Business

A "prudent" Fed (and China's "National Team") have spurred a risk-on rally, as RBC's head of cross-asset strategy Charlie McElligott notes the market's 'Pavolovian' response to Fed's 'dovish hints' contained within the Minutes - despite simultaneously staying ‘on message’ with hiking / tapering commentary - prompts a "QE of old" response: stocks and Treasuries bid, while the USD faded.

China further perpetuates the ‘risk rally’ via apparent market interventions:

Retail and Wholesales Inventories in April dropped 0.3% MoM - dramatically missing expectations of a 0.2% rise (no economists at all expected a drop in inventories).

Retail Weak...

And Wholesale weak...

The biggest driver of the drop was a 0.5% MoM drop in Motor Vehicle inventories.

This does not bode well for Q2 GDP...

In recent weeks it has been Japanese demand (and notable premia) that has driven the exponential rise in Bitcoin, but recently, as CoinTelegraph reports, it has been South Korea. Overenight saw Bitcoin prices explode once again, smashing through $2500, $2600, and $2700 for the first time...

As CoinTelegraph.com reports, South Korean Bitcoin traders are facing asking prices of $4,500 as the virtual currency’s price continues to surge.

Should I Invest My Fortune in Gold? Latest Research

 PRESENTATION HIGHLIGHTS

The OPEC Vienna meeting has not officially concluded just yet, but moments ago a delegate told the WSJ and Reuters that the oil producing cartel had decided to do what had been widely telegraphed previously, and merely extend output cuts by nine months to March 2018. While the full quota breakdown has not been released yet, the cuts are likely to be shared again by a dozen non-members led by top oil producer Russia, while several nations like Iran and Nigeria will remain exempt from production caps.