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Although the shady business practices of Facebook and its founder have been attracting a barrage of bad press, the guys paid to keep the stock pumped have held it aloft for months. Its failure to fill a dramatic short-squeeze gap created on January 31 attests to the power these operators have to spin the news so that shorts are always on the defensive.  FB has been in a holding pattern for two months, opportunistically awaiting the mildly 'good' news that would ram it up shorts' wazoo. If it doesn't come soon, though, DaBoyz may have to bring the stock down into the gap, since accumulation at current levels is growing increasingly expensive. In any case, no matter how we might view Zuckerberg and his methods, a thrust exceeding the 174.64 midpoint Hidden Pivot shown (inset; our minimum target for now) would put a target as high as 190.00 in play. _______ UPDATE (Apr 2, 4:02 p.m. ET): After taking a powerful, 3.30% leap today, FB stalled almost precisely at the 174.64 pivot before peaking at 174.90. Let's stipulate that the stock close for two consecutive days above this number before inferring that a finishing stroke to 190.00 is a done deal.

Having narrowly missed a longstanding downside target at 251.28 at the low of its most recent swoon, TSLA would trip a 'counterintuitive' buy signal if it hits the green line at 286.19. That would make p=317.91 our minimum upside target, with a shot at 381.36 if Tesla's peerless hype machine turns news temporarily in the firm's favor. Not bad for a company with enough problems to make a bankruptcy scenario seem at least plausible. Whatever the case against Tesla, its compromised delivery system and its apparent decline in quality control, these factors could soon take a back seat to the shenanigans and spin control that have always moved the stock, often wildly. _____ UPDATE (Apr 2, 4:10 p.m.): The stock has touched 286.19, putting a midpoint Hidden Pivot resistance at 317.91 in play as a minimum upside target.  It would become an odds-on bet to be reached if TSLA can exceed a 295.39 'external' peak recorded on March 14. _______ UPDATE (APR 4, 11:07 a.m.): Today's plunge on news that Q1 deliveries of Model 3 fell well shy of expectations has hit $260, a $61 loss. The bullish 'CI' trade noted above, however, with a minimum target of 317.91, will remain in effect until such time as 254.46 is exceeded to the downside. This will be a good test of whether the sleazebags who manipulate this stock for a living are clever enough and strong enough to turn this morning's air pocket into an accumulation opportunity. In the meantime, we should presume that the stock's low near $260 occurred simply because the aforementioned sleazebags felt quite comfortable buying there.

With central banks around the world ready to hit the panic button, investors are scrambling desperately for yield ahead of the next orgy of global easing. How desperate are they? So desperate, in fact, that even some of the bond world's smelliest garbage -- i.e., debt paper issued by Illinois and the city of Chicago -- is attracting sufficient buying interest to lift bond prices and push down yields.  A dearth of supply has caused investors to get a little crazy, according to Justin Land, chief municipal strategist at Wasmer, Schroeder & Co. "The muni market is not showing a lot of discipline in pricing," he said, euphemistically, "because there's so much money chasing so few bonds." Would you plunge head-first into this financial landfill just because everyone else is doing it? Land's firm evidently has no qualms despite the fact that Illinois paper carries the lowest rating of any state, and Chicago is not far behind. Both consistently spend more than they take in, and neither has a clue about how to turn things around. Not Just Illinois Like most of the money being borrowed by state and local governments these days, whatever Illinois raises will go mainly into distressed pension plans. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel took another route in his last fiscal act as mayor, however, foregoing a $10 billion bond that had been earmarked for pensions. This task will fall to his successor, who could conceivably have the distinction of presiding over the bankruptcy of America's third-largest city. If investors clamoring for Illinois debt just to eke out a few extra basis points know better, they certainly are not acting like it. Their heedless behavior is not confined to Illinois either; it is happening all over the country, pushing muni bond funds higher (click on inset to

Every uptick in AAPL only makes the stock a juicier short because iPhone, the main source of the Cupertino company’s revenues, has significant problems. Sales have softened in the U.S. and China, Apple's second-largest market, and the firm faces increasing competition from the likes of Huawei, which can undersell the top-of-the-line iPhone by more than 30%. Add to the list of negatives the implications of a story played prominently in Tuesday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal: ‘Apple Extends Push Into New Territory’.  It turns out that the ‘new territory' includes some of the most competitive businesses of the digital age: entertainment, financial services, news and video games.  From a standing start, is it possible for Apple to go head to head in showbiz against such established players as Netflix, Disney, Amazon, HBO et al. and expect to carve out a commanding share? It would take nothing less than that to produce the kind of margins the company has enjoyed selling overpriced hardware. Apple may have inadvertently highlighted the weakness of its johnny-come-lately move into ‘original programming’ by featuring Oprah Winfrey at a recent event to announce their strategic shift. There is already such a glut of excellent shows offered via subscription across various video devices, including television, that it’s hard to imagine Apple getting a leg up on the competition. Even the early winners are certain to face problems because they’ve bid up the price of Hollywood talent into the ionosphere. To give you some idea, Netflix paid comedian Chris Rock $40 million to do two 60-minute specials. The company’s bean counters may think they’ve figured out a way to make money on this bet, but it still seems like an extravagant gamble. Apple’s PR Machine For now, Apple’s capable PR machine has given the stock an undeserved boost

Bulls got suckered badly by Tuesday's exuberant opening, enticed by gap-up rallies in AMZN, AAPL, GOOG, BA and some other high-profile stocks. Sell-offs ensued in all of them, and their ratcheting descent persisted until the closing bell. The smell of distribution is so strong here that we'll have to guard against bears getting suckered themselves. However, they seemed to be keeping their cool shortly before midnight Tuesday, holding DaBoyz to very modest gains in after-hours trading. If that's the best the manipulators can do ahead of Wednesday's opening, stocks will probably fall hard in the opening hour.

