Blue Owl Plunges After Halting Redemptions On Private Credit Retail Fund Things are getting from bad to worse for Private Credit giant Blue Owl Capital. The last time we looked at the firm’s precarious liquidity situation about a month ago, we found that the Blue Owl BDC would allow for 17% redemptions as investors, burned by both the tumbling stock price and the company’s massive exposure to ticking private credit time bombs, were […]

Rep. Khanna To Force Vote On Iran War Powers: ‘Another Endless Dumb Foreign War’ Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said on Wednesday that he will force a vote on a War Powers Resolution meant to prevent President Trump from attacking Iran without congressional authorization, as required by the Constitution. The resolution was introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Khanna, and several other […]

New OpenAI Funding Round Could Top $100 Billion, Pushing Valuation North Of $850 Billion OpenAI’s private valuation could soon top $850 billion, as the first tranche of a new funding round is expected to raise more than $100 billion, giving the ChatGPT maker fresh powder for additional infrastructure spending and faster development of its AI tools, Bloomberg reported. People familiar with the fundraising told the outlet that the […]

Iran Will Be “Finding Out” Over Next 10 Days, Trump Says, But Asserts “Good Talks” Update(1021ET): As has become typical, President Trump is all over the place – his intentions ever more difficult to interpret – at a moment the media has highlighted Iraq war levels of military build-up in the Middle East with an eye on potential attack on Iran. On Thursday he oversaw the inaugural meeting in Washington DC of the Board of Peace […]

The US Must Be Confident It Has A Plan In Place To Lower Oil Prices Once It Strikes Iran By Michael Every of Rabobank Lots Of Xs Vs Lots Of Ys US vs. Iran: The media today talk of a “90% chance of war” and “as soon as Saturday.” We’ve long stressed there’s a high likelihood of a fresh US-Iran conflict, recent US logistics movements said soon, and an Axios headline yesterday refocused oil markets on it. The balance of […]

US Pending Home Sales Hit Record Low Despite Falling Mortgage Rates After plunging in December (biggest drop since COVID), US Pending Home Sales disappointed once again with a modest 0.8% MoM decline in January (+2.0% MoM exp). This left sales down 1.23% YoY… Source: Bloomberg This left the Pending Home Sales Index at a record low… Source: Bloomberg Mortgage rates continued to slide… so WTF is holding buyers back? […]

PJM Board Approves $11.8BN Transmission Expansion Plan By Ethan Howland Of UtilityDive The PJM Interconnection’s board last week approved $11.8 billion in baseline transmission projects, with Dominion Energy’s Virginia utility landing roughly $4.8 billion in those projects. The projects are part of PJM’s 2025 Regional Transmission Expansion Plan Window 1, which is designed to bolster grid reliability that is strained by […]

Bill Gates Pulls Out Of High-Profile Indian AI Summit As Epstein Fallout Accelerates The Epstein fallout continues to spread by the day, with billionaire Les Wexner saying he was “conned” by Jeffrey Epstein and insisting he “did nothing wrong” earlier this week, and with Prince Andrew (Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor) being arrested on Thursday morning over allegations that he shared confidential government trade documents with […]

US Trade Deficit Unexpectedly Worsens As Exports Slump Again In December For the second month in a row, US exports declined and imports rose in December, pushing the US trade balance significantly deeper into deficit. Imports rose (+3.6% vs +0.1% MoM exp) and exports fell (-1.7% vs +0.1% MoM exp) for the second month in a row… Source: Bloomberg Industrial Supplies appears to have seen the biggest shift in trade… Gold […]

Futures Slide As Iran War Risks Add To Growing AI Disruption Fears; Oil Surges Equity futures and global markets are lower, ending a modest rebound in US stocks as concerns about a possible war with US and simmering angst over AI dent the fragile optimism seen on Wednesday. Oil extended its rally after its best day since 2021. Tech and small caps underperform which to JPMorgan’s market intel desk “feels more like profit-taking […]

Initial Jobless Claims Tumble Back Near Multi-Decade Lows Despite the ongoing worsening trend in some labor market condition indicators – Payrolls revisions ugly, JOLTs are tumbling, Survey-based data showing jobs hard to get far worse than jobs plentiful – the number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the first time fell to 206k (from 229k the prior week)… Source: Bloomberg That is back near multi-decade lows and at […]

Epstein Ally Was Talking To Feds About Flip, Wanted $3 Million To Keep Quiet, Then Backed Off Deal French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel – whose network delivered new girls from around the world to Jeffrey Epstein on a regular basis, was prepared in 2016 to tell U.S. prosecutors what he knew about Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. According to newly released files from the DOJ, the now-deceased Brunel’s lawyer was […]

