Archive - Apr 29, 2015 - Story

A big part of the U.S. equation is U.S. executives are looking at yields and realizing that to not borrow at these unsustainable levels could be a missed opportunity they will sorely regret. If you run a viable business and “investors” are throwing free money at you for future growth, why not leverage up and buy back some stock. This is ultimately something the Fed needs to focus on and lean against.

• Police enforce curfew in Baltimore, disperse protesters (Reuters)
• Saudi king resets succession to cope with turbulent times (Reuters)
• Euro-Area Bank Lending Increases for First Time Since 2012 (BBG)
• Riksbank Increases Bond Purchases as Key Rate Left Unchanged (BBG)
• Greek Banks Get More Funds as ECB Weighs Collateral Discount (BBG)
• Greek bank deposits drop 1.36 pct in March for sixth month in a row (Reuters)
• Sarao Remains in Jail After Failing to Pay Bail at Hearing (BBG)

London police have arrested a former currency trader in connection with what is being described as a "global" fraud worth more than £30 million.  

Today we get a two-for-one algo kneejerk special, first with the Q1 GDP release due out at 8:30 am which will confirm that for the second year in a row the US economy barely grew (or maybe contracted depending on the Obamacare contribution) in the first quarter, followed by the last pre-June FOMC statement, in which we will find out whether Janet Yellen and her entourage of central planning academics will blame the recent weakness on the weather and West Coast port strikes and proceed with their plan of hiking rates in June (or September, though unclear which year), just so they can push the economy into a full blown recession and launch QE4.

When it comes to much more personal and direct attacks, Varoufakis can at least rely on his wife. As AP reports, last night while dining with his wife in the bohemian Exarchia district of Athens, "a neighborhood popular with extreme leftists and anarchists" a group of "young anarchists" barged into the restaurant telling them to leave "their area" at which point they "threw glass objects at Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and his wife" according to a finance ministry statement. According to Reuters, Varoufakis said his wife hugged him to shield him from the attack, the finance ministry said. They tried "for a few seconds to reach me without hitting her," he said in the ministry statement.