Business

The US economy has never - ever - seen Industrial Production drop YoY for seven months in a row without being in a recession. Down 2.0% YoY in March, the weakest since December and down 0.6% MoM (weakest since Feb 2015) the decline in factory output is driven a 1.6% plunge in vehicle production (2.8% collapse in motor vehicles specifcally) in March. This 1.76% drop is the worst for a March since 2008.

As The Fed details,

Less than six months after we pointed out that the BoJ owns 52% of the entire Japanese ETF market, Reuters reports that the Kuroda's Peter Pan fairy tale, aka the Bank of Japan, is thinking about buying even more. The BoJ is said to be currently buying $30 billion of ETF's a year under its current policy, however since the Nikkei is down over 10% this year, that figure is apparently not enough to keep the market propped up.

Here's how the BoJ's holdings in the Japanese ETF market looked visually in recent months:

Janet - you have a problem. Following the all-clear from China, soaring stock prices, and 'stability' in oil, Chicago Fed business conditions just hit a 17-month high. In other words, The Fed is gonna need some bigger 'turmoil' excuses or defending "no rate hikes" is going to look a whole lot more political than their independence would suggest.

Everything is awesome in Chicago too...

As The Chicago Fed notes:

The energy bankruptcy wave has been officially unleashed.

After just yesterday Energy XXI became the latest shale company to seek bankruptcy protection, this morning another troubled energy producer, Goodrich Petroleum announced a prepackaged Chapter filing meant to implement a financial reorganization after struggling to restructure its debt amid declining energy prices.

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