1. The number of job cuts in the United States skyrocketed
218 percent during the month of January according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
2. The Baltic Dry Index just hit yet another brand new all-time record low. As I write this article, it is sitting at
303.
4. In the U.S., the Restaurant Performance Index just fell to the lowest level that we have seen
since 2008.
5. In January, orders for class 8 trucks (the big trucks that you see shipping stuff around the country on our highways) declined a whopping
48 percent from a year ago.
6. Rail traffic is also slowing down substantially. In Colorado, there are
hundreds of train engines that are just sitting on the tracks with nothing to do.
8. A series of extremely disappointing corporate quarterly reports is sending stock after stock plummeting. Here is a summary
from Zero Hedge of a few examples that we have just witnessed…
- SHARES OF LIONS GATE ENTERTAINMENT FALL 5 PCT IN EXTENDED TRADE AFTER QUARTERLY RESULTS – RTRS
- TABLEAU SOFTWARE SHARES TUMBLE 40 PCT IN AFTER HOURS TRADING – RTRS
- YRC WORLDWIDE SHARES DOWN 16.4 PCT AFTER THE BALL FOLLOWING RESULTS – RTRS
- SPLUNK INC SHARES DOWN 7.6 PCT IN AFTER HOURS TRADING – RTRS
- LINKEDIN SHARES EXTEND DECLINE, DOWN 24 PCT AFTER RESULTS, GUIDANCE – RTRS
- HANESBRANDS SHARES FURTHER ADD TO LOSSES IN EXTENDED TRADE, LAST DOWN 14.9 PCT – RTRS
- OUTERWALL SHARES FALL 11 PCT IN EXTENDED TRADING AFTER QUARTERLY RESULTS – RTRS
- GENWORTH SHARES DOWN 16.5 PCT AFTER THE BELL FOLLOWING RESULTS, RESTRUCTURING PLAN
9. Junk bonds continue to crash on Wall Street. On Monday, JNK was down to
32.60 and HYG was down to
77.99.
10. On Thursday,
a major British news source publicly named five large European banks that are considered to be in very serious danger…
Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Santander, Barclays and RBS are among the stocks that are falling sharply sending shockwaves through the financial world, according to former hedge fund manager and ex Goldman Sachs employee Raoul Pal.
11. Deutsche Bank is the biggest bank in Germany and it has more exposure to derivatives than any other bank in the world. Unfortunately, Deutsche Bank credit default swaps are now telling us that
there is deep turmoil at the bank and that a complete implosion
may be imminent.
12. Last week, we learned that Deutsche Bank had lost a staggering
6.8 billioneuros in 2015. If you will recall, I warned about massive problems at Deutsche Bank
all the way back in September. The most important bank in Germany is exceedingly troubled, and it could end up being for the EU what Lehman Brothers was for the United States.
13. Credit Suisse just announced that it will be eliminating
4,000 jobs.
14. Royal Dutch Shell has announced that it is going to be eliminating
10,000 jobs.
15. Caterpillar has announced that it will be closing
5 plants and getting rid of 670 workers.
16. Yahoo has announced that it is going to be getting rid of
15 percent of its total workforce.
17. Johnson & Johnson has announced that it is slashing its workforce
by 3,000 jobs.
18. Sprint just laid off
8 percent of its workforce and GoPro is letting go 7 percent of its workers.
19. All over America, retail stores are shutting down at a staggering pace. The following list comes from one of my
previous articles…
-Wal-Mart is closing
269 stores, including
154 inside the United States.
-The Gap is in the process of closing
175 stores in North America.
-Aeropostale is in the process of closing
84 stores all across America.
-Finish Line has announced that
150 stores will be shutting down over the next few years.
-Sears has shut down
about 600 stores over the past year or so, but sales at the stores that remain open continue to fall precipitously.
20. According to the New York Times, the Chinese economy is facing a mountain of bad loans that “
could exceed $5 trillion“.
22. The global economy desperately needs the price of oil to go back up, but Morgan Stanley says that we will not see $80 oil again
until 2018.
