Business

One of the more closely watched 13F reports yesterday in addition to that of Warren Buffett was that of Soros Fund Management, the family office of George Soros, which revealed that while the 85 year old billionaire was not quite as bearish as his former chief strategist Stanley Druckenmiller, or Carl Icahn for that matter, had turned decidedly sour on overall equity exposure.

As shown in his 13F, Soros slashed his overall long equity holdings by over 25% to just $4.5 billion as of March 31, which was the lowest such position since 2013.

It has been more of the same overnight, as global stocks piggybacked on the strong US close and rose despite the lack of good (or bad) macro news, propelled higher by the two usual suspects: a higher USDJPY and a even higher oil, if mostly early on in the trading session.

Yes, the oil squeeze higher continues, and as the charts below courtesy of Andy Critchlow show, Brent is now 82% higher in the past 82 days...

... while crude has had its strongest rally since 2010.

Call it some no holds barred German bank on German bank action.

After a tumultous start to a year that Germany's largest, and judging by the tens of billions in legal settlements and charges also its most criminal bank, Deutsche Bank, would love to forget, things got worse over the weekend when a note issued by another German bank said that either Deutsche will have to massively dilute its shareholders as a result of "insurmountable" debt, or a fate far worse could await the Frankfurt-based lender.

While it will hardly come as a shock following the turbulent events disclosed one week ago, which culminated with the "resignation" of CEO Renaud Laplanche, amid a series of complicated backdoor 'related party' transactions which could even implicate none other than company director and former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack, moments ago LendingClub unveiled in its 10-Q filing that "on May 9, 2016, following the announcement of the board review described elsewhere in this filing, the Company received a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

2016 was the year when, in the aftermath of the Fed's first tightening cycle in a decade, the yield curve was supposed to not only rise substantially but also steepen, providing a much needed NIM arbitrage for commercial banks. That has not only not happened, but as a result of the Fed's relent according to which the Fed will no longer hike 4 times in 2016 but at peast 2, and according to the market 0, yields have tumbled.