- Trump is like E.F. Hutton…
- How Iran is working around the naval blockade…
- Psst — Here’s the #1 stock to buy before the huge SpaceX IPO. Get the free ticker here.
Dear reader,
The man who wishes to be deceived is easiest to deceive.
As with the individual man, so with man in the mass — the market.
The market, one may fairly conclude, wishes to be deceived.
How often has the president deceived markets with babblings of a looming peace resolution with Iran?
And how often have these promises proven false?
In each and every particular they have proven false.
Yet markets have maintained their E.F. Hutton routine — when E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.
Source: Google
And when President Trump talks about pending Iranian peace, markets listen.
Trump Again Tells Markets What They Want to Hear — Again
Here our E.F. Hutton’s dangles his latest morsel of chum before a salivating market — a market that wishes to be deceived:
- Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally…
- …the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran…
- …we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed.
How did the willingly deceived markets react to the deception? Precisely as you would expect. They were deceived.
A “Knee-Jerk Wave of Optimism”
Zero Hedge, last evening:
- There is a knee-jerk wave of optimism across assets with WTI crude futures lower, US equity contracts and Treasury futures higher after President Trump said Project Freedom will be paused.
- Trump also said there is progress toward a final agreement with Iran which is what investors really want to see as it could potentially mean a reopening of Hormuz.
I do not know if “anonymous investors” placed wagers upon retreating oil prices and advancing stock prices minutes prior to the president’s post.
Yet my agents are on the case.
Gold, meantime, was up and away $90 late last evening. Here is a question. Why is gold up and away on the (likely waxen) wings of peace?
Is not gold the safe harbor to which sea-tossed investors resort in times of tumult?
The answer, customarily, is yes. Yet as I explained recently, gold has undergone a metamorphosis of sorts.
The president has tickled the market’s ears with his gaudy but seductive gimcrack, it is true. Yet what of the Iranians?
What have they to say about President Trump’s ear-tickling coos of imminent peace?
“We have had no negotiations with America in… thirty-one days,” claims Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson.
“We know well that the continuation of the current situation is unbearable for the United States, while we have not even begun yet,” thunders Iran’s parliament speaker, a certain Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
Is this the tone of conciliation? Is this the tenor of compromise?
In fairness — in fairness — Iranian belligerence may represent the showy yet harmless plumage of the peacock… and not the honed talons of the gamecock.
One senior Pakistani official claims that “backdoor diplomacy” between the feuding parties rolls on
“We have put in a lot of efforts, actually both the sides have narrowed gaps on a majority of the issues,” said this fellow.
Just so. Yet for several weeks at least we have been shaken with false alarms. And resolution has been nowhere forthcoming.
How Effective Is the Blockade?
Meantime, is the United States naval blockade of Iranian ports harpooning Iran’s economy?
I hazard the cordon is injuring Iran’s economy, and perhaps heavily.
Yet do not forget: Mr. Market is a highly resourceful fellow.
Slam the front door and he will smuggle his goods through the rear door.
Bar the rear door and he will slip through a window.
Seal the windows and he will tunnel his way into the cellar.
Not even a president of the United States will cow him.
My agents inform me that several Iranian oil-bearing vessels have slipped through the American naval dragnet.
This they have accomplished through the employment of ingenious artifices and tricks.
Yet the precise number of Iranian vessels that have gotten through… I do not know.
The Overland Route to Bypass Hormuz
Meantime, my men inform me that the Irani-Pakistani border is presently the scene of dizzying activity.
They report that hundreds of trucks are transporting Iranian oil into Pakistan through overland routes.
Pakistan, for its part, is opening overland routes to Iran.
Through these arid arteries Pakistan is channeling cargoes originally destined for Iranian ports. They had been unloaded in the Pakistani port of Karachi against the American blockade.
Source: Instagram
Thus the combat of convictions, the war of wills between the United States and Iran, draws on.
And it appears to be expanding to additional fronts.
When will it end — and on whose terms?
The world watches… and wonders.
Brian Maher
for Freedom Financial News
