dry up.

      Businesses are still in good shape and consumer spending remains strong, with households hoarding $1.5 trillion in excess savings from pandemic relief programs, Dimon said. But he warned that may not last long. 

      “Inflation is eroding everything I just said, and that $1.5 trillion will run out sometime mid-year next year,” Dimon said during an interview on CNBC. “When you are looking that forward, those things very well may derail the economy and cause this mild to severe recession that people are worried about.”

      The head of the largest bank in the U.S. first sounded the alarm over the state of the economy in early May, citing concerns over inflationary pressures, a hawkish Federal Reserve and the war in Ukraine. He ratcheted up those warnings in June when he said the U.S. was headed for an “economic hurricane” as a result of the Fed’s quantitative tightening and the first European war in decades.
      …
      https://www-foxbusiness-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.foxbusiness.com/economy/jamie-dimon-warns-inflation-could-drag-us-recession-next-year-could-be-hurricane.amp?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIKAGwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16703758079139&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxbusiness.com%2Feconomy%2Fjamie-dimon-warns-inflation-could-drag-us-recession-next-year-could-be-hurricane

      1. “A Bull Market Is Coming.”

        No mention of a date. Don’t hold your breath.

        Maybe by 2026 or so?

    4. Has the longstanding positive correlation in stock and long-term Treasury price movements broken down?

      1. Stock Market Today
        Market Rally Wipes Out Powell Gains As Apple, Exxon Skid; What To Do Now
        ED CARSON 09:37 PM ET 12/06/2022

        Dow Jones futures tilted higher overnight, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. The stock market rally had another weak session, with Apple (AAPL) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) breaking below key levels while Amazon.com (AMZN) and Tesla (TSLA) are starting to move toward bear market lows.

        The S&P 500 and other key indexes were testing or undercutting key levels, round-tripping last Wednesday’s big gain following Fed chief Jerome Powell’s speech.
        …
        The stock market rally quickly retreated after Tuesday’s open and continued to trend lower during the day before slightly paring losses near the close.

        The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1% in Tuesday’s stock market trading. The S&P 500 index gave up 1.4%. The Nasdaq composite tumbled 2%. The small-cap Russell 2000 retreated 1.5%

        Apple stock, a member of the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite, slid 2.5% to 142.91, back below its 50-day line. XOM stock sank 2.8%, also below its 50-day line as well as under a buy point. Exxon stock is struggling as oil, gasoline and natural gas prices all slump.

        Amazon stock slumped 3% to 88.25, closing in on its Nov. 9 bear low of 85.87.

        Tesla stock fell 1.4% to 179.82, off intraday lows, but after tumbling 6.4% on Monday. TSLA is moving toward 52-week lows but still has some distance to go before it drops to that 166.19 mark.

        There were online reports of further modest China price cuts.

        U.S. crude oil prices slumped 3.5% to $74.25 a barrel.

        The 10-year Treasury yield fell 9 basis points to 3.51%, back near the lowest levels since Sept. 20.

        The stock market’s inverse relationship with Treasury yields may be breaking down. A lower 10-year Treasury yield increasingly may reflect rising recession risks vs. declining inflation pressures. The yield curve, which keeps inverting further, also indicates recession concerns.
        …
        https://www.investors.com/market-trend/stock-market-today/market-rally-wipes-out-powell-gains-as-apple-exxon-skid-what-to-do-now/

    5. Stocks sink again as CEOs sound alarm bells about economy
      By Paul R. La Monica, CNN Business
      Updated 4:15 PM EST, Tue December 6, 2022

      New York CNN Business — 

      Some top CEOs appear to be worried that the economy could be the Grinch that steals Christmas this year. And investors are not pleased.

      Stocks sank Tuesday, the second straight day of losses on Wall Street. The Dow fell more than 350 points, or 1.3%. That follows a nearly 500-point slide Monday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down 1.4% and 2% respectively.

      Four of America’s leading chief executives gave cautious comments about the economy in interviews Tuesday, and that seems to have spooked the market.

      Walmart (WMT) CEO Doug McMillon told CNBC that lower-end consumers were still feeling the pinch from inflation. And JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said on CNBC he thought there could be a “mild to hard recession” due to the Federal Reserve’s continued interest rate hikes. (Dimon also bashed crypto again, comparing tokens to “pet rocks.”)

      Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO David Solomon also sounded recession alarm bells, telling Bloomberg Tuesday that “you have to assume that we have some bumpy times ahead” and warned that smaller bonuses and possible job cuts were likely at the investment bank.

      And Lance Fritz, the CEO of railroad giant Union Pacific (UNP), added in a CNBC appearance that “clearly the consumer side of the economy is slowing.” The stock ended the day unchanged.

      Shares of JPMorgan Chase, Walmart and Goldman Sachs, which are all Dow components, were flat and down 1.2% and 2.4% respectively. Boeing (BA) and Disney (DIS) were the biggest Dow losers.
      …
      https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/06/investing/dow-stock-market-today-ceos-warn/index.html

    1. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon Calls Crypto “Pet Rocks,” Hammering Crypto Markets Once Again
      December 6, 2022
      @ 9:45 am By JD Alois
      BeyondWords

      Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) – the most respected CEO on Wall Street, visited with CNBC today in an extended interview that also involved a brief discussion on crypto. In the past, Dimon has been highly critical of cryptocurrencies, recently describing crypto as nothing more than decentralized Ponzi schemes when he testified in front of Congress this past September. In light of the bankruptcy of FTX, preceded by other crypto platform failures, Dimon is just one voice in a growing chorus of crypto detractors.

      Dimon called crypto “Pet Rocks,” alluding to a fad that took place in the mid-1970s where a marketing wiz sold rocks in a box, becoming a millionaire in the process. The short-lived phenomena highlighted the fact that some people can be duped into buying just about anything. Dimon also criticized CNBC for spending too much time reporting on the crypto-sphere.

      Dimon posed the question of why the regulators beat up on banks when they should be focusing more attention on crypto.

      While Dimon lambasted cryptocurrencies, he added that this does not mean that blockchain technology and smart contracts do not have the ability to create value. JP Morgan has been experimenting with leveraging distributed ledger technology in providing financial services.

      In 2021, aggregate crypto market values topped $1 trillion. Today, crypto markets stand at around $850 million, representing a profound loss in value. Bitcoin, which once hovered around $60,000, is now at under $17,000.
      …
      https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2022/12/199561-jp-morgan-ceo-jamie-dimon-calls-crypto-pet-rocks-hammering-crypto-markets-once-again/

    2. Does it seem like somewhere along the way, investors became confused between cryptocurrency as an asset to HODL and blockchain as a financial technology to utilize?

      I have no opinion on the merits of the latter, except that they in no way suggest HODLing cryptocurrency as a fundamentally sound investing strategy.

  26. I’m sure anyone who ever had to hookup jumper cables on a cold winter morning to wah-wah-wah get their car started is just as shocked as I am by this video.

    I SOLD my Ford Lightning EV because WINTER battery performance was a DISASTER (Range almost HALVED)

    Dec 5, 2022

    https://youtu.be/j8gH52gKejE

    1. So if you live in a cold weather state and own a Ford Lightning EV, plug it in at night, kick your wife out of bed, pull the covers over your Ford Lightning EV and snuggle with it until you start it in the morning.

    1. Updated Wed, Dec 7 20222:22 AM EST
      Stock futures slightly negative Wednesday morning
      Tanaya Macheel

      Stock futures were just under the flatline Wednesday morning.

      Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 20 points, or 0.06%, while S&P 500 futures were 0.06% lower and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.07%.

      In regular trading the Dow fell more than 350 points, or 1.03%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite lost 1.4% and 2%, respectively.

      The moves came as investors lost hope that the Federal Reserve will be able to engineer a soft landing. Instead, concerns swirled around the state of the economy and whether an economic downturn is approaching.

      “Investors couldn’t decide which they were more worried about: an impending recession, as implied by November declines for the ISM, Chicago PMI and Philly Fed, as well as housing data, or the threat of a more hawkish-leaning FOMC, as a result of stronger than expected employment data and factory orders,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. “Stocks sold off across the board, as investors decided to take the profits generated by the last two monthly price gains, the first since August 2021.”
      …
      https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/06/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html

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