Business

The weakness in precious metals - as the dollar soared - after yesterday's Fed minutes has extended this morning as Fed's Lacker unleashes even greater hawkish-ness. Gold is back at 3-week lows, back below $1250 with its biggest drop in 3 months...

Double-whammy...Gold's biggest one-day drop in 3 months on very heavy volume

Now back at 3-week lows...

And higher-beta Silver is sliding fast...

Pushing Gold/Silver back to one-month highs...

Submitted by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com,

Falklands oil and gas producer Rockhopper Exploration Plc has announced that its net contingent oil reserves have doubled to more than 300 million barrels, and independent experts are now eyeing this as nearly billion-barrel basin.

Rockhopper owns more than 50 percent of two oilfields, Sea Lion and Isobel Elaine, which are now estimated to hold 747 million barrels of oil and gas reserves, according to the independent audit that was prepared by ERCE.

Aside from the general hawkish tone in yesterday's FOMC minutes, the one line that caught traders' attention in the Fed report was the following:

Some members expressed concern that the likelihood implied by market pricing that the Committee would increase the target range for the federal funds rate at the June meeting might be unduly low

March's epic - and utterly embarassing - spike is now nothing but an aberration as for the eight month of the last nine, Philly Fed's business outlook remains firmly in negative territory. With hope-strewn expectations of a +3.0 print, Philly Fed dropped from -1.6 to -1.8 with New Orders tumbling back into contraction. While the headline data dropped, "hope" was also dashed as 6-month expectations for inventories (not good for GDP) and employees (not good for Fed meme) tumbled.

The breakdown

• Fed Puts June Rate Increase on Table Provided Economy Says Go (BBG)
• European shares drop as mining stocks weaken, airlines fall (Reuters)
• Oil drops below $48 on Fed hike speculation, fading support from outages (Reuters)
• Violent Struggle Over Oil and Money Rattles Global Energy Market (BBG)
• Bayer Proposes to Acquire Monsanto (WSJ)
• How Wall Street Led LendingClub Into Crisis (BBG)
• Fewer Shareholders Pay U.S. Taxes on Dividends (WSJ)
• Turkey to miss end-June deadline for EU visa-free travel (Reuters)