Randolph Duke: Money isn't everything, Mortimer.
Mortimer Duke: Oh, grow up.
Randolph Duke: Mother always said you were greedy.
Mortimer Duke: She meant it as a compliment.

Zero rates are simply no longer needed. The Fed doesn’t need to stay ‘lower for longer’, because it has already done that.  Waiting until September would mean a much greater possibility of missing their window of opportunity.   Market conditions might deteriorate or geo-political tensions rise in a way that more deeply affects the US.  Alternatively, market froth might grow even frothier, causing a larger market reaction than otherwise would have been the case.  Lastly, it would also be prudent to hike well in advance of the $215 billion of Treasuries on the Fed’s balance sheet that matures in early 2016; which, if left un-reinvested, is a de facto-tightening.

The "ECB Taper" Twitter feed is born and SocGen says QE in Europe has a long ways to go with Mario Draghi having fulfilled only 7% of his promise to monetize the entirety of euro net issuance.

In recent weeks, Ruble appreciation against the USD has pushed it out of its traditional long term alignment with oil prices, and left it as the best-performing global currency of the year. There are several possible factor that can account for this...

“In my 30-year career, it’s one of the most unattractive risk-return propositions that I’ve seen,” DoubleLine's Bonnie Baha says. Between abysmally low yields, heightened rate sensitivity heading into a rate hike cycle, and balance sheet re-leveraging on the part of US corporations, it’s a bad time to be betting on corporate credit.

With crude production and inventories hitting record highs this week, it is likely no surprise that rig counts continued to decline - falling 40 to 988 total rigs  (and down 42 to 760 oil rigs). This is the 18th week in a row of total rig count declines - equal to the record series from 2008/9. At 48.5%, this is the biggest 18-week decline since 1986.