| WEATHER INTERNAL

Peter Schiff Slams ‘Phase One’ of Chinese Trade Deal

Says America losing trade war

US Vets Pressure Congress To Reclaim War Powers, Bring Troops Home

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North Korea Slams ‘Provocative’ Air Exercises by US

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Home Depot Shares Plunge Most Since 2008 After Slashing Sales Outlook

19 November 2019

Home Depot Shares Plunge Most Since 2008 After Slashing Sales Outlook

Home Depot shares slumped more than 7% in premarket trade, putting shares on track for their worst daily drop since 2008, after the company slashed its full-year sales guidance on Tuesday.

The company also posted Q3 sales that slightly missed expectations.

Here's BBG's breakdown of the company's Q3 earnings report...

Sees FY comparable sales about +3.5%, saw about +4%

Sees FY revenue about +1.8%, saw about +2.30%

3Q comparable sales +3.6% vs. +4.80% y/y, estimate +4.6% (Consensus Metrix, average of 25 estimates)

3Q EPS $2.53 vs. $2.51 y/y, estimate $2.53 (range $2.48 to $2.58) (Bloomberg data)

3Q net sales $27.22 billion, +3.5% y/y, estimate $27.52 billion (range $27.35 billion to $27.72 billion) (BD)

3Q U.S. comparable sales +3.8% vs. +5.40% y/y

3Q average ticket sales $66.36, +1.9% y/y

3Q total location count 2,290, estimate 2,290

3Q customer transactions +1.5%

3Q average ticket +1.9%, estimate +2.41%

The action in Home Depot shares weighed on Dow futures ahead of the bell:

Home Depot CEO Craig Menear cited continued lumber deflation for the lower sales forecast. The company also blamed potential tariff impact for its lower full-year revenue guidance.

Read the company's press release below:

* * *

The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, today reported third quarter fiscal 2019 sales of $27.2 billion, an increase of 3.5 percent, or $921 million, compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2018. Comparable sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2019 were positive 3.6 percent, and comparable sales in the U.S. were positive 3.8 percent. Net earnings for the third quarter of fiscal 2019 were $2.8 billion, or $2.53 per diluted share, compared with net earnings of $2.9 billion, or $2.51 per diluted share, in the same period of fiscal 2018.

For the third quarter of fiscal 2019, diluted earnings per share increased 0.8 percent from the same period in the prior year.

“Our third quarter results reflected broad-based growth across our business, yet sales were below our expectations driven by the timing of certain benefits associated with our One Home Depot strategic investments,” said Craig Menear, chairman, CEO and president.

“We are largely on track with these investments and have seen positive results, but some of the benefits anticipated for fiscal 2019 will take longer to realize than our initial assumptions. As a result, today we are updating our fiscal 2019 sales guidance, and we are reaffirming our fiscal 2019 earnings-per-share guidance. We are encouraged by the momentum in our business as we invest to extend our competitive advantages. I would like to thank our associates for their hard work and continued dedication to our customers.”

Fiscal 2019 Guidance

The Company updated its guidance for fiscal 2019, a 52-week year compared to fiscal 2018, a 53-week year. The Company expects its fiscal 2019 sales to grow by approximately 1.8 percent and comp sales for the comparable 52-week period to increase approximately 3.5 percent. This compares to the Company’s prior fiscal 2019 sales growth guidance of 2.3 percent and comp sales growth of 4.0 percent. The Company reaffirmed its diluted earnings per-share guidance for the year and expects diluted earnings-per-share growth of approximately 3.1 percent from fiscal 2018 to $10.03.

* * *

With so many traders worried about a possible pullback in the US economy, signs of weakness at retailers like HD, long a standout in a troubled sector, will entice analysts to take a closer look. HD rival Lowe's will report earnings after the bell on Wednesday. Expect analysts to pay close attention.

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/19/2019 - 06:27 Tags Business Finance

Last 100 'PolyU' Protesters Resist Hong Kong Police As Dozens Stage Daring Escape

19 November 2019

Last 100 'PolyU' Protesters Resist Hong Kong Police As Dozens Stage Daring Escape

It's like something out of a movie.

After a three-day standoff, roughly 100 students remain trapped inside the campus of Hong Kong's Polytechnic University. For more than a day, police have had the campus surrounded, and have warned protesters that there's only one way out - in handcuffs.

Despite a potential 10-year prison sentence (laws against rioting, which are being applied to the protesters, carry heavy penalties), some 600 students have already walked off campus into the waiting arms of police. Some surrendered because they were in ill-health after hypothermia set in. Of the 600 who left, 400 were above the age of 18 and were immediately arrested, while the 200 minors were stopped, then sent home. They could still face charges pending further investigation, the NYT reported.

