Some more Friday comic. It seems some permabulls always see a buying opportunity as the markets always trade cheaply. Mr Biggs, bullish as ever. Some guys never face the reality.

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For some Comic Friday reading, check out some of the strategist’s targets for S&P. Yes these guys get paid multimillion dollar deals to be off by 25-30%. Bloomberg reports,

Wall Street has never been more sure that the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will rally in 2011, even after speculation the U.S. economy is heading for a recession prompted the biggest plunge since the bull market began.

Chief strategists at 13 banks from Barclays Plc (BARC) to UBS AG (UBSN) see the benchmark measure of American equity surging 17 percent through Dec. 31, the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Their projection that the index will reach 1,401 hasn’t budged in four weeks, while mounting concern U.S. growth is slowing drove the S&P 500 down 11 percent since July 22, including yesterday’s 4.8 percent tumble.

Full article, click here.

While the Markets are moving 3-4% on Italian news, the ECB announcing to buy bonds etc, we present The Economist special report on Italy and Mr Berlusconi, who actually has screwed an entire nation, for a long time.

The Man Who Screwed an Entire Nation report,

The Economist 11 June 2011 – Italy

Well this certainly looks like the Friday before Black Monday. Unless Bernanke steps in, the Lord of Algos will eventually cause the Splash Crash. Some History below.

Fed on the Stock Market Crash of 87

And finally the full report from BLS;

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 117,000 in July, and the unemployment
rate was little changed at 9.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, retail trade, manufacturing,
and mining. Government employment continued to trend down.

Household Survey Data

The number of unemployed persons (13.9 million) and the unemployment rate (9.1
percent) changed little in July. Since April, the unemployment rate has shown
little definitive movement. The labor force, at 153.2 million, was little
changed in July. (See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men(9.0 percent),
adult women (7.9 percent), teenagers (25.0 percent), whites (8.1 percent),
blacks (15.9 percent), and Hispanics (11.3 percent) showed little or no change
in July. The jobless rate for Asians was 7.7 percent, not seasonally adjusted.
(See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

The number of persons unemployed for less than 5 weeks declined by 387,000 in
July, mostly offsetting an increase in the prior month. The number of long-term
unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over), at 6.2 million, changed little
over the month and accounted for 44.4 percent of the unemployed. (See
table A-12.)

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So we are hearing rumours of a Downgrade for the Weekend. Black Monday? Short Gamma roller coaster every 10 minutes…Let us see who will be the first to acknowledge their short gamma exploded and they have to liquidate the fund.

If you are having problems catching the moves, these guys aren’t having those problems. Remember, all moves are extremely exaggerated by the new Kings of the World, HFT Algos.

We can’t but think about Omid Malekan’s (old) must see video on the Tradenators.

Tradeanator 2: Settlement Day from Malekanoms on Vimeo.

Quick figures as bls.gov is down;

Change Non-Farm Payrolls  117k vs. 85K
Unemployment Rate (Jul) 9.1% vs. exp. 9.2%

Are we to witness the Mother of all Squeezes?

So we just got that contrarian contraindicator in place. One of our perma bullish hedge fund managers just called us and proclaimed everything is going to Zero. This is one of the extreme readings we have been waiting for. The market is probably up for a major reversal today, and we won’t be surprised to see Europe going positive later today. Our long term targets are lower, but we think the market is up for a major squeeze. Note Italy and Spain in positive territory. Below, Dax, Ibex, Mib;

Fast market fast Updates. Note how the market is reversing big time today. Our risk indicator , the OMX index, is up 3,5-4% from the bottom panic earlier today. Today’s liquidation of leveraged positions might be the bottom for this crash, at least at this time. Many stocks going into positive territory, and we could expect a huge squeeze today. Below OMX and DAX charts.