Asia

Submitted by Mike "Mish" Shedlock

Hungary has become the first Eastern European country to issue a yuan-denominated sovereign bond.

The deal that shows how currying favor with China may be a more important driver for the market than funding.

Reader Steve who sent me the story commented on Hungarian mortgages denominated in Swiss Francs only to see the  Franc jump over 20% in value overnight.

“Pretty clever guys!”, said Steve.

Anyone think this is a good idea?

Hayman Capital founder Kyle Bass sat down recently for a conversation with Maria Bartiromo and Gary Kaminsky on Wall Street Week. He covered a variety of topics such as NIRP, income inequality, and the U.S. presidential race. As our regular readers know, Kyle correctly predicted the housing crisis, and is now calling for the yuan to be dramatically devalued.

In January we pointed out "the last bubble standing," as China's crashing equity market had spurred massive inflows - directed by a "well-meaning" central-planning committee's propaganda - sparking a massive bubble in Chinese corporate bond markets (in an effort to enable desperately weak balance-sheet firms to roll/refi their debt and keep the zombies alive). That has now ended as China's junk bond risk has soared to 5-month highs with its worst selloff since 2014. As HFT warns, "we should avoid junk bonds."

Nations representing almost 60%of the world’s oil production will gather in Doha on April 17 to discuss "freezing their output at January levels" in an effort to stabilize prices. According to Bloomberg, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela made a preliminary deal in February and are seeking to add more producers and extend the recent price recovery, but, despite the exuberant squeeze early this week, oil prices are fading modestly as D(oha)-Day looms.

• Global stocks, dollar and oil cool ahead of Doha meeting (Reuters)
• Oil Falls Before Doha as Global Markets Brace for Weekend Risk (BBG)
• China Growth Slows; Revival Policies Appear to Gain Traction (WSJ)
• White House hopefuls Clinton, Sanders joust in Brooklyn brawl (Reuters)
• Trump talks up 'New York values' as protesters demonstrate against him (Reuters)
• Sanders Can’t Clarify Wall Street Plan in Testy Clinton Debate (BBG)
• Goldman's Blankfein Said to Push Deepest Cost Cuts in Years (BBG)