Asia

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.

For Caterpillar, the great recession was bad, for about 19 months. In May 2010, after declining sharply for just under two years, CAT posted it first positive global retail sales comps and never looked back... until December 2012 when comp sales once again turned negative and have been negative ever since. For the past 41 months!

The breakdown showed that contrary to popular opinion, there has been no pick up in demand for heavy industrial machinery anywhere around the globe.

• Fed Puts June Rate Increase on Table Provided Economy Says Go (BBG)
• European shares drop as mining stocks weaken, airlines fall (Reuters)
• Oil drops below $48 on Fed hike speculation, fading support from outages (Reuters)
• Violent Struggle Over Oil and Money Rattles Global Energy Market (BBG)
• Bayer Proposes to Acquire Monsanto (WSJ)
• How Wall Street Led LendingClub Into Crisis (BBG)
• Fewer Shareholders Pay U.S. Taxes on Dividends (WSJ)
• Turkey to miss end-June deadline for EU visa-free travel (Reuters)

After yesterday's algo-driven mad dash to close the S&P green both for the day and for the year following Fed minutes that came in shocking hawkish, the selling has continued overnight, led by the commodity complex as rate hike fears have pushed oil back down some 2% from yesterday's 7 month highs, which in turn has dragged global stocks lower to a six-week low, while pushing bond yields higher across developed nations as the market suddenly reprices the probability of a June/July rate hike.