The battle over PolyU, which raged all weekend, will be remembered as one of the more intense incidents since the start of the protests. Students hurled hundreds of petrol bombs at police, and police spent hundreds of cannisters of tear gas and thousands of rubber bullets.

Outside the campus, a group of parents continued their vigil, awaiting news from their children while holding up signs that read: "Son, come out safely!” and “Save the kids, don’t kill our children."

Elsewhere in Hong Kong, the city started to recover from a week of non-stop pro-democracy demonstrations. Some of the damage from those petrol bombs included burnt out cars.

A lot of cars were burned by the petrol bombs HongKong protesters thrown yesterday. pic.twitter.com/mvR8OuZPFY

— Liam Stone石立安 (@liamstone_19) November 19, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

On Tuesday afternoon, a pro-democracy lawmaker who had been holed up on campus with the protesters held a press conference to announce that he and a few dozen protesters would leave the campus, but warned that, should he be arrested, he isn't "surrendering" to police.

At 4pm, legislator Ted Hui said he would leave PolyU soon alongside a few dozen others. He emphasised that if the police arrest him, he is not "surrendering", because he and the others accompanied him entered the campus for legitimate reasons. Photo: HK01 screenshot. #hongkong pic.twitter.com/GklmnvDXEr

— Hong Kong Free Press (@HongKongFP) November 19, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Meanwhile, in video that appears to have been taken late Monday, a group of demonstrators staged a daring getaway when they climbed down off a bridge using ropes and sped away on motorbikes.

VIDEO: Dozens of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters dramatically escaped a two-day police siege at a university campus by shimmying down ropes from a bridge to waiting motorbikes pic.twitter.com/jDnmbhd6P1

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 19, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

As some headed to work for the first time in days, citizens gathered on the street to help clean up bricks and debris left by the protests.

HongKong citizens spontaneously clean the street messed up by protesters. pic.twitter.com/lMoOV7dekX

— Liam Stone石立安 (@liamstone_19) November 19, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

By the looks of it, the entrances to the PolyU campus, and many areas in and around, will probably need to be cleaned after days of skirmishes between police and students.

It's like something out of a movie.

Elsewhere in Hong Kong, the city started to recover from a week of non-stop pro-democracy demonstrations. Some of the damage from those petrol bombs included burnt out cars.

A lot of cars were burned by the petrol bombs HongKong protesters thrown yesterday. pic.twitter.com/mvR8OuZPFY

— Liam Stone石立安 (@liamstone_19) November 19, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

On Tuesday afternoon, a pro-democracy lawmaker who has been holed up on campus with the protesters held a press conference to announce that he and a few dozen protesters would leave the campus, but warned that, should he be arrested, he isn't "surrendering" to police.

— Hong Kong Free Press (@HongKongFP) November 19, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Meanwhile, in video that appears to have been taken late Monday, a group of demonstrators staged a daring getaway when they climbed down off a bridge using ropes and sped away on motorbikes.

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 19, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

As some headed to work for the first time in days, citizens gathered on the street to help clean up bricks and debris left by the protests.

HongKong citizens spontaneously clean the street messed up by protesters. pic.twitter.com/lMoOV7dekX

— Liam Stone石立安 (@liamstone_19) November 19, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Meanwhile, in Beijing, the central government’s Hong Kong affairs office said that a ruling by a Hong Kong court "blatantly challenged the authority" of China’s legislature and of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam. The court's decision to rule that Lam's anti-mask law was illegal had “severe negative social and political impact," Beijing said. Legally, the Communists have the authority to interfere with the basic law.

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/19/2019 - 06:00 Tags War Conflict

Royal Family Biographer Defends Prince Andrew: "Soliciting Sex From Minors Is Not Pedophilia"

19 November 2019

Royal Family Biographer Defends Prince Andrew: "Soliciting Sex From Minors Is Not Pedophilia"

Authored by John Vibes via TheMindUnleashed.com,

Biographer for the Royal Family, Lady Colin Campbell, recently appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain where she defended Prince Andrew against claims of pedophilia.

In her defense of the disgraced prince, Campbell pointed to the “prostitution” charge that Jeffrey Epstein was convicted of in 2008, and attempted to downplay the fact that the girls were underage by suggesting that he was simply hiring sex workers.

“You all seem to have forgotten that Jeffrey Epstein, the offense for which he was charged and for which he was imprisoned, was for soliciting prostitution from minors. That is not the same thing as pedophilia,” Campbell told a shocked panel Monday morning.

Host Piers Morgan immediately challenged her claims, saying:

“If you solicited a 14-year-old for prostitution, you’re a pedophile.

