Ford

• Marchers protest police violence in Baltimore, New York (Reuters)
• Majority of Financial Pros Now Say Greece Is Headed for Euro Exit (BBG)
• Greece signals concessions in crunch talks with lenders (Reuters)
• Greece, Euro-Area Partners Target Deal by Sunday (BBG)
• Iglesias Says EU Risking Right-Wing Backlash With Greek Pressure (BBG)
• Student-Loan Surge Undercuts Millennials’ Place in U.S. Economy (BBG)
• Majors’ Quandary: Why Drill for Oil When They Can Buy Somebody Else’s? (WSJ)

• Maryland Governor Calls in National Guard to Control Baltimore Riots (BBG)
• Fed Seen Delaying Liftoff to September to Push Down Unemployment (BBG)
• Nepal PM says toll could rise to 10,000 (Reuters)
• China Readies Fresh Easing to Tackle Specter of Debt (WSJ)
• ‘Damned Lies’ Threaten to Overshadow U.K. GDP in Election Fight (BBG)
• Uncertainty Over Impact of a Default by Greece (NYT)
• Why the Cost of Hedging European Banks Stocks Has Soared (BBG)
• Carinthia cash crunch gives Austria its own mini-Greece (Reuters)

Following yesterday's early MNI rumor that a Chinese QE is being "considered" and which sent the Shanghai Composite surging 3% and led to an initial boost in US stock futures, overnight the PBOC scrambled to once again deny such speculation. Of course, going full "cold Turkey" on Chinese stimulus would be too much for the market to handle, so in a piece by the WSJ also released overnight, the author said the PBOC would pivot from outright QE to mere LTRO, which is also not new and was reported over a week ago here in "China Floats QE Trial Balloon, PBoC May Launch LTROs." In any event, for now at least, Asian stocks are not happy despite Apple's latest blockbuster results, and neither is Europe, with the Stoxx 600 down 1%, and even the E-mini is hugging 2100 unable to levitate on any imminent central bank intervention.

But low oil prices are supposed to be unequivocally good? On the day when Ford lays off 700 Michigan plant workers in small cars and hybrids manufacturing, The Detroit News reports that, according to Edmunds.com, sales of electric cars and hybrids are at the lowest level since 2011. What is even more worrisome, motorists who leased those first-generation cars, and have decided not to buy them, are turning them in, leaving dealer lots full of low mileage cars at huge discounts to new ones. As Edmunds concludes, while "the government's going to keep pushing it, there is time to pause right now."

One must understand that the easy money via QE from the Fed and zero interest rates allowed many shale players to burn free cash flow while showing operationally net of capital expenditures (which were funded by cheap flowing monies via FED) cash generation. To be clear, that model is now broken as the era of free Fed money appears to waning as both QE, and soon, zero rates become a thing of the past. The cost of capital is no longer falling but is now rising through higher bond yields and/or lower stock prices. The madness that is occurring in financial markets on discounting these events despite very weak, almost recessionary economics, boggles the mind.

After Spate of Mass Shootings, Americans Turn Pro-Gun

 Oil prices should become 'lower for longer", but the wild card would be the OPEC meeting this June... 

No doubt smarting from criticism about its lack of success in picking winners in alternative energy vehicles, the Department of Energy has given initial approval for a $269 million loan to a proven winner – Alcoa’s high-strength aluminum to make vehicles lighter and more fuel efficient. But the new loan came under immediate fire for being superfluous since Alcoa was proceeding with the plant with or without DOE assistance.

We simply don’t see any time in the future that would see Americans start spending again at a rate anywhere near what would be required for an economic recovery. However, that is by no means a generally accepted point of view in the financial press; and so these issues must be addressed time and again until people begin to understand, and quit making the wrong decisions for the wrong reasons. People have a right to know what’s truly happening to their lives, and their societies. And they’re not nearly getting enough of it through the ‘official’ press.

With everyone's attention in recent months falling squarely on the US oil industry, and specifically how much longer various shale companies will be able to keep operating now that Saudi Arabia is openly on a war path with US marginal producers, we thought it may be an opportune time to remind readers just where America's Top 100 oil fields are located based on the EIA's most recent report. A recap, if you will, of the domestic oil theater of war with America's "closest ally" in the middle east.

The present oil price collapse is because of over-production of expensive tight oil. The collapse occurred because of the inability of the world market to support the cost of the new expensive oil supply from shale, oil sands and deep water. The problem is structural and systemic and firmly rooted in the irresponsible funding of under-performing U.S. tight oil companies since at least 2010. The first step to price recovery is the severing of capital supply to companies that could not fund their operations from cash flow when oil prices were more than $90 per barrel. If this does not happen, we could be in for a long period of low oil prices.

With a long weekend upon us, ConvergEx's Nick Colas takes the opportunity to wax a bit philosophical.  The question for the day: "How do you survive middle age while working on Wall Street?"  After polling a few friends of a similar vintage to his own 25 year history on the Street, he has come up with a Top 10 list of dos and don’ts.  The key take away from all these thoughts is pretty simple – the journey never stops, so keep investing in yourself, your friends, and your allies. These may not guarantee success, but ignoring them surely leads to failure. 

With the Fed supposedly steeling itself at last to remove a little of its emergency ‘accommodation’, it has suddenly become fashionable to warn of the awful parallels with 1937 as an excuse The Fed must not act today. We strongly refute the analogy. Instead, the real Ghost of ’37 takes the form of mean-spirited and, counter-productive 'pitchfork populism' politics and the spectre should not be conjured up to excuse the central bank from further delaying its overdue embarkation on the long road back to normality and policy minimalism.

• Setbacks and progress as Iran, six powers meet to end nuclear impasse (Reuters)
• Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Leave Iran Nuclear Talks (WSJ)
• Obama Ramps Up Lobbying on Iran as Deadline Looms (WSJ)
• Greek yields edge up as lenders scrutinise reform pledge (Reuters)
• Oil prices drop on possible Iran deal, dollar (Reuters)
• Yemen’s Houthis Battle for Aden as Saudi Strikes Hit Rebels (BBG)
• Iran nuclear deal to see $20 oil if Tehran floods crude market (Telegraph)
• China’s Zhou Says PBOC Has Room to Act on Growth Slowdown (BBG)

Unless We Learn Our History, We're Doomed to Repeat It