'UMich Survey Hit by Women, Democrats, & Low-Income Sentiment'

 Having embarrassed themselves with their TDS-driven cognitive dissonance over the past few months, Democrat-voting UMich respondents (and women, and low income Americans) in the preliminary May survey (a month after Liberation Day and also post-Pause and the massive meltup in stocks) turned the TDS-terror dial to '11'.

Consumer Expectations are now at their lowest since - drum roll please... May 1980...

Source: Bloomberg

Tariffs were spontaneously mentioned by nearly three-quarters of consumers, up from almost 60% in April; uncertainty over trade policy continues to dominate consumers’ thinking about the economy. 

Note that interviews for this release were conducted between April 22 and May 13, closing two days after the announcement of a pause on some tariffs on imports from China.

The percentage of UMich respondents making unsolicited negative comments about news they've heard on government economic policy has surged to a record high of 66%!

Source: Bloomberg

The share of consumers expecting unemployment to rise in the year ahead increased for the sixth consecutive month and is now more than double the November 2024 reading and the highest since 2009.

Source: Bloomberg

Year-ahead inflation expectations surged from 6.7% last month to 7.3% this month, the highest reading since 1981 and marking five consecutive months of unusually large increases of 0.5 percentage points or more.

Source: Bloomberg

This month’s rise was seen across all three political affiliations. Long-run inflation expectations climbed from 4.4% in April to 4.6% in May, reflecting a particularly large jump among Democrats to a ridiculous 9.6% over the next year!!

Source: Bloomberg

Republicans did forecast a rise in their view of 5Y inflation expectations (while Democrats were flat at 5.1%)...

Source: Bloomberg

Spot the odd one out - UMich Democrats, The NY Fed, or The Market...

Source: Bloomberg

One more for fun - comparing Democrats view of the inflationary outlook to the 'hard' inflationary data...

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, given their historic track record (completely refusing to acknowledge the surge in inflation under Biden), should we simply be ignoring the manic Democrats screaming about inflation now?

Source: Bloomberg

The Republicans seemed to get it? But then again, they're all racist ignoramuses with no PhDs... so there's that, right!?

Sorry, one more that made us fucking laugh... one-third of women surveyed believe inflation over the next year will be 15% or higher...

Low-Income Americans are also terrified like never before...

So someone is lying: actual spending all time high while reported sentiment (based on 250 polled UMich respondents) is all time low.

Is the soft-data slump all driven by leftists imbibing mainstream media's desperate propaganda-fueled terror of what Trump is doing?

Perhaps that explains why soft survey data has started to turn back up to hard data reality in the last week as it's hard to hate and keep pushing out your depression-era forecasts when stocks are at record highs and jobless claims remain near record lows.

https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/umich-sentiment-collapses-near-45-year-record-lows-democrats-inflation-dissonance

Texas Stock Exchange CEO Sees State Muscling In on NYC, Delaware

 

The head of the upstart Texas Stock Exchange said the state is making a serious play to reshape the US financial landscape, using new pro-business laws and a proposed ban on trading taxes to take on longtime power centers on the East Coast.

Governor Greg Abbott signed legislation this week aimed at strengthening legal protections for companies and curbing shareholder challenges, part of a broader strategy to lure corporate registrations from Delaware. Meanwhile, a ballot measure in November would ban taxes on securities transactions just as a group of New York lawmakers is pushing to bring back a state levy on stock sales.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-16/texas-stock-exchange-ceo-sees-state-muscling-in-on-nyc-delaware

Trump Still Pressing Forward On Meeting Putin 'As Soon As We Can'

 President Donald Trump said Friday as he wrapped up his four-day visit to the Middle East that the White House is still moving forward on setting up direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that this will happen as soon as possible.

"I think it’s time for us to just do it," Trump told reporters, addressing whether an in-person meeting will still happen. He added that a meeting with Putin will happen "as soon as we can set it up". He suggested that peace will ultimately only be possible if the two leaders sit at the same table.

That's when he said, interestingly that "I would actually leave here and go" - an apparent reference to Istanbul where rare Russia-Ukraine talks are being held Friday. But he referenced his daughter Tiffany having given birth to her first child. "I do want to see my beautiful grandson," he said.

"I don’t believe anything’s going to happen whether you like it or not, until he and I get together," Trump said further, in reference to his Russian counterpart. "But we’re going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying."

As we reported earlier, there are no signs of any breakthrough toward peace coming from the Istanbul meeting, which lasted less than two-hours; however, each side is signaling that it could lead to more talks.

On Putin's absence for the meeting, which was to be expected, Trump described, "He didn’t go, and I understand that," and that "We’re going to get it done. We got to get it done. Five thousand young people are being killed every single week on average, and we’re going to get it done."

But Ukraine is now trying to make the case that Putin was never interested in peace talks, and is using the process to string Washington along as its forces try to solidify greater hold over Ukraine's east.

One Amsterdam-based publication and Russia monitor writes of the less than prominent man Putin tapped to head Russia's delegation--

Medinsky was joined by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin and Igor Kostyukov, the head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency.