You’re procuring an underage girl for sex. That’s what he was convicted of. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, with respect, that is nonsense.”

Campbell then immediately attempted to backpedal, claiming that a distinction must be made between a minor and a child.

“Was he? 14? Well, I’m not justifying Jeffrey Epstein. Pedophilia, I suspect there’s a difference between a minor and a child,” she said.

“A 14-year-old is a child. Legally, she’s a child,” Morgan replied.

Campbell then admitted that the prince may have “made many mistakes,” but insisted that his only mistake was being too clueless to realize that one of his closest friends was a predator.

“You can’t criticize someone because they aren’t as bright as you would like them to be,” she said.

The controversy surrounding Prince Andrew has grown since his Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis. In the interview, the prince gave a variety of bizarre excuses and defenses for the accusations against him, including a claim that he could not sweat due to a rare physical condition.

He also denied knowing about the trafficking victim, Virginia Giuffre—formerly known as Virginia Roberts—despite appearing in photos with her when she was under the age of 18. However, he has previously suggested that these photos are “doctored.” Photographic evidence has been uncovered showing that the prince does, in fact, sweat. He also claimed that even though he did not remember meeting the victim on the night that she said, he does vividly remember his alibi, saying he went to a Pizza Express in Woking before returning home that night.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtBS8COhhhM]

“Going to Pizza Express in Woking is an unusual thing for me to do, a very unusual thing for me to do. I’ve never been… I’ve only been to Woking a couple of times and I remember it weirdly distinctly,” he said.

The interview was so disastrous for the Royal Family that one of Prince Andrew’s PR advisors quit in response to the broadcast. And to make matters even worse, a video clip from 1984 recently resurfaced showing Johnny Carson, then-host of The Tonight Show, making a joke about Prince Andrew being a pedophile.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUGXfAZDeA0]

None of this looks good for the Royal Family.

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/19/2019 - 05:00 Tags Entertainment Culture Human Interest

Pope Suddenly Replaces Top Vatican Financial Regulator In Developing 'Mystery' Scandal

19 November 2019

Pope Suddenly Replaces Top Vatican Financial Regulator In Developing 'Mystery' Scandal

Now over six years since Pope Benedict took the nearly unprecedented step of abdicating the throne in 2013, with rumors at the time swirling that it was due to irregularities and scandal at the Vatican Bank — though it was health reasons officially cited (a papal resignation hadn't happened in the prior 600 years) — the Vatican Bank is once again at the center of scandal.

The Vatican’s top financial regulator, René Brülhart, has unexpectedly resigned (or was apparently sacked) related to a new scandal first revealed last month centered on the Holy See's investment initiatives in London real estate, specifically involving attempts to secure an €100 million ($110 million) loan to acquire luxury property in London's Chelsea neighborhood, The Wall Street Journal reports.

St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, file image.

Brülhart served as president of the Vatican's Financial Information Authority, or AIF, and has been replaced effective Monday.

The office had been established under Benedict in 2010 in order to root out financial corruption and widespread reports of money-laundering, and to bring the Vatican Bank into international norms and greater transparency after a series of major scandals rocked the sovereign Vatican City State in the heart of Rome, and brought embarrassment to the papacy.

The high level regulator's replacement is the culmination of events which began in October when police raided the offices of AIF and the Secretariat of State, the latter which functions as a Vatican executive branch (though the Pope ultimately exercises supreme decision-making power), after the attempt to secure the €100 million loan stirred suspicions.

Thus far the exact nature of possible criminal activity in the London real estate deal has yet to be revealed by Vatican officials, the precise details of wrongdoing remaining a mystery and carefully confined within the usually opaque ancient city-state's circle of top churchmen.

Domenico Giani, chief of Vatican police had also resigned over the developing scandal centered on the Vatican financial watchdog AIF. Image source: CNS

But there has been a great deal of 'house cleaning' since, with the AIF chief being the highest official to fall, along with nearly half a dozen lower level employees.

Among the things the AIF regulator has been busy with is closing thousands of suspicious accounts with the Vatican bank due to their having nothing to do with “works of religion”.

And previously, the longtime chief of the Vatican police and lead bodyguard for Pope Francis, Domenico Giani (above), resigned in mid-October over leaks related to the surprise Oct. 1 raid on the offices of the Vatican's Secretariat of State and the city-state's financial watchdog authority.

René Brülhartm now former president of the Vatican Financial Information Authority. Image source Zuma Press via WSJ.

According to the WSJ:

Since then, the Vatican has suspended five employees — including AIF’s No. 2 official, Tommaso Di Ruzza — and its security chief has resigned in connection with the investigation. It isn’t clear what, if anything, the suspended employees were suspected of doing. Last month, AIF’s board, led by Mr. Brülhart, released a statement expressing “full faith and trust in the professional competence and honorability” of Mr. Di Ruzza.

