Israel Threatens Lebanon’s Civilian Infrastructure Will Be ‘Hit Hard’ If Hezbollah Is Involved in Iran War

As part of the US campaign to engineer a regime change in Iran, the US military and intelligence community are using Operational Preparation of the Environmnet aka OPE. OPE is defined in joint publications (e.g., JP 3-05 Special Operations) as non-intelligence activities conducted prior to or in preparation for potential military operations to set conditions […]

Calm Market Waters Hide Fierce Undercurrents Authored by Michael Lebowitz via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, The price movement in the broad S&P 500 index is relatively calm. Yet the market’s undercurrent, as measured by sharply diverging returns across stock sectors and factors, is anything but calm. The current market picture we paint is well embodied by a quote from Jules Verne in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. “The sea was perfectly calm; scarcely a ripple disturbed its surface. But beneath this tranquil exterior, powerful currents were flowing with irresistible force.” Given this divergence between the calm...

Weather & Weak Demand Drive US PMIs Down To 10-Month Lows In February, But... While 'hard' data has been fading modestly in recent weeks, 'soft' survey data has bounced back but today we get a first glimpse at February's PMIs from S&P Global to see if that survey-based confidence is continuing. It is not as both Manufacturing and Services PMIs dropped notably., Flash US Services PMI Business Activity Index: 52.3 (January: 52.7). 10-month low. Flash US Manufacturing PMI: 51.2 (January: 52.4). 7-month low.    Source: Bloomberg Overall that dragged the US Composite PMI down...