United Kingdom

• Nerves dominate before U.S. retail numbers (Reuters)
• Stocks Give Up Week’s Gains as Commodities Fall; Yen, Bonds Rise (BBG)
• Apple Invests $1 Billion in Didi, Uber’s Rival in China (WSJ)
• Dollar hits two-week high, posts best fortnight since February (Reuters)
• OPEC Sees Rival Oil Production Declining as Markets Rebalance (WSJ)
• Trump on best behavior as he woos Republicans but differences remain (Reuters)
• Hedge Fund Star: We Are ‘Under Assault’ (WSJ)
• German GDP growth picks up sharply (MW)

While the Bank of England voted unanimously 9-0 to keep rates on hold at 0.5%, what the market was far more focused on the BOE's latest gloomy scenarios about what would happen should the UK vote for Brexit on June 23. The BOE did not disappoint, and cautioned that that sterling could fall "sharply" and unemployment would probably rise, while in the press conference after the announcement BOE governor and former Goldmanite Mark Carney went all the way warning Brexit "could possibly lead to recession."

Following PM David Cameron's 'world war 3' warnings last week, Chancellor George Osborne joined the 'Project Fear' bandwagon today saying that Treasury is doing "quite a serious amount of contingency planning" into how Britain would deal with leaving the EU, warning of "very significant financial volatility" around the vote.

Mr Osborne denied he was "fiddling the figures" as he firmly defended an official Treasury analysis which set out the potential damage to the economy that could be caused by Brexit.

Britain’s security Service, MI5, has increased the threat level to Great Britain from Northern Ireland-related terrorism from moderate to substantial. This means that an attack in England, Scotland or Wales is “a strong possibility”. The Home Office was working closely with the police and other relevant authorities to ensure appropriate security measures were put in place, the home secretary asaid The BBC reports: Home Secretary Theresa May said the level, set by security service MI5, “reflects the continuing threat from dissident republican activity”.

The latest indication that behind the fake smiles at official, top level summits big tensions linger between British officials and their Chinese counterparts emerged overnight when Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was overheard on camera describing Chinese officials as "very rude" during a conversation with a senior police officer at an event celebrating her 90th birthday.  The monarch was recorded making the candid remark, which followed Xi Jinping's first state visit to the UK last October, as she was introduced to guests at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.