Asia

Yesterday morning, when musing on the day's key event namely Yellen's congressional testimony, we dismissed the most recent bout of European bank euphoria which we said "will be brief if not validated by concrete actions, because while central banks have the luxury of jawboning, commercial banks are actually burning through funds - rapidly at that - and don't have the luxury of hoping for the best while doing nothing." This morning DB has wiped out all of yesterday's gain.

Back in November, Nils Smedegaard Andersen, CEO of Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, gave the world a reality check when it comes to global growth and trade.

“The world’s economy is growing at a slower pace than the International Monetary Fund and other large forecasters are predicting” Andersen told Bloomberg. "We believe that global growth is slowing down [and that] trade is currently significantly weaker than it normally would be under the growth forecasts we see."

• Global Stocks Bounce Back After Market Selloff; Asia Stumbles (WSJ)
• New Hampshire Bucks the Establishment to Back Trump and Sanders (BBG)
• Trump shows his U.S. presidential bid is no mere publicity stunt (Reuters)
• Clinton Is Outdone by a Competitor Once Considered a Fringe Candidate (WSJ)
• Deutsche Bank Jumps as Lender Said to Consider Bond Buyback (BBG)
• Bank Executives Leading Surge of Insider Buying Amid Stock Rout (BBG)
• Morgan Stanley Trading Executive Provides Grim Picture for Wall Street (WSJ)

While algos patiently await the only thing that matters for US stocks today which is Janet Yellen's testimony before Congress. expected to be released at 8:30 am (and previewed here), the rest of the world this morning is a hot mess of schizophrenic highs and lows.

Gold fell $2.40 to $1,187.80 yesterday. It remained resilient despite Chinese markets being closed due to strong physical demand and concerns about the global economy, the banking sector and the risks of a new global financial crisis.

Gold jumped $34.70, or 3%, to $1,192.40 an ounce on Monday and registered its best single-session point and percentage gain since December 2014.