Archive - Apr 22, 2015

While we eagerly await for the SEC to retract its official 104 page report summarizing the "Findings regarding the market events  of May 6, 2010" in light of "recent developments", and as we follow the shift in the official narrative to the outright bizarre, in which the entire Flash Crash is now blamed on just one man (as opposed to just Waddell & Reed as per the previous narrative), we learn that the latest scapegoat for a broken, fragmented and manipulated market, Navinder Sarao, is not quite so eager to go to minimum security prison in the US for doing what leads to a slap on the wrist when someone like Citadel or Virtu does it, and will challenge the CFTC's attempt to pin everything on him.

Show me ur data...

• Because it just gets funnier: UK speed trader arrested over role in 2010 'flash crash' (Reuters)
• ... and funnier: Mystery Trader Armed With Algorithms Rewrites Flash Crash Story (BBG)
• Presidential hopeful Rubio reaches out to gay Republicans (Reuters)
• Varoufakis Sees Differences Narrowing in Creditor Talks (BBG)
• China Debt Mess Brings Out the Yin and Yang in Policy Makers (BBG)
• Hedge Fund That Made 18% on Dollar Strength Now Bets on Drop (BBG)
• Whistleblower Jim Marchese Scores Millions in Payout—Again (WSJ)
• Release of Benghazi Report on Hillary Clinton Likely Pushed to Election Season (BBG)

Whether it is in sympathy with the now relentless surge in the Shanghai Composite which tacked on another 2.44% overnight to close at a fresh multi-year high just shy of 4400, well more than double from a year ago, or because Mrs Watanabe was unable to read the latest Japan trade data whose first trade surplus in 3 years hinted that there will be no new easing by the BOJ any time soon, but overnight the Nikkei closed above 20,000 for the first time in 15 years, with "makers of chocolate, mayonnaise, potato chips and household appliances" helping lift the Tokyo market according to the WSJ. The now daily Asian euphoria however did not last long in the European session, and after opening higher, the Stoxx Europe 600 slipped into negative territory just an hour into trading, and was down 0.4% by midmorning, lead by a near 1% decline on Athens' mains stock index, which has since recouped losses stemming from the overnight report that the ECB is considering an up to 50% haircut on Greek bank collateral, a move that would wipe out the Greek financial sector with ease.