Asia

For the 11th week in a row, the number of US oil rigs rose (up 10 to 662 - the highest since September 2015). US Crude production continues to track the lagged rig count, pouring more cold water on OPEC's production cut party.

The rig count grows, tracking the lagged oil price in a self-defeating cycle...

And crude production appears to have plenty more room to run...

And don't forget, as Nick Cunningham detailed, there are thousands of drilled shale wells are sitting idle, unfracked and uncompleted.

In his first comments to journalists since his stunning termination by South Africa's president Zuma on Thursday night, ousted finance minister Pravin Gordhan dismissed an intelligence report used to justify his sacking as “absolute nonsense”. Quoted by the FT, the internationally respected, if feuding with Zuma, Gordhan said the report, which alleged he was plotting to overthrow president Jacob Zuma, was “not the basis on which you fire a minister”.

Stocks fell worldwide on the last day of the quarter, with US equity futures pointing to a lower open even as the S&P is set for its best quarter since 2015 amid persistent economic and political uncertainty.

It's not just the HFT industry that has cannibalized itself so much, while spooking regular traders out of the markets, there is hardly any revenue growth left (as the WSJ showed last week). After suffering a substantial drop in bank equity trading revenues over the past several years, there was hope that finally this key P&L items of sales and trading would post a modest pick up.

Confirming recurring rumors from the past month, overnight both China's Foreign Ministry and the White House confirmed that China's president Xi Jinping will meet with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on April 6-7. It will be Xi's first meeting with Trump, a little over a month after Trump used the same venue to meet with Japan's PM Abe, and comes at a time when the two sides face pressing issues, ranging from North Korea and the South China Sea to trade disputes.