Experts have described Moscow’s revival of direct talks within the Istanbul framework as a symbolic gesture not intended to seek a real solution to the war.

Meanwhile, Trump has said while en route back to the United States from the Middle East that he'll likely phone Putin soon:

Trump later told reporters after boarding Air Force One to begin the journey back to Washington that he may call Putin soon.

“He and I will meet, and I think we’ll solve it or maybe not,” Trump said. “At least we’ll know. And if we don’t solve it, it’ll be very interesting.”

🚨PRES. TRUMP: "Nothing's going to happen until Putin & I get together, OK?"

"I don't believe anything's gonna happen, whether you like it or not, until he & I get together." pic.twitter.com/TXeTrLp3yy

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 15, 2025

An actual Putin-Trump sit-down would be bad news for Kiev, which has seethed at being cut out of US-Russia bilateral engagement, given much of this engagement is related to the fate of Ukraine.

With the minerals deal signed, Zelensky is attempting to reset the rocky relationship with Trump. A lot of pressure has been coming from the US administration, urging Kiev to be willing to negotiate peace, which would require some level of significant concessions.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-still-pressing-forward-meeting-putin-soon-we-can

Boeing Set To Avoid Prosecution In Twin Fatal 737 Max Crashes

 Boeing has tentatively reached a nonprosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to avoid a June 23 trial over allegations it misled federal regulators about a flight control system tied to two fatal 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019, according to Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter. 

Sources said the deal requires a judge's approval and would allow the Seattle-based planemaker to avoid entering a guilty plea in the case.

Here are more details from the report: 

Boeing has no longer agreed to plead guilty in the case, prosecutors told family members of crash victims during a Friday meeting, the sources said. The company's posture changed after a judge rejected a previous plea agreement in December, prosecutors told the family members.

DOJ officials are still weighing whether to proceed with a nonprosecution agreement or take Boeing to trial, a DOJ official said during the meeting. No final decision has been made, and Boeing and DOJ officials have not yet exchanged papers to negotiate final details of any nonprosecution agreement, the official told family members.

In April, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said the planemaker was negotiating with the DoJ to reach a revised plea deal in the criminal fraud case.

"I want this resolved as quickly as anyone," Ortberg said at a U.S. Senate hearing, referring to the timeline for settling the case. He added, "Hopefully, we'll have a new agreement here soon."

Last month, Boeing reached settlements with the families of two victims killed in the March 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX.

In 2021, Boeing accepted responsibility for compensatory damages to the families of the 157 victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash.

Boeing apologized for both crashes last month, saying it "made an upfront commitment to fully and fairly compensate the families and accepted legal responsibility for the accidents. We will continue to work to fairly resolve the claims of the family members."

Reuters notes that the planemaker has "settled more than 90% of claims from the two 737 MAX accidents and paid billions of dollars in compensation to the families through lawsuits, a deferred prosecution agreement, and other payments."

Of course, the nonprosecution agreement still requires a judge's approval and could force Boeing to pay additional fines, implement further internal reforms, or strengthen compliance measures, among other conditions. Those conditions have not yet been released. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/boeing-set-avoid-prosecution-twin-fatal-737-max-crashes

RFK Jr. Defends His Comments On Vaccines: "I'm Going To Tell The Truth"

 by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended his recent statements about vaccines during a congressional hearing on May 14.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 14, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

“I’m going to tell the truth about everything we know and we don’t know about vaccines,” Kennedy told Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) while testifying before the Senate Health Committee. “I am not going to just tell people that everything is safe and effective if I know there are issues. I need to respect people’s intelligence.”

Several lawmakers expressed concern about Kennedy’s recent comments, which include saying that the protection conferred by the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine wanes over time.

“The result is to undermine faith in the vaccine,” Murphy said.

“It’s kind of like saying, ‘Listen, I think you should swim in that lake, but you know, the lake is probably toxic, and there’s probably a ton of snakes and alligators in that lake, but I think you should swim in it.’ Nobody is going to swim that lake if that’s what you say. I want you to acknowledge that when you say you support the measles vaccine, and then you go out and repeatedly undermine the vaccine, with information that is contested by public health experts, that is not supporting the vaccine.”

Kennedy responded, “If I advise you to swim in a lake that I knew there to be alligators in, wouldn’t you want me to tell you there were alligators in it?

“The reason people have lost faith in this program is that they’ve been lied to by public officials for year after year after year.”

Several outbreaks of measles have appeared in the United States in 2025, including an outbreak in Texas that has spread to hundreds of people. Texas officials say most patients are unvaccinated or have unknown vaccination status.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the administration of two doses of the MMR vaccine is 97 percent effective against measles.

Studies, including a paper from French researchers, have found that the protection wanes slowly over time.

“We’re always going to have measles, as the vaccine wanes very quickly,” Kennedy said recently at a town hall.

