Business

Overnight China reported a barrage of economic data for March and Q1, that not only showed the first back to back GDP acceleration in seven years, but beat across the board as investment picked up, retail sales rebounded and factory output strengthened, following record credit growth and a fresh rebound in China's property markets which defy Beijing's attempts to taper the country's newest housing bubble.

The Q1 data highlights:

Step aside China Huishan Dairy Holdings - China's largest dairy producer which cratered last month after a negative Muddy Waters research report brought attention to a company we knew for one year was collateralizing its cows to fund stock buybacks - and make way for what may be the next Chinese megafraud.

With markets shut on Good Friday, even as the one-two knockout punch of the worst monthly core CPI print in 7 years hit...

... coupled with a miss in March retail sales, which suffered their biggest two month drop in 2 years...

Authored by Osama Rizvi via OilPrice.com,

Amidst the din of analysts speculating about whether oil prices will rise or fall, observers may well be overlooking some pressing questions about the very nature of the global oil market. The most significant of these questions relates to whether Saudi Arabia is losing its grip on the global oil market and if U.S. oil and gas producers are replacing the Saudis as the key global swing producer.

Since their peak 'shortedness' in mid-January, US Treasury bond bears have covered 500,000 10-year-equivalent contracts, reducing the net speculative short to its lowest since before Thanksgiving 2016.

At the same time, however, Eurodollar shorts (bets on Fed rate hikes) have soared to a new record high (over $3.2 trillion notional).