It’s alleged that “pro-tax the rich” promoter Warren Buffett’s transaction with a massive Berkshire (BRK/A) buyback was a conspiracy to help the seller with estate taxes before the fiscal cliff. That’s what some conflicted people do vs what they say.

Jobless Claims fell substantially (343K vs 370K expected & prior revised higher to 372K). In my view analysts trying to estimate claims are just guessing now. Retail Sales were higher with the headline number missing expectations (.3% vs .6% expected & prior -.3%) & ex-autos & gas improved (.7% vs .5% & prior -.3%). PPI fell (-.8% vs -.5% & prior -.2%) core PPI rose (.1% vs .2% expected & prior -.2%). Remember it’s the “core” rate bulls and government wants you to watch. Nevertheless, headline writers focused on the headline rate.

Pimco’s Bill Gross discussed the Fed’s new monetary policies in a Bloomberg interview. In it he describes what the Fed is doing without dubbing it a PonziScheme. He nails it with this gem of a quote: “What really happens, and this is critically important, is the Treasury issues bonds and the Fed buys them and then remits interest to the Treasury.” Since he still needs to keep good communications with Bernanke & Co he’s not going to use the phrase for what QE actually is. The interesting thing about all this is bond prices (TLT) after the expanded QE operations are falling vs rising meaning the markets will determine the validity and usefulness of these policies.

Stocks followed through to the downside on renewed fiscal cliff worries, more negative comments from Boehner and Reid among others, and perhaps a lack of confidence in Bernanke’s press conference remarks. (Breaking: Boehner & Obama scheduled to meet at the WH at 5PM EST’) More games are being played with gold (GLD) as another mysterious seller reappeared in mid-afternoon trading in Japan driving the price down and catching stops. As you recall last week the same thing occurred which was curiously followed by a sell recommendation by Goldman Sachs.

The dollar (UUP) was slightly higher Thursday and commodities (DBC) weaker weighed down by energy (USO) and metals (DBB).

Volume was unremarkable once again but breadth per the WSJ was quite negative.

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