Business

One week ago, when oil dropped for the first time in 2017 below $52.80 - Gartman's sell threshold - we said that Dennis Gartman had been stopped out of his February 21 Brent/WTI crude long trade reco. After all, that was the price level Gartman had said would trigger the liquidation. It turns out he was being somewhat "generous" with this number, and Gartman somehow kept his position on. In retrospect, he should have sold, especially after yesterday's 5.5% plunge, oil continued to tumble this morning, sliding another 2.5% below $49.

Moments ago the ECB kept all three rates on hold, however in a dovish addition, it kept its current forward guidance which some analysts had expected may be scrapped, by noting that "the Governing Council continues to expect the key ECB interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases."  As a result, the EURUSD has sign a modest drop on the announcement while Bunds futures gained once algos noticed that contrary to some expectations, the forward guidance would remain.

We have just lived through the most spectacular global bull
market run for the fixed income markets.  This bull market rallied the bond market to
the lowest yields ever!  Over a third of
all global fixed income was trading with a negative yield.  The most accommodative central bank policies
made heroes out of bond fund managers. Bond investors that stayed fully
invested with fingers crossed, hoping for the greater fool theory to eventually

In what could be the beginning of ripples from The Fed's jawboned 'certainty' of a March rate-hike, Chinese money market liquidity conditions appear to be drying up once again as overnight offshore yuan rates surge 142bps to one-month highs.

Additionally,  1-week CNH Hibor +1.05 ppts to 4.53017%; and 1-month CNH Hibor +70bps to 4.9395%

At the same, spot offshore Yuan rates have plunged to their lowest since January 4th's massive short squeeze.

Via Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform blog,

In Part One of this article I exposed the establishment narrative of a strong economy as rubbish by providing hard data regarding imploding gasoline usage, failing bricks and mortar retailers and plunging restaurant sales.