April Gold's tortuous slog toward an 'easy' rally target at 1332.00 warrants a closer look at the bearish case. For if the futures were to fall just $9 to the green line at 1307.40 shown in the chart (click on inset), that would trip a theoretical sell signal to as low as 1255.90 -- a 4.5% plunge from current levels. Although the bull trend begun last August from 1182 still dominates the daily chart, the A-B countertrend in the chart is sufficiently compelling to imply that a sharp correction may be imminent.  The danger would be averted by a rally exceeding 1356. 80, where a small but technically significant peak was notched on the way down from 1400 last spring. (Note: The corresponding numbers for the June contract are: 1313.80 for the short trigger, and a 1262.70 target. The midpoint support lies at 1296.80 for the June, and 1290.20 for the April.) _______ UPDATE (Mar 27, 9:57 p.m.): The short triggered by a hair, opening a path down to -- for starters -- p=1296.80, basis the June contract (30-min, A=1355.60 on 2/20). _______ UPDATE (Mar 28, 9:08 p.m.): The Junes fell hard to 1296.00 in the opening hour, slightly exceeding our target. Bulls struggled to hold this Hidden Pivot support for the rest of the day, but the dip to 1293.3o is probably sufficient to put 1279.70, the 'secondary pivot', in play as a minimum downside objective. If it fails, look for more slippage to a worst-case 1262.70 as originally forecast.

Fed policy went all silly Monday when a little-known spokesman for the central bank said he expects one more rate hike in 2019 and perhaps another in 2020.  Didn't Chairman Powell just finish saying that there would be no tightening this year? And weren't we reading the other day that the yield curve had inverted, raising the risk of a U.S./global recession? In any event, a Philadelphia Fed guy named Harker (click on inset for a revealing photo of him) averred in a London speech that economic risks are "very slight," that the U.S. economy looks healthy, and that he will continue to monitor the data as it comes in. The good news is that Harker is not a voting member of the FOMC. The bad news is that Trump can't fire him. At any rate, there are no loose cannons in the upper ranks of banking, so Harker presumably speaks for "The Organization" when he gives a policy talk. Which raises the question of just what the Fed intends by having him quoted in their official trade paper, The Wall Street Journal.  Although it's always entertaining to see what the banksters come up with to "manage" our "expectations," it's hard to infer from this latest gambit other than that Powell & Co. takes us all for idiots.

Economic news turned menacing last week and featured a yield-curve inversion as well as a grim assessment of the slowdown in Europe and China.  It's tempting to think stocks were finally starting to show some common sense when they began Friday with a bearish gap, sold off hard for the next three hours, then closed on the low tick of the day after a failed rally. Contrition at last! It increased my already strong doubts that the powerful bounce begun on December 26 is destined for greatness.  However, it will have increased everyone else's doubts too, and that's why I am wary of sounding taps quite yet for the ten-year-old bull market. Mounting bearish sentiment is one of the most powerful things the stock market has going for it at the moment. As long as it continues, the potential for a short-covering rally, possibly even to new highs, will remain. This would surely be accompanied by more ray-rah hubris from The Wall Street Journal et al. about how unemployment is low, wages are rising, and economists are unconcerned about the possibility of a recession. If low unemployment actually meant something, then why is America's middle class struggling to stay afloat, in hock up to its eyeballs? Of course, if all else fails, we've always got the Fed to come to the rescue.  Yeah, sure. Sooner or later, the epiphany will dawn that we cannot borrow our way to lasting prosperity. For in fact, virtually every penny we've borrowed to sustain this transparently nutty idea and the illusion of good times will have to be repaid. A day of reckoning can be postponed, but it cannot be avoided.

So much for the 2858.75 print in the E-Mini S&Ps earlier this week that I'd said might mark an important top.  Thursday's muscular short squeeze impaled this 'Hidden Pivot' resistance, leaving the futures above it at the close. It also put in play an alternative scenario I'd mentioned -- i.e., a move above 3,000. The chart shows a 'secondary pivot' at 3005.63 that can serve for now as a minimum upside objective. Just to be on record with the most-bullish-forecast-by-a-permabear, I'll also mention the 3235.25 'D' target of the pattern as a possibility. It would become an odds-on bet to be reached if the futures close for two consecutive weekly bars above 3005.  These numbers are not as precise as I would prefer, since the chart is stitched together from many contract months. But the targets should be close enough for us to get a confident read on trend strength if and when they are hit.