Archive - Apr 8, 2015 - Story

The FOMC surprised the market on March 18 by lowering "the dots" by about 50 basis points. While Yellen gave a fairly exhaustive explanation for this in her speech on March 27 (and Dudley just managed expectations this morning), SocGen notes that market participants hope for more color from the FOMC minutes today. As for the timing of the rates lift-off, the FOMC minutes are unlikely to offer any new insight.

Curious how the third largest energy deal, and 14th largest corporate take over in history, happened? The answer, courtesy of Reuters, is simple: all it took was a phone call.

"We felt a great disturbance in The Farce, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. We fear something terrible has happened in Cushing."

Following last night's huge 12.2 mm barrel inventory rise estimate from API, DOE has just confirmed last week saw an almost all-time high 10.95 million barrel inventory build. This is the higest since March 2001. With today's 1.232 million barrel addition at Cushing, Goldman estimates only about 10% of storage capacity is left. And to complete the trifecta, crude oil production ticked back up again after last week's hope-strewn reduction.

DUDLEY: CAN IMAGINE SCENARIOS IN WHICH JUNE LIFTOFF IS IN PLAY but DUDLEY SEES REASONS TO ERR ON SIDE OF BEING LATE ON RATES

Then he spewed the following previously undisclosed (though assumed - The Dow Data Dependent Fed)  "How we react after liftoff will depend on how the market reacts."  and the market front-runs.. as he indicates that weakness in March is due to the weather (hawkish) but that "the timing of the Fed's first rate hike is later" (dovish)...

The talks between Russia's Putin and Greek PM Tsipras have concluded and the much anticipated press conference has begun. Watch it live below.

S.S.D.D...

Ben Bernanke can now add another headline to his impressive resume... Fed Chair... Blogger... and writer of fiction. As AP reports, Blogger Ben's memoir will be released in October, and the title will be "The Courage To Act," apparently inspired by the Fed's "moral courage" in the face of "bitter criticism and condemnation." While we thought perhaps "The Courage To Print" was more appropriate, it appears the book is non-fiction and thus, we suggest, the title needs an additional word of clarification: "The Courage To Act ........."

The full breakdown of the biggest energy deal in the past decade and the 14th largest ever corporate takeover.

So what makes this structure Neofeudal? Simply this: the tax donkeys who pay most of the tax support the large class of modern-day serfs (working poor and state dependents) while their labor generates the great wealth enjoyed by the Financial Aristocracy.

While Germany has pre-emptively, and somewhat defensively, come out proclaiming Russian aid to Greece as 'no big deal' - a "routine event" - we suspect the signal that it would send would not be entirely great for the EU (and Obama's) 'Russia is evil' meme. Nonetheless, as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras meets Russian President Vladimir Putin today - just one day before The IMF loan repoayment is due, topics for discussion vary from lifting sanctions (bilaterally) or bankrolling a bailout to gas discount from Gazprom. Here's a summary...

• Shell Will Buy BG Group for $70 Billion in Cash and Shares (BBG)
• IMF warns of long period of lower growth (FT)
• Wall Street sanguine as it heads into worst earnings season in six years (Reuters)
• Switzerland First With 10-Year Bond at Negative Yield (WSJ)
• U.S. Dot-Com Bubble Was Nothing Compared to Today’s China Prices (BBG)
• Rahm Emanuel Re-Elected as Mayor of Fiscally Ravaged Chicago (BBG)
• Oil falls on U.S. stock build, record Saudi output (Reuters)
• White South Carolina policeman charged with murdering black man (Reuters)
• German Factory Orders Drop for Second Month (BBG)
• A third of Republicans support Iran nuclear deal (Reuters)

While US equity futures are largely unchanged, if only ahead of the now daily pre-open market-wide ramp, things in Asia have continued on their bubbly flurry, where China's Shanghai Composite briefly rose above 4000 for the first time since 2008, but it was the surge in the Hong Kong stock market that showed the Chinese bubble is finally spilling over, in the form of a blistering rally on the Hang Seng which rose nearly 4% on immense volume which at 250 billion Hong Kong dollars ($32 billion) was three times the average daily volume over the past year and nearly 20% more than the previous record volume day in October 2007, at the height of the pre-financial crisis bubble.