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US Is Lone Veto Of Gaza Ceasefire Call At UN, Citing It Neglects Hostages

The United States has again used its veto, blocking the fourth UN Security Council resolution on Gaza since the war began. The comprehensive resolution called for an "immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire." UN News writes:

United States vetoes Security Council draft resolution that would have demanded an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and the release of all hostages RESULT: In Favor: 14 Against: 1 (US) Abstain: 0

The text of the draft resolution did not link or condition the call for permanent ceasefire on the release on the hostages held by Hamas. The US has identified this as the reason for the veto.

A US official ahead of the vote made clear that the US will only support a resolution explicitly calling for the release of all remaining hostages as a key part of the ceasefire.

"As we stated many times before, we just can’t support an unconditional ceasefire that does not call for the immediate release of hostages," the official said.

The US official also alleged that Russia and China were conspiring to isolate the US, pushing the vote toward forcing Washington into being the lone veto:

Some of the council’s 10 elected members (E10) were more interested in bringing about a US veto than compromising on the resolution, the official said, accusing Russia and China of encouraging those members.

China kept demanding ‘stronger language’ and Russia appeared to be pulling strings with various [elected] 10 members,” the official said. “This really does undercut the narrative that this was an organic reflection of the E10 and there’s some sense that some E10 members regret that those responsible for the drafting allowed the process to be manipulated for what we consider to be cynical purposes.”

The draft resolution not only demanded "an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire" but also the "immediate access [to] humanitarian assistance." The resolution mentioned the release of all hostages and prisoners, but failed to specifically condition it as part of a ceasefire.

Israel has long stood accused of blocking the free flow of humanitarian aid into the Strip. More recently, Palestinian groups looted some 100 aid convoy trucks in the south of the Strip. 

The situation is still desperate, and most estimates say that well over 40,000 Gazans have been killed since the Oct.7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel. Israel's military is showing sights of staying in the Strip for an indefinite period, as whole sections of central and northern Gaza are being bulldozed, and military infrastructure erected in its place.

Tyler Durden Wed, 11/20/2024 - 15:40
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Guess What's Coming To DC?

Authored by El Gato Malo via The Brownstone Institute,

DC is about to experience something entirely new, something absolutely unprecedented in its experience. They think the barbarians are coming. And perhaps they are. But not the kinds of barbarians they suspect. Not this time.

The simple fact is that there exists a very small group of incredibly high-function, insanely productive people. It’s the dirty secret of the world. This tiny tribe conceives, invents, and builds basically everything novel. All of it. They are not normal people. They are the 0.1%.

Unless you have worked with them, around them, or been a part of what they do, you simply lack a reference for what they are like. It’s essentially inconceivable how much such people can get done when they set their minds to it, how many rules they will disprove, break, or ignore, and how many paradigms they will upend.

DC has never seen a mob of high-function autist builders and fin warriors coalesce before. They have no fricking idea what’s coming. They cannot possibly know. But I do.

I know A LOT of these people. This is what most of my friends are like. They learn for a living. They pull systems apart, see them as functional wholes, and work 16-hour days reading arcane 1,000-page descriptions until they understand. Then they pull the underwear of whoever thought they understood this material up over their heads in an atomic wedgie and take over a space. 

It’s just what you do if you’re a person like that. It’s compulsion. It’s like breathing. These are 3 and 4 and 5 standard deviation people who have focus and talent in quantities they do not even have maps of in Washington. I keep hearing about people I know a little getting tapped for transition teams and I’m like “Ooooooh, that guy can read 100 CDS prospectuses in a weekend and remember it all,” or “Yeah, that guy thinks in algorithms and sleeps once a month. He could code when he was 6.”

“Only an insider can tackle the swamp” is dead wrong. It takes someone radically different to make a radical difference. And I am giddy realizing that they are coming. It does not matter that they do not know the terrain yet. They will. They have 3 months to learn. That’s more than enough.

Watch. Moving into novel systems or spaces and becoming better at it than the people currently there is what these people do. It’s ALL they do. It’s who and what they are.

It does not matter if it’s the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the DMV, or NASA. Same game, same result. every time.

The “insiders” are so screwed. DC has no one like this. They have never even met people like this because people like this avoid government like it is a bag of plague rats. Because it is.

But now they are interested and looking to play exterminator because the state strayed too far into our world and so now we are coming for theirs.