He has also said that the MMR vaccine has side effects and that many vaccines on the childhood vaccination schedule have not been tested in randomized, controlled trials against placebos.

“[That] means we don’t understand the risk profile for those products and that’s something that I intend to remedy,” Kennedy told lawmakers on May 14, referring to the Department of Health and Human Services’ announcement that all new vaccines must be tested against placebos before being licensed.

Kennedy testified before the Senate panel and the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee. It was the first time he appeared before Congress since being confirmed in February.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) asked Kennedy, who has said his children received the typical vaccines in their childhood, if he had a child today, would he get that child vaccinated with the MMR shot?

“Probably,” Kennedy said. “I would say my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant.

“I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me. I think if I answer that question directly, that it will seem that I’m giving advice to other people, and I don’t want to be doing that,” Kennedy said, adding that health officials were going to try to outline the pros and cons, or the risks and benefits, of each vaccine.

Pocan tried to get Kennedy to answer the same question for the chickenpox and polio vaccines. The health secretary demurred.

Republicans largely steered clear of vaccines during the hearings. A number of them praised developments under Kennedy, including the banning of some artificial dyes and the focus on cutting costs at the health agency.

“You’ve done more to shine the light on things that average Americans can do to make themselves healthier than almost any secretary that I can recall,” Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) said, “so thank you for that service.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rfk-jr-defends-his-comments-vaccines-im-going-tell-truth

BioMarin ink $270M Inozyme buyout, phase 3 prospect in first M&A move of the Sabry era

 BioMarin has followed through on its shift to external innovation, inking a deal to buy Inozyme for $270 million to add a phase 3 enzyme replacement therapy to its pipeline.

California-based BioMarin signaled a change in its approach to business development last year. The company hired James Sabry, M.D., Ph.D., an ex-Roche dealmaker, as chief business officer and began considering opportunities beyond its traditional focus on early-stage deals. Now, the biopharma has landed on Inozyme as the first big acquisition of its new business development era. 

Inozyme completed enrollment in a phase 3 trial of INZ-701 in January, putting it on track to post topline data early next year. The study is testing the enzyme replacement therapy in children with ENPP1 deficiency, a condition associated with increased cardiovascular mortality risk in infants. 

Giving INZ-701 to people who are missing or have mutated forms of the enzyme could reverse the effects of pathologic mineralization, such as calcification of the arteries, tendons and ligaments. Inozyme has shared interim biomarker and anti-drug antibody data from the trial but has struggled to convince public investors, who sent its share price down 70% in the 12 months leading up to the BioMarin deal.

BioMarin has agreed to buy Inozyme for $4 a share, more than twice the biotech’s closing price before news of the deal emerged. The deal suggests BioMarin sees merits in the argument Inozyme's CEO Douglas Treco, Ph.D., put forward at a Needham event last month. 

Treco admitted that the visibility of ENPP1 deficiency and awareness of the condition among physicians are low. But the CEO said investors are missing that “there's a predictive genetic prevalence” of the rare disease, adding that Inozyme is “finding patients and building a registry.” The ultimate test, Treco said, will be how well INZ-701 sells once it is on the market and “there's good diagnosis and awareness.”

Responsibility for driving diagnoses and awareness will fall on BioMarin, a biopharma with a long history of developing and selling enzyme replacement therapies such as Aldurazyme and Naglazyme. The decision to buy a molecule that aligns with a traditional stronghold of BioMarin fits with the company’s focus on acquiring assets in areas where it has “a strength and a right to win.”

BioMarin CEO Alexander Hardy, who delivered the “right to win” line on an earnings call this month, said in a statement Friday that the company “will continue to evaluate external innovation alongside internal innovation.” Hardy previously said BioMarin was aiming to do “at least one business development deal this year.”

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/biomarin-inks-270m-inozyme-buyout-bagging-phase-3-prospect-first-ma-move-sabry-era

Acadia Pharmaceuticals shares surge on patent ruling

 Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. stock soared by 30% following a favorable court ruling regarding a patent infringement case. The United States District Court for the District of Delaware concluded that Acadia had successfully demonstrated that Aurobindo Pharma (NSE:ARBN) infringed on claims 4 and 5 of U.S. Patent No. 11,452,721. Additionally, the court found that Aurobindo Pharma failed to prove that these claims were invalid.

The ruling, delivered on May 16, 2025, marks a significant win for Acadia Pharmaceuticals in the ongoing legal battle to protect its intellectual property rights. According to the court’s order, Aurobindo Pharma could not demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that the patent claims in question were invalid. The court also denied a motion for leave to file a post-trial reply brief by MSN and described a series of steps for both parties to attempt to reach an agreement on how the action should proceed.

This legal victory is a substantial development for Acadia, as it reaffirms the company’s patent claims and may deter further infringement by competitors. The stock’s significant rise reflects investor confidence in the company’s ability to defend its patent rights, which is essential for maintaining its competitive edge in the pharmaceutical industry.

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/acadia-pharmaceuticals-shares-surge-on-patent-ruling-93CH-4050896