US Is Rapidly Expanding Its Nuclear Supply Chain: It’s Not Nearly Fast Enough As we have repeatedly highlighted (most recently here), the much-hyped resurgence in US nuclear power is notable for one thing: the lack of actual new reactors. In fact, according to the latest Goldman Nuclear Nuggets monthly report, while China is currently building 38 new nuclear reactors – and both India and Russia have 6 reactors under construction – […]

“Law Must Take Its Course”: King Charles Responds To Arrest Of Former Prince Andrew Update (0810ET): King Charles has released his first public statement regarding Andrew’s arrest. He said: I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office. What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner […]

“The Plan Was To Kill Off Gold As Money…” Authored by Alasdair Macleod via VonGreyerz.gold, For years, bulls of gold and silver have complained about how derivatives have been used to suppress their prices. Their dreams of the practice ending could be coming true… Introduction If you think about it, there is a simple reason that derivatives for speculating or hedging gold is fatally flawed. It is because in nearly every […]

Airbus Shares Hit Turbulence After Dismal Delivery Outlook Shares of Airbus SE plunged as much as 8% in Paris trading after the aerospace and defense group guided to 870 commercial aircraft deliveries for 2026, well below the Bloomberg Consensus estimate of 896. Airbus blamed the softer outlook on the lack of reliable engine supplies for its A320 family of jets. UBS analyst Tricia Wright said fourth-quarter results were in line, […]

IEA Chief Warns Fracturing Global Order Is Splintering Energy Policy By Irina Slav of OilPrice.com A fracturing in the “global order” is threatening the harmony in energy policies, the head of the International Energy Agency has warned. “We see a fracturing in the global political order in general, and there are, of course, reflections of that on the energy scene. Different countries are choosing different paths in terms of […]

Waste Piles Up In Cuba, Blackouts Worsen, As Lavrov Pleads To US For ‘Brotherly Nation’ Speaking to reporters early this week, President Trump touted his tightened embargo on Cuba, pointing to moves to choke off Venezuelan oil flows and pressure Mexico to halt crude exports to the island – steps that have triggered acute fuel shortages and near total airline stoppages at Havana’s main international airport. “Cuba is right now a […]

UK Ad Banned For Showing Black Harasser; Multiple Ads With White Harassers Were Just Fine Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, In a glaring display of selective outrage, Transport for London (TfL) has yanked an advert depicting a black teenager harassing a white girl on a bus – all because of a single complaint crying “racial stereotypes.” Meanwhile, multiple past ads, all featuring white men as the aggressors, were […]

Beijing Blasts Trump After US Releases New Details On Alleged 2020 Chinese Nuclear Test Update: Despite the Lunar New Year holiday, Beijing has made it known it is not best pleased with Washington digging up Nuke blasts from the past. Issuing a statement via state mouthpiece (@HuXijin_GT), the CCP suggested an ulterior motive for the timing of this announcement: “Trump is eager to resume nuclear testing and needs a plausible […]

Eni Considers Return To Oil Trading As Rivals Reap Billions By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com, Italy’s Eni is considering reopening its oil-trading business as it misses out on the profits that its fellow European supermajors are generating from selling the commodities they produce, the company’s chief executive told the Financial Times. “I stopped trading in 2019, but the other big companies are all traders,” Claudio […]

Chinese EVs Flood Europe, Signals Hollowing Out Of Bloc’s Industrial Core The rapid growth of China’s electric vehicles on Europe’s streets and highways isn’t just a market share story. In fact, it’s an industrial security threat for the bloc. When Chinese manufacturers undercut domestic car brands, the damage goes well beyond margin pressure and shuttered production lines. The much larger and alarming issue is the hollowing out of […]

Berlin Green Party Welcomes World’s ‘Climate Refugees’, Despite Housing/Fiscal Crisis Via Remix News, During their state party conference this past weekend, the Berlin Greens finalized an election manifesto that places radical migration reform at the center of their platform. The party is advocating for the broad admission of individuals displaced by environmental factors like climate change, alongside expanded humanitarian […]

Chinese Journalist Who Exposed CCP’s Labor Camp Abuses Still In Custody in Beijing Authored by Dorothy Li via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), A Chinese journalist whose work exposed human rights abuses committed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been detained in Beijing for more than 100 days. Independent journalist and photographer Du Bin in an undated photo. Song Pi-lung/The Epoch Times Du Bin, 54, was formally […]

Wexner Says He Was ‘Conned’ By Epstein, Did ‘Nothing Wrong’ After what must have been quite the prep session with lawyers, billionaire Les Wexner – who gave Jeffrey Epstein “about a billion dollars” in cash and assets – testified to the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday that he was “conned” by Epstein, and denied any wrongdoing. Les Wexner denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes during testimony to House […]