Business

As part of the previously previewed "Two Sessions" which started on Sunday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday delivered the annual report on the work of the government in Beijing, summarizing the country’s achievements in the past year, and setting goals for this year. In his policy speech, lasting 97 minutes and 18,600 Chinese characters, Li signaled a course adjustment for the world's second-largest economy and some important changes in tone.

A 90-second summary of the key highlights from Li's Two Sessions address is shown in the clip below:

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents are now authorized to effectively play with passengers genitals as part of new pat-down procedures.  US airport security procedures are being overhauled to allow TSA agents to pat-down everybody passing through security – and the new pat-down instructions issued to agents include more intimate “comprehensive” techniques.

The US has Jeff Sessions, but China is about to have "two sessions".

Starting Sunday is a two-week period of heightened political discourse, if not exactly debate, among the top echelons of China's Politburo, also known as China's "two sessions."

In 2015, President Obama and Republican congressional leaders agreed to suspend the federal debt ceiling until March 15, 2017. After that date – less then two weeks from now – the Treasury will surpass its cumulative $20 trillion borrowing authority.

And while the stock market (and VIX) signal utter calm, signs of stress are very clear in America's money markets. Swap spreads are suggesting traders are getting nervous that any hiccup in efforts to remove the burden could trigger a shortage on short-term government securities.

The relentless, steady, monotonous levitation to all time highs keeps chugging along: while last week saw the S&P experience its first 1% intraday move in nearly two months, there has yet to be a comparable move on the downside. As Deutsche Bank notes, pull backs of 3-5% in the S&P 500 are typical every 2 to 3 months historically. The last such pull back occurred just prior to the US presidential election.