But again though Vatican officials have yet to comment on specifics, it certainly appears the now dismissed officials were caught overseeing likely major criminal activity.

Or at the very least they may have been in involved in making reckless and high-risk investments, given a theme of Pope Francis this year has been to halt "poorly managed spending and investments," according to the WSJ report.

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/19/2019 - 04:15 Tags Business Finance

The Roger Stone–Wikileaks–Russia Hoax

19 November 2019

The Roger Stone–Wikileaks–Russia Hoax

Authored by Craig Murray,

As ever, the Guardian wins the prize for the most tendentious reporting of Roger Stone’s conviction. This is not quite on the scale of its massive front page lie that Paul Manafort visited Julian Assange in the Ecuadorean Embassy. But it is a lie with precisely the same intent, to deceive the public into believing there were links between Wikileaks and the Trump campaign. There were no such links.

The headline “Roger Stone: Trump Adviser Found Guilty On All Charges in Trump Hacking Case” is deliberately designed to make you believe a court has found Stone was involved in “Wikileaks hacking”. In fact this is the precise opposite of the truth. Stone was found guilty of lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee by claiming to have links to Wikileaks when in fact he had none. And of threatening Randy Credico to make Credico say there were such links, when there were not.

It is also worth noting the trial was nothing to do with “hacking” and no hacking was alleged or proven. Wikileaks does not do hacking, it does “leaks”. The clue is in the name. The DNC emails were not hacked. The Guardian is fitting this utterly extraneous element into its headline to continue the ludicrous myth that the Clinton campaign was “Hacked” by “the Russians”.

It is worth noting that not one of those convicted of charges arising from or in connection with the Mueller investigation – Manafort, Papadopolous, Stone – has been convicted of anything to do with Wikileaks, with anything to do with Russia or with the original thesis of the enquiry.

Astonishingly, in the case of Stone, he has been convicted of saying that the Mueller nonsense is true, and he was a Trump/Wikileaks go-between, when he was not. Yet despite the disastrous collapse of the Mueller Report, and despite the absolutely devastating judicial ruling that there was no evidence worthy even of consideration in court that Russiagate had ever happened, the Guardian and the neo-con media in the USA (inc. CNN, Washington Post, New York Times) continue to serve up an endless diet of lies to the public.

Randy Credico was the chief witness for the prosecution against Roger Stone. That’s for the prosecution, not the defence. This is the state’s key evidence against Stone. And Credico is absolutely plain that Stone had no link to Wikileaks. The transcript of my exclusive interview with Randy has now been prepared (thanks to Sam and Jon) and follows here.

I spoke to Randy yesterday to clarify one point.

The full unedited interview from 10 November can be found here.

The first conversation Randy ever had with Julian Assange was on 25 August 2016 and it was on-air on Randy’s radio show. There was no private talk off-air around the show. That was Randy’s only contact of any kind with Julian Assange before the 2016 election. His next contact with him, also an on-air interview, was not until Spring 2017, well after the election.

He could not have been in any sense a channel to Wikileaks.

* * *

Unlike the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, Craig's blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate. Subscriptions to keep Craig's blog going are gratefully received.

Tyler Durden Tue, 11/19/2019 - 03:30

Tycoon is banned from driving despite claiming 'exceptional hardship' because he has 'meetings on'

19 November 2019

David Russell, who is Chief Executive of a £271m Manchester property company, claimed a driving ban would leave him struggling to find chauffeurs. He was banned for six months.

Teenager, 19, scales neighbour's fence to steal his eight-year-old daughter's cocker spaniel Penny

19 November 2019

Footage shows Shannagh Cookson staking out James Daniel's property in Bradford, east Manchester before taking the pet-puppy during a brazen 'dog-napping.'

Marine E accused of murdering Taliban fighter reveals his identity

19 November 2019

British marine Sam Deen (pictured), who up until now has been known only as Marine E, has spoken for the first time on the mental toll of being court martialled over the killing in 2011.

Fears of Tiananmen-style massacre in Hong Kong grow as university standoff enters third day

19 November 2019

Fears of a Tiananmen Square-style massacre grew in Hong Kong Tuesday as up to 200 protesters remained trapped at the city's Polytechnic University in a standoff with police.

The TOXIC Duke: Standard Chartered is latest big name firm to cut ties with Prince Andrew

19 November 2019

EXCLUSIVE: Banking giant Standard Chartered has revealed to MailOnline that the bank's bosses have decided it will no longer be a partner in his business start-up project: Pitch@Palace.