Peak Lobotomized American Consumer

Traders Puzzled As Physical Oil Prices Tumble Amid Surging Chinese Crude Sales, Plunging Imports Yesterday when discussing China's unexpected flip-flopping on its decision to order local banks to ignore the latest US sanctions on Chinese, followed days later by a demand that they pause loans to sanctions refiners, we highlighted something remarkable: in the aftermath of the Strait of Hormuz blockade, which throttled the transit of ~10% of global oil and sent physical prices soaring to record highs (especially for Dubai crude), resulting in a windfall for European refiners thanks...

Inflation Fears Plummet As UMich's Democratic Bias Is Exposed After rebounding strongly in preliminary February data (as Democrats came to their senses over the fearmongered Trump tariff-flation), the final UMich sentiment survey print slipped lower with the headline lowered from 57.3 to 56.6. Both Current Conditions and Expectations were lower than the flash print with the latter falling to 2 month lows and the former holding at 4-month highs... Does anyone else think its weird that all the numbers were exactly the same at 56.6 Source: Bloomberg Democrats and Republicans led the decrease...

Trump Begins Blockade Of Hormuz Strait, Says Iran "Will Not Be Allowed To Profit From Extortion" Summary President Trump begins blockading Strait of Hormuz, warns US military will "finish up the little that is left of Iran" 2 Supertankers U-turn after peace deal talks fail UAE Oil Chief warns Iran blocking Hormuz is "a direct threat to the energy, food and health security of every nation" The odds of a peace deal by the end of the ceasefire period have improved modestly today but remain down significantly from pre-talks... Attempted Boarding of Commerical Ship in Bab...