Asia

India is set to divert water from its rivers to tackle sever droughts. The Indian government is pushing ahead with the ambitious and expensive engineering project, despite strong opposition from lawmakers, environmentalists and it’s neighbor, Bangladesh. The minister of water resources Uma Bharti said that transferring water from major rivers like the Brahmaputra and the Ganges, to drought-prone areas is now her government’s top priority. Environmentalists have opposed the project and argue it will invite ecological disaster but the Supreme Court has ordered its implementation.

Just days after a report that two Chinese J-11 fighter jets buzzed a US spy plane above the South China Sea, Beijing has officially escalated its displeasure at US surveillance up the chain of command and as Reuters reports, Beijing has demanded an end to all U.S. surveillance near China. 

As a reminder, a U.S. Defense official said two Chinese J-11 fighter jets flew within 50 feet (15 meters) of the U.S. EP-3 aircraft in what the Pentagon deemed an "unsafe" intercept. And, just like Russia, China has had enough and demands US provocations end.

It will be fitting, not to mention symmetric, if stocks which yesterday closed at 7 weeks lows and red for the year, end the week the same way they started it: with a rally on no news, just more hopes that oil (which as recently as two years ago none other than Chair Yellen said said would be be "unambiguously good" if lower) will continue rising.

As we explain in our book Splitting Pennies - the world is not as we think!  Every day, our money is worth less and less, and markets become more cumbersome, regulated, and overall disfunctional (except for an elite group of billionaires that can front run orders due to advanced computer-aided execution because of 'order types').  We explained in an article about America's Big Red Forex Button, now we need to elaborate on the 'nuclear option' - considering that leading generals are saying more and more that war with Russia is 'plausible' if not 'likely'.

With banker bonuses set to drop this year, it should be no surprise that things are not all sunshine and roses on Wall Street. After 30 years of dramatically outperforming Main Street, Wall Street wages may be set for some mean-reversion as JPMorgan analysts take an ax to the biggest global investment banks' earnings. As Bloomberg reports, "quiet trading floors" are set to depress global investment banks’ second-quarter revenue 24 percent, with weakness across equities, interest rates, currencies, with a regionally-driven weakness from Asia.