Israel

Poor algos: after they got no love on Monday from the overnight USDJPY selling team which took the all important pair back to the 200 DMA, today, inexplicably (it is a Tuesday after all, and if one can't frontrun a rigged market surging higher on Turbo Tuesday may as well throw in the towel on free money and learn about fundamental analysis) the same overnight USDJPY selling team has pushed the key carry pair to below the 200 DMA, and has dragged US equity futures lower with it for the second day in a row.

Did the U.S. and Its Allies Use ISIS to Balkanize Syria Into Smaller Regions?

So, Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt (post gas price surges), and now Israel... As the teen deaths, rocket launches (and landings), and rhetoric fly back back and forth; it appears last week's de-escalation is off...

*ISRAEL ARMY SPOKESMAN SAYS TROOPS BEING BOOSTED ON GAZA BORDER
*ISRAELI ARMY SAYS IT IS PREPARING FOR POSSIBLE GAZA ESCALATION

The US administration has been oddly quiet so far on this... we await their 'supportive' comments.

How to start World War 3? Step 1) Hack IDF Twitter account; Step 2) Tweet that Israel's secret nuclear facility has suffered a potential leak after shelling; Step 3) wait for US response... It appears (though for now has not been confirmed) that the Israel Defense Force's Twitter account was hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army who then tweeted "#WARNING: Possible nuclear leak in the region after 2 rockets hit Dimona nuclear facility" The Tweet was deleted soon after - not before all major newswires picked it up - and the report has been denied by the IDF. We can only imagine the market response to this tweet if US traders were not all out buying beers and burgers..

While up until now the virtual war between Saudi Arabia, openly calling for the ouster of Iraq's Maliki (whose words in retaliation were just as harsh) was primarily of words, things appear to be escalating on that front too following an overnight report that Saudi Arabia has deployed 30,000 soldiers to its border with Iraq after Iraqi soldiers withdrew from the area, Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television reported Thursday. The world's top oil exporter shares an 500-mile border with Iraq, where Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) insurgents and other Sunni Muslim militant groups seized towns and cities in a lightning advance last month. King Abdullah has ordered all necessary measures to protect the kingdom against potential "terrorist threats," state news agency SPA reported on Thursday.

• Obama Decries Big Bonuses at Bank Trading Desks as Risky  (BBG)
• India central bank seeks to swap gold to improve reserves quality (Reuters)
• There goes Q3 GDP: Arthur Strengthens to Become First Atlantic Hurricane (BBG)
• Airports Serving U.S. Tighten Checks on Stealth-Bomb Threat (BBG)
• Fear, cash shortages hinder fight against Ebola outbreak (Reuters)
• Brent Declines as Libya Rebels Say Ports Are Open (BBG)
• Shiites Train for Battle in Iraqi Holy City (WSJ)
• Dimon’s Cancer Has 90% Cure Rate With Demanding Therapy (BBG)
• Goldman says client data leaked, wants Google to delete email (Reuters)
• ECB Watchers in the Dark Look to Draghi for Illumination (BBG)

• Ceasefire over, Ukraine forces attack rebel positions (Reuters)
• No Good Iraq Options for Obama as Russia, Iran Jump In (BBG)
• Japan’s Cabinet Agrees to Allow Military to Help Defend Allies (BBG)
• Obama says to reform immigration on his own, bypassing Congress (Reuters)
• South Stream Pipeline Project in Bulgaria Is Delayed (NYT)
• Foreign Banks Still in the Dark About Missing Metals in China (WSJ)
• Quelle indignity: several bankers at French bank BNP Paribas will face demotions and cuts to their pay and bonuses (FT)
• Symantec Warns of Hacker Threat Against Energy Companies (BBG)
• Shrinking Office Spaces Slow Recovery (WSJ)
• Rand Paul Slams ‘Fat Cats’ With Hedge Fund in Top Donors (BBG)

Long before 1984 gave us the adjective “Orwellian” to describe the political corruption of language and thought, Thucydides observed how factional struggles for power make words their first victims, "Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them." Orwell later explained the reason for such degradation of language, "Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible." The bottom-line is that tyrannical power and its abuses comprise the "indefensible" that must be verbally disguised; which seems to have never been more appropriate than now in the stream of 'disguised' words we are fed every day...

Whoever really runs things these days for the semi-mummified royal administration down in Saudi Arabia must be leaving skid-marks in his small-clothes thinking about Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his ISIS army of psychopathic killers sweeping hither and thither through what is again being quaintly called “the Levant.” ISIS has successfully shocked the world over the last two weeks by negating eight years, several trillion dollars, and 4,500 battle deaths in the USA’s endeavor to turn Iraq into an obedient oil dispensary. Things are happening at lightning speed over in the region and beware of how the turmoil spreads from one flashpoint to another.

U.S. Relies On Law of Non-Constitutional Countries

The Real History of the American Strategy for Iraq and the Middle East

John Kerry came, saw and as usual made a horse ass out of himself.

This week brings PMIs (US and Euro area ‘flash’) and inflation (US PCE, CPI in Germany, Spain, and Japan). Among other releases, next week in DMs includes [on Monday] PMIs in US (June P), Euro Area Composite (expect 52.8, a touch below previous) and Japan; [on Tuesday] US home prices (FHFA and S&P/Case Shiller) and Consumer Confidence (expect 83.5, same as consensus), Germany IFO; [on Wednesday] US Durable Goods Orders (expect -0.50%, at touch below consensus) and real GDP 1Q anniversary. 3rd (expect -2.0%) and Personal Consumption 1Q (expect 2.0%), and confidence indicators in Germany, France and Italy; [on Thursday] US PCE price index (expect 0.20%), Personal Income and Spending, and GS Analyst Index; and [on Friday] Reuters/U. Michigan Confidence (expect slight improvement to 82, same as consensus), GDP 1Q in France and UK (expect 0.8% and 0.9% yoy, respectively), and CPI in Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan.

Now that the Iraq proxy war scene is set, and as we reported on Friday, Prime Minister Maliki has become a pawn in yet another middle-east war between the west and the petrodollar (with both Saudi Arabia and the US making it clear Maliki has to go) and Russia (with Putin expressing his full support for the prime minister), events will likely unfold at an even faster pace. Sure enough, even this otherwise quiet weekend, in which the world is supposed to put wars on the backburner and focus on the world cup, is chock-full of Iraq news upates. Let's begin.