And wait until you see what the world’s best builders can tear down. It’s going to be glorious.

These are the same people who in 10 weeks using just sparse public data and Twitter pulled the pants down on the whole edifice of public health and revealed them as fakes, phonies, and charlatans. Then they rewrote the discipline. It will never be the same. Most of us had never even looked at epidemiology before. In a few months the “amateurs” eclipsed the experts and left them for dead.

We did this as outsiders and without any maps and with the very opposite of help.

Imagine what this gang can do with the keys to the kingdom.

It’s going to be nothing but baffled astonishment from the Beltway boffins.

“How in hell have they read and understood everything!?! They are not experts here!” will decry the people who need to pass bills to find out what’s in them. “How the hell are they producing so much output, so much impact? How did they know just where to push?”

They have never seen what 10 of these guys and three pots of coffee can achieve. I have. Mountains get relocated.

The really truly high-functioning have not come to meet the regulatasaurus before. They were busy and had better things to do.

Not anymore. “Dismantle Leviathan” is now a step in everyone’s business plan. Better, it’s public service as it was supposed to be: not a vocation, not a career. Instead, it is a task, a dirty task that needs doing so you go and do it and then you go home once it’s done.

You fricking clowns just cornered Elon and made this election and administration an existential issue for him and his empire. And an awful lot of us feel the same way. You cornered all of us. Go along to get along ended because you guys crossed the line. Welcome to reflexivity.

The pushback is going to be something for the ages.

DC is going to feel like it’s being invaded by an entire bestiary of mythical monsters with magical powers who can see through walls and huck immovable objects over the horizon. They will come from every side at once. They will replace thousands of federal employees right from the start. 

You’ll be fighting against the outside and the inside. They’re going to transfer and move those permanent staters they cannot fire. Have fun in Topeka or Guam. They’re lovely this time of year.

They are not going to play nice or play fair. They are going to get things done. And they are going to clown you while doing it, clown you like “name their agency after a crypto shitcoin that muskrat ran “to the moon” just because they think it’s funny.”

And it will be.

This is a new kind of team, a team that comes from an ethos of “Move fast and break things” and “Ask forgiveness, not permission.” They are not the GOP procedure drones of yesteryear, These are people who just walk in and do stuff and fuck your process. They have made careers of it.

The Dems have long ago figured out the “Just go do it and let the chips fall where they may” model (basically since Obamacare) but they do it stupidly and on topics where the results will be bad. 

This will be like Uber. By the time the regulators woke up and tried to move against it, people loved it too much to let them take it away. There were protests in front of every DMV in Commiefornia.

And so the world progressed. And instead of doing it donkey-style to contravene the Constitution, team effective autists will be doing it to uphold it. Look on my plans ye mighty and wet your pants. This is teed up in a whole new way on a whole new field.

They will have the swamp in knots. DC power is entrenched because it is secret and controls access and channels and promotion and most especially access to media and publicity. That game is over.

Vivek is a seriously effective guy with finance and biotech and founder chops. He speaks well and makes things. And like him or loathe him, Elon is a change (and a chaos) agent. He takes crazy, audacious swings and builds stuff. He’s a rogue and a pirate. It’s why he’s good at what he does. He asks simple questions like “What did you accomplish this week?” that you cannot hide from. But his real superpower is this: there is no human on earth today who can bring the circus like Elon can bring the circus. No one.

The man is a one-man always traveling 11-ring Barnum and Bailey show. And what an astonishing show this is going to be.

Name and shame are incredibly powerful. This will be an unending media event, a drip feed of “Can you believe they spent millions making and studying transgender monkeys?” (this was a real grant BTW

It will be relentless, revelatory, and invite the whole of the public to the party. There will be no escape, no off switch, no media gatekeeping: this is direct-to-consumer messaging. And hey, let’s get the Epstein list out in the open while we’re at it. Imagine how much DC cycle time THAT would eat, time in which you can get even more stuff done.

Sunlight is a powerful disinfectant. 

Let’s look at everything with new eyes. Let’s disrupt.

Get the establishment on tilt from day one and never stop pushing. Not from any side, not for a moment. Shut things down. Gut agencies like trout. Invite them to “cry some more” if they don’t like it.

Flood the box so hard that the news cycle cannot even cover it. This technocracy is not used to having to defend ground from this sort of attack. They are used to being the ones making the rules. They will not have any idea what to do.

