Confident anchors across the media have been proudly proclaiming the rise above $50 as proof that the oil market is heading toward equilibrium again and OPEC's production cut deal extension will be awesome... except the market seems to be disappointed as it's clear no other non-OPEC nations will join the agreement (cough US shale cough) and "sell the news" has sent crude back below $50...
The full details are as follows:
General Motors' stock price is tumbling after reports that the carmaker is accused of putting defeat devices in its trucks to beat emissions tests, becoming the sixth carmaker accused of diesel cheating since 2015, when Volkswagen AG admitted to installing software to bypass pollution rules.
Bloomberg reports that People who own or lease more than 705,000 GM Duramax diesel trucks filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday, claiming GM installed multiple such devices in two models of heavy-duty trucks from 2011 to 2016.
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.