Day: January 2, 2025

SCOOP: BIDEN discussed plans to strike Iran nuclear sites if Tehran speeds toward bomb

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan presented President Biden with options for a potential U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities if the Iranians move towards a nuclear weapon before Jan. 20, in a meeting several weeks ago that remained secret until now, three sources with knowledge of the issue tell Axios. submitted by /u/XGramatik [link] [comments]

Deedy: New Hindenburg report calls Carvana “a father-son accounting grift for the ages.” The online car dealer’s stock went 60x in the last 2yrs after dropping 99%, hitting a $44B valuation, while the CEO’s father sold $5B in stock. Here’s the wild story of CVNA…

From Aug 2021 to Dec 2022, Carvana stock plunged 99%. CEO’s father Ernest Garcia II sold $3.6B in stock before that. After the 63x rebound, he just sold another $1.4B. Funny timing? Carvana sells used cars online, but their real business is originating auto loans. They make money by quickly selling these loans to other cos. But now their main buyer (Ally Financial) is pulling back. When they needed a savior, a mysterious buyer took $800M in loans. The buyer? Supposedly a trust affiliated with Cerberus Capital, where Carvana Director Dan Quayle is Chairman of Global Investments. A report shows 44% of their loans since ’02 are underwater. Delinquencies 4x industry avg. Former director says “We approved 100% of them” Carvana’s avoiding reporting the higher delinquencies by granting loan extensions enabled by its loan servicer, an affiliate of private car dealership DriveTime. And you guessed it? It’s run by Carvana’s CEO’s father. There are a litany of accounting red flags —Inflates profit metrics by ~34.5% by moving $390M in selling costs to “SG&A” —Carries $553M in loans with no loss reserves —Manipulate earnings between Qs by timing loan sales “You can move very large amounts of income around” Carvana also created a secret “economy line” with lower standards with reduced brake pad requirements, accepting cars “looking like they were out of a war zone”. Yet told investors in Aug ’23: “vehicle quality metrics have been stable” Their auditor is also very sus, — Includes NYSE-suspended member — Same person previously sent money to CEO’s father — Mid-tier auditor for 10+ years — Carvana has an undisclosed SEC investigation ongoing! The coming storm seems all too obvious — $4.8B in net debt — Must pay $215M annual interest starting 2025 — Used car prices are down -20.3% in 3 years — Subprime delinquencies higher than 2008 The big picture: While insiders have cashed out $5B+, Carvana never raised significant capital to de-risk its balance sheet. Hindenburg’s concludes “The Garcias will leave shareholders with nothing.” submitted by /u/XGramatik [link] [comments]

EUR/USD slumps to two-year low as growth concerns weigh

EUR/USD shed another full percent as Euro fears simmer. European Manufacturing PMI missed the mark, implying steepening contraction expectations. ECB policies are expected to diverge steeply from the Fed this year. submitted by /u/Demblin [link] [comments]

Watch MSNBC’s Morning Joe show highlight a damning chart of the illegal immigration spike over the last four years under Joe Biden’s failed policies.

“The border was not Biden’s finest moment, frankly. You can see what happened here. And Trump is not wrong when he talks about how border crossings work quite low. They’re running about 74,000 a month when he left office and they, in fact, did shoot up. Some of it was some things Biden said and some ways that they put a moratorium, for example, on deportations. But in fact, we did get up here almost to 300,000 a month.” submitted by /u/XGramatik [link] [comments]

📊🤔Bitcoin💸 After the start of the correction, BTCUSD broke the upper trend line of the falling wedge, tested it again, and bounced upwards. The lips crossed the jaw of the alligator, which also indicates the possibility of growth, but it is worth watching the further price movement very carefully.🧐

Bitcoin💸After the start of the correction, BTCUSD broke the upper trend line of the falling wedge, tested it again, and bounced upwards. The lips crossed the jaw of the alligator, which also indicates the possibility of growth, but it is worth watching the further price movement very carefully. submitted by /u/Yuriy_UK [link] [comments]

Bloomberg reports that European gas prices rose on the first trading day of the year, driven by a loss of key supply routes, low temperatures in northern Europe, and an unplanned disruption in Norway.

Russian gas supply through Ukraine ceased, and a Norwegian LNG plant halted production due to a compressor failure. These disruptions coincide with rising heating demand in the region. However, the European Commission assured there is no security threat to supply in Central and Eastern Europe. BBG submitted by /u/XGramatik [link] [comments]