There are these magical times in human history when the truly smart and talented and effective come together and change everything. American independence. The Manhattan Project. Xerox PARC. Apollo. Silicon Valley in the 80’s and 90’s.

Some vast project captures the imagination and worlds are moved.

I think it’s a bit early to just come out and say “This is that” but I’m here to tell you that the cabinet secretaries and the appointments to run agencies are only a part of the show and maybe not the important part.

The thousands coming with them are NOT more drones from interchangeable bureaucrat collective 2177.

These are the finance and pharma and tech bros. Not the fake ones who wear fleece vests and work in biz dev. The meat eaters. Wave upon wave upon wave of them in their hyper-motivated myriads.

And this is a new-new thing.

In the end, it’s just a gross mismatch for you, DC.

You’re smart enough to be a Washington wonk and run rings around drunk Congresscritters as they insider trade. Neat. What’s coming is smart enough to find edge trading against the Goldman arb desk and produce drugs and catch rockets.

We live where you need results, not a sinecure. And we are well and truly pissed. You people are not even bringing a knife to a gunfight. You’re bringing a dinosaur to a meteor strike.

Say goodbye to the Potomac Country Club. Things are about to change. And pardon me if I am over-effusive and over-optimistic, but if this is even 20% of what it looks like, hot damn this is gonna be fun.

Republished from the author’s Substack 

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/19/2024 - 17:00
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Bonds, Bitcoin, & Bullion Bid As Markets Mull Moscow, Mullahs, Musk, & Macro

Geopolitics, macroeconomics, and domestic politics all combined for a wile ride in stocks today...

Geopolitics was a major headwind overnight as Putin signed a decree allowing Russia to use nuclear weapons in the event of a massive conventional attack on its soil. But, then that reversed as headlines suggested Iran is looking to de-escalate (IRAN AGREES TO STOP PRODUCING NEAR BOMB-GRADE URANIUM: IAEA).

All of that prompted a roller-coaster in stocks with Nasdaq ending the best (and Small Caps recovering dramatically from overnight weakness). The Dow desperately tried to get green but failed (even with help from WMT)...

Then Musk sparked some chaos in media stocks as he tweeted: "No advertising for pharma"...

Source: Bloomberg

Shorts were squeezed today from the cash open...

Source: Bloomberg

Mega-Cap Tech rallied significantly on the day, bouncing off pre-election levels ahead of tomorrow's NVDA earnings...

Source: Bloomberg

VIX was higher on the day with tomorrow's risk event priced in (though less than typical for an NVDA earnings day)...

Source: Bloomberg

US Macro data disappointed - housing starts and permits were ugly - which helped pull bond yields lower (along with chatter about potential 'safe' picks for Treasury Secretary)...

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin continued its charge higher, topping $94,000 - a new record high in USD terms...

Source: Bloomberg

...and coming within a few points of an all-time record high against gold...

Source: Bloomberg

...even as gold started to rally back from its post-election doldrums too...

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices dipped on the Iran headlines but overall it appears geopolitical uncertainty is adding some premium back into the energy complex...

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, US equities are currently pricing a very optimistic growth environment...

Source: Goldman Sachs

Goldman's sector model leads them to recommend overweight positions in Materials, Software & Services, and Utilities. From an investment strategy perspective, they invoke the dictum of Donald Trump to “protect the downside and the upside will take care of itself.”

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Bitcoin, Bullion, Black Gold, & Bonds Bid As 'Trump Trade' Builds

A slow start (volume-wise) with light macro this week dominated by heavy micro with NVDA's earnings on Wednesday after the close.

Vol markets are already pricing some notable moves - but also then the normalization into the holidays as seasonals help...

Source: Bloomberg

On the bright side from the equity bulls, Nasdaq broke its 5-day losing streak today (while The Dow ended red)...

The 'Trump Trade' continues to build momentum, holding its post-election spike gains (Republican policy basket / Democrat policy basket)...

Source: Bloomberg

Cyclicals continue to outperform Defensives post-election...

Source: Bloomberg

GLP-1 weakness continues with the group down for the 5th straight session as near-term catalysts + RFK overhang remain headwinds...

Source: Bloomberg

...pushing Goldman's MAHA-exposed basket down to multi-year lows...

Source: Bloomberg

 

In the short term - since the election - trannies are trouncing tech...

Source: Bloomberg

But longer-term, drilling down, semis are slamming planes, trains, and automobiles...

Source: Bloomberg

Treasury yields pumped and dumped AGAIN with the belly of the curve outperforming (yields were lower across the whole curve on the day). The overnight Asia session was flat but Europe saw selling which was then dominated by buying during the US session...

Source: Bloomberg

Crypto markets were volatile (as always) today  with bitcoin chopping between $89500 and $92500...

Source: Bloomberg

...but all in all holding up well on the post-election gains...

Source: Bloomberg

Side-note - DJT rumored to buy BKKT...

However, crypto continues to dominate gold post-election...

Source: Bloomberg

But the barbarous relic did surge today...

Source: Bloomberg

While WTI futures front-month soared higher today...

Source: Bloomberg

...A key oil market gauge is flashing signs of oversupply in the US, in the latest indication of a looming global glut. The so-called prompt spread — which measures the difference in price between futures for immediate delivery and those a month later — traded in negative territory for the first time since February.

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, it's not over yet if history is any precedent...

Source: Goldman Sachs

Goldman's Pete Callahan notes that during the market rotations around 2016 and 2024 elections, cyclicals sharply outperformed Defensives around the election while domestic facing stocks outperformed international facing stocks by a smaller magnitude.

Trade accordingly.

Tyler Durden Mon, 11/18/2024 - 16:00
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Bakkt Soars 90% On Report Trump's Socal Media Company Will Buy The Crypto Trading Venue

Donald Trump's social media company, DJT, soared 8%, amid reports that it was in advanced talks to buy Bakkt, a cryptocurrency trading venue owned by Intercontinental Exchange, as it pushes to expand beyond online conversation.

The US president-elect’s Trump Media and Technology Group, in which he has pledged to retain his 53% stake, is closing in on an all-share purchase of Bakkt, the FT reported citing two people with knowledge. The valuation under discussion was not immediately clear but Bakkt’s market capitalization stood at just over $150 million on Monday. DJT's market cap was $6 billion before the news hit.

As the FT reports, TMTG, which operates Truth Social, has become one of the most actively traded US stocks since Trump’s election victory as retail investors try to profit on its often-volatile trading moves. What is remarkable is that the company has a $6 billion market cap even though it has reported just $2.6 million in revenues; clearly the stock is extremely overvalued and gives the management a valuable currency with which to buy other companies. Which it is now doing.

A successful deal would deepen Trump’s move into the cryptocurrency market after he began promoting a new crypto venture set up by longtime business partners, World Liberty Financial, from which he stands to earn significant fees. Crypto markets have also soared following his election victory, with bitcoin up more than 30 per cent on speculation that his administration would enact favourable legislation for the industry.

Bakkt, which has also struggled for profitability since its launch, was created by ICE, and the owner of the New York Stock Exchange still holds a 55% economic interest in it. Its stock soared 47% on the news and was promptly halted.

Bakkt’s first chief executive was Kelly Loeffler, a former head of marketing at ICE and a Republican ex-senator for Georgia during Trump’s first presidency. She is co-chair of the committee organising his inauguration in January. She is also married to Jeff Sprecher, ICE’s founder, chair and chief executive.

Bakkt previously said its crypto custody business, which has a regulatory license from New York authorities, is likely to be wound down. The FT noted that it would not be included in the deal.

The crypto business had been set up to hold digital assets such as bitcoin and ether on behalf of customers but failed to gain traction and made operating losses of $27,000 from revenues of $328,000 in the three months to September 30. Bakkt is planning to build a trading platform for institutional investors. Bakkt had faced delisting from NYSE owing to its lowly share price, until it effected a 1 for 25 reverse stock-split in April. Last week its share price rose 15%; the stock soared almost 90% and was halted on the FT news, while DJT stock jumped 8%.

Truth Social remains tiny in terms of its reach, averaging 646,000 daily visits to its website this month, according to Similarweb, compared with 155mn a day for Elon Musk’s X platform. Even so, the president-elect’s stake now accounts for more than half of his $5.7bn wealth, as calculated by Bloomberg.

Separately, the WSJ reported that Trump is meeting with the CEO of Coinbase Monday, according to people familiar with the matter. The duo is expected to discuss personnel appointments for his second administration. The meeting between Trump and Brian Armstrong would mark the first time the two have met since Election Day and comes as Trump continues to fill out his cabinet and other senior posts. Trump, formerly a crypto skeptic, has turned into a vocal supporter